Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In Canto Two of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) tells about his dead daughter. Asking her mother what this or that word means, Hazel Shade mentioned the word sempiternal:   

She was my darling - difficult, morose -

But still my darling. You remember those

Almost unruffled evenings when we played

Mah-jongg, or she tried on your furs, which made

Her almost fetching; and the mirrors smiled,

The lights were merciful, the shadows mild,

Describing his second road trip with Lolita across the USA, Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) mentions kurortish Wace:

We were in sage-brush country by that time, and there was a day or two of lovely release (I had been a fool, all was well, that discomfort was merely a trapped flatus), and presently the mesas gave way to real mountains, and, on time, we drove into Wace.

During Humbert Humbert's and Lolita's second road trip across the USA, Lolita (the title character of a novel, 1955, by VN) is hospitalized in Elphinstone and abducted from the hospital by Clare Quilty (the playwright who tells the hospital staff that he is Humbert's brother):

Describing his meetings with Ada (now married to Andrey Vinelander) in Mont Roux in October 1905, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions Paphia’s ‘Hair and Beauty’ Salon:

In a letter to Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) Ada (now married to Andrey Vinelander) mentions pretty Miss ‘Kim’ Blackrent:

The narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita (1955), Humbert Humbert calls Gaston Godin (a professor at Beardsley College who teaches French) gros Gaston (fat Gaston):

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) mentions Baron Bland, the Keeper of the Treasure who jumped or fell from the North Tower:

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) mentions Baron Bland, the Keeper of the Treasure who jumped or fell from the North Tower:

At the beginning of VN's novel Lolita (1955) Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character) calls himself "this tangle of thorns:"

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.

She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.

Describing his rented house, 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 his landlord’s four daughters (Alphina, Betty, Candida and Dee):