Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

At the beginning of VN's novel Ada (1969) Van Veen (the narrator and main character) speaks of his ancestors and mentions ‘Russian’ Canady, otherwise ‘French’ Estoty, where not only French, but Macedonian and Bavarian settlers enjoy a halcyon climate under the American Stars and Stripes:

In his commentary 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) quotes Arnor’s poem about a miragarl (mirage girl), for whose "careful jewels" a dream king in the sandy wastes of time would give tri stana verbalala (three hundred camels) ut tri phantana (and three fountains):

Describing a conversation at the Faculty Club, 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 the mirror of exile and compares Gerald Emerald (a young instructor at Wordsmith University who gives Gradus a lift to Kinbote's rented house in New Wye) to a disciple in Leonardo's Last Supper:

At the beginning of VN's novel Ada (1969) Van Veen (the narrator and main character) speaks of his ancestors and mentions Macedonian and Bavarian settlers who enjoy a halcyon climate under the American Stars and Stripes:

According to Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969), his maternal grandfather, General Ivan Durmanov (1801-72), had lands in the Severn Tories (Severnïya Territorii), that tesselated protectorate still lovingly called ‘Russian’ Estoty, which commingles, granoblastically and organically, with ‘Russian’ Canady, otherwise ‘French’ Estoty:

At the beginning of VN's novel Ada (1969) Van Veen (the narrator and main character) says that his maternal grandfather, General Ivan Durmanov (1801-72), Commander of Yukon Fortress and peaceful country gentleman, had lands in the Severn Tories (Severnïya Territorii), that tesselated protectorate still lovingly called ‘Russian’ Estoty, which commingles, granoblastically and organically, with ‘Russian’ Canady, otherwise ‘French’ Estoty:

The characters in VN's novel Ada (1969) include Marina Durmanov (Van's, Ada's and Lucette's mother) and her twin sister Aqua. The surname Durmanov comes from durman (thornapple; intoxicant). In Pavel Bazhov's skaz (folk tale) Kamennyi tsvetok ("The Stone Flower," 1938) Danilo the Craftsman (a namesake of Daniel Veen, Marina's husband) is given an order to make a fine-molded cup, which he creates after a thornapple.

Describing the library of Ardis Hall, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) calls Daniel Veen (Van's and Ada's Uncle Dan, Lucette's father) "the Master of Ardis:"

Describing his novel Letters from Terra, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Khan Sosso and his ruthless Sovietnamur Khanate:

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.)

Accroding to Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969), in some fertile parts of Estoty the izba windows of large peasant families in which up to a dozen people of different size and sex slept on one blin-like mattress were ordered to be kept uncurtained at night: