Vladimir Nabokov

Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Description

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

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 13 April, 2022

Describing the death of his, Ada’s and Lucette’s mother Marina, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the dyakon’s rich growl on the ambon:

 

Numbers and rows and series — the nightmare and malediction harrowing pure thought and pure time — seemed bent on mechanizing his mind. Three elements, fire, water, and air, destroyed, in that sequence, Marina, Lucette, and Demon. Terra waited.

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 10 April, 2022

In VN’s novel Lolita (1955) the number 342 reappears three times. 342 Lawn Street is the address of the Haze house in Ramsdale. 342 is Humbert Humbert's and Lolita's room in The Enchanted Hunters (a hotel in Briceland where they spend their first night together). According to Humbert Humbert, between July 5 and November 18, 1949, he registered (if not actually stayed) at 342 hotels, motels and tourist homes.

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 6 April, 2022

In VN’s novel Ada (1969) the action takes place on Demonia, Earth’s twin planet also known as Antiterra. Describing the difference between Terra and Antiterra, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in Ada) mentions our enchanters, our demons: