Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Describing his trip with Lucette (Van's and Ada's half-sister) onboard Admiral Tobakoff, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions a straw of Procrustean procrastination:

He clutched at a red rope and they entered the lounge.

‘Whom did she look like?’ asked Lucette. ‘En laid et en lard?’

‘I don’t know,’ he lied. ‘Whom?’

‘Skip it,’ she said. ‘You’re mine tonight. Mine, mine, mine!’

In a letter to Van written after Lucette's suicide Demon Veen (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Van's and Ada's father) mentions the Decadent School of writing to which his son belongs, in company of naughty old Leo [Tolstoy] and consumptive Anton [Chekhov]:

Son:

Describing the difference between Terra and Antiterra (aka Demonia, Earth's twin planet on which VN's novel Ada, 1969, is set), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in Ada) mentions 'a distortive glass of our distorted glebe:'

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), in his poem about a miragarl ("mirage girl") the society sculptor and poet Arnor mentioned a dream king in the sandy wastes of time:

In his commentary and index 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 the society sculptor and poet Arnor:

Describing the king’s escape from Zembla, 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 lazy Garh, the farmer's daughter who shows to the king the shortest way to the pass:

At the beginning of his poem O pravitelyakh ("On Rulers," 1944) VN mentions yasnovidtsy (clairvoyants) and uses the words smeyat'sya (laugh) and khokhotat' (roar with laughter):

Вы будете (как иногда  

говорится)     

смеяться, вы будете (как ясновидцы

говорят) хохотать, господа -     

но, честное слово,     

у меня есть приятель,     

которого     

привела бы в волнение мысль поздороваться     

Describing John Shade's last birthday party (to which he was not invited), 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 bad crapula (hangover in Zemblan):

Describing the King's escape from Zembla, 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 pebble in the King's left shoe:

In Canto Three of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes his visit to Mrs. Z. who mentioned Shade’s poem about Mon Blon that appeared in the Blue Review: