Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In his apology of suicide 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 little Christopher, a frail lad of nine or ten:

The following note is not an apology of suicide – it is the simple and sober description of a spiritual situation.

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 disguised king arrived in America descending by parachute:

Describing the disguised king's arrival in America, 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 a field of hay-feverish, rank-flowering weeds, near Baltimore whose oriole is not an oriole:

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) mentions a certain ferocious lady at whose club he had refused to speak on the subject of "The Hally Valley:"

A few minutes before Shade's death, 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) invites the poet to a glass of Tokay at his place:

"Well," I said, "has the muse been kind to you?"

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) calls himself "a soft, clumsy giant" and mentions an old fox in the book publishing business:

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) mentions good old Frank, his present publisher:

In Canto Three of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) mentions a dying man who conjures in two tongues the nebulae dilating in his lungs:

Nor can one help the exile, the old man

Dying in a motel, with the loud fan

Revolving in the torrid prairie night

And, from the outside, bits of colored light

Reaching his bed like dark hands from the past

Offering jems; and death is coming fast.

He suffocates and conjures in two tongues

The nebulae dilating in his lungs. (ll. 609-616)

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), Shade’s heart attack almost coincided with the disguised king's arrival in America:

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), he once told Shade "people who live in glass houses should not write poems:"