Vladimir Nabokov

Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Description

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

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 23 January, 2025

According to Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969), in her tight rubber cap Lucette (Van’s and Ada’s half-sister) evokes the Helmeted Angel of the Yukonsk Ikon whose magic effect is said to change anemic blond maidens into konskie deti, freckled red-haired lads, children of the Sun Horse:

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 23 January, 2025

According to Dorothy Vinelander (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Ada's sister-in-law), Demon Veen (Van's and Ada's father who in March 1905 perishes in a mysterious airplane disaster above the Pacific) resembled a Russian aristocrat much more than he did an Irish Baron:

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 19 January, 2025

Describing the beginning of Demon's affair with Marina, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Belokonsk, the Russian twin of ‘Whitehorse’ (city in N.W. Canada) on Demonia (Earth's twin planet also known as Antiterra):

 

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, 17 January, 2025

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: