Vladimir Nabokov

Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Description

Please read Alexey Sklyarenko's annotations on Pale FireAda and other Nabokov works here.

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 23 May, 2022

In VN’s novel Zashchita Luzhina (“The Luzhin Defense,” 1930) not a single date is mentioned. But we can figure out at least three exact dates: Luzhin's birthday, the day on which the action in the novel begins and the day of Luzhin's death. Luzhin was born on October 19, 1902, goes to school on Monday, August 31, 1909 (OS), and dies on February 21, 1929.

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 23 May, 2022

In VN's play Sobytie ("The Event," 1838) the action takes place at the end of the summer, on the fiftieth birthday of Antonina Pavlovna Opoyashin (the lady writer):

 

Входит Антонина Павловна Опояшина, мать Любови, с пестрым мячом в руках. Это аккуратная, даже несколько чопорная женщина, с лорнетом, сладковато-рассеянная.

Антонина Павловна.

Здравствуйте, мои дорогие. Почему-то это попало ко мне. Спасибо, Алеша, за чудные цветочки.

Трощейкин (он не поднимает головы от работы во всю эту сцену).

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 21 May, 2022

The narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada (1969), Van Veen is the author of Letters from Terra, ‘a philosophical novel:’

 

Ada’s letters breathed, writhed, lived; Van’s Letters from Terra, ‘a philosophical novel,’ showed no sign of life whatsoever.

(I disagree, it’s a nice, nice little book! Ada’s note.)