Vladimir Nabokov

Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Description

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

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 8 April, 2025

According to 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), the King escaped from the palace by the secret passage that leads to the theater’s green room. Describing the discovery of the secret passage, Kinbote mentions the three transverse streets, Academy Boulevard, Coriolanus Lane and Timon Alley:

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 6 April, 2025

Describing his dinner with Ada (now married to Andrey Vinelander) and her family in Bellevue Hotel in Mont Roux, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the ‘Swiss White’ page of the wine list and uses the phrase ‘passing the buck:’  

 

Chance looked after the seating arrangement.

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 5 April, 2025

Describing the suicide of his and Ada's half-sister Lucette (who jumps from Admiral Tobakoff into the Atlantic), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the ‘ectric’ light (a surrogate creeping back into international use):

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 4 April, 2025

Describing the beginning of Demon's affair with Marina, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the similarities of young bodies of water:

 

Marina’s affair with Demon Veen started on his, her, and Daniel Veen’s birthday, January 5, 1868, when she was twenty-four and both Veens thirty.

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 1 April, 2025

On the morning after Van's first night with Ada in "Ardis the Second" Ada tells Van that his ego is richer and prouder than anything those two poor worms (as Ada calls her lovers: Percy de Prey and Philip Rack, Lucette's music teacher) could imagine: