Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Describing his rented house, Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade's mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mentions Alphina, the youngest of Judge Goldsworth’s four daughters:

Describing Gradus’s stay in Nice, Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade's mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) calls Izumrudov (one of the greater Shadows who visits Gradus and tells him the King’s new name and address) “the gay green vision:”

In his Foreword to Shade’s poem Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade's mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) says that, to be completed, Shade’s almost finished poem needs but one line (Line 1000, identical to Line 1: “I was the shadow of the waxwing slain”):

In a conversation at the Faculty Club John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) says that the last King of Zembla walked out of the palace, and crossed the mountains, and left the country, not in the black garb of a pale spinster but dressed as an athlete in scarlet wool:

Describing the death of Queen Blenda (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, the mother of Charles Xavier Vseslav), Kinbote (Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mentions Countess de Fyler who beat all seven councilors by one alin and spat out the news about the Queen’s death:

In Canto One of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) mentions his frame house between Goldsworth and Wordsmith on its square of green:

I cannot understand why from the lake

I could make out our front porch when I'd take

In Canto Two of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes his daughter’s tragic death and mentions an empty emerald case, squat and frog-eyed:

Life is a message scribbled in the dark.

Anonymous.

                         Espied on a pine’s bark,

In his Commentary and Index to Shade’s poem Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade's mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mentions Nodo, the half-brother of Odon (pseudonym of Donald O'Donnell, b. 1915, world-famous actor and Zemblan patriot who helps the king to escape from Zembla):

In Canto Two of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes his daughter’s tragic death and mentions the preview of Remorse:

"Was that the phone?" You listened at the door.

More headlights in the fog. There was no sense

In window-rubbing: only some white fence

And the reflector poles passed by unmasked.

Describing the death of Alexander Yakovlevich Chernyshevski, Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Dar, "The Gift," 1937) says that life is not a journey and that we are sitting at home: