Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

The characters in VN’s novel Pale Fire (1962) include Queen Disa, the wife of Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla. Duchess of Payn, of Great Payn and Mone, Queen Disa seems to blend Leonardo’s Mona Lisa with Desdemona, Othello’s wife in Shakespeare’s Othello.

In his poem Umri, Florentsiya, Iuda... ("Die, Florence, you Judas...") from the cycle "Italian Verses" (1909) Alexander Blok mentions Leonardo:

Describing his fellow writers in Paris, Vadim Vadimovich (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Look at the Harlequins! 1974) mentions the honest nonentity Suknovalov, author of the popular social satire Geroy nashey ery ("Hero of Our Era"):

Describing his fellow writers in Paris, Vadim Vadimovich (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Look at the Harlequins! 1974) mentions the honest nonentity Suknovalov, author of the popular social satire Geroy nashey ery ("Hero of Our Era"):

In VN’s novel Look at the Harlequins! (1974) Vadim Vadimovich visits Leningrad with a false or more-or-less false passport obtained with the help of the BINT (as Soviet agents acronymize the British intelligence service):

In VN’s novel Look at the Harlequins! (1974) Vadim’s daughter Bel (whose name brings to mind Lermontov’s Bela) marries Charlie Everett who changes his name to Karl Ivanovich Vetrov and takes his wife to the Soviet Russia:

In a conversation with Vadim (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Look at the Harlequins! 1974) Louise Adamson mentions Strelitzia:

VADIM No, darling, no. My daughter may come down any minute. Sit down.

In VN’s novel Look at the Harlequins! (1974) Other Books by the Narrator include Dr. Olga Repnin (1946). Vadim Vadimovich’s third English novel, Dr. Olga Repnin corresponds to VN’s Pnin (1957).

Describing the difference between Terra and Antiterra (aka Demonia, Earth’s twin planet), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the Amerussia of Abraham Milton:

In VN’s novel Ada (1969) Marina (Van’s, Ada’s and Lucette’s mother) tells Van (the narrator and main character) that Belle (as Lucette calls her governess, Mlle Larivière) has cited to her the cousinage-dangereux-voisinage adage:

Naked-faced, dull-haired, wrapped up in her oldest kimono (her Pedro had suddenly left for Rio), Marina reclined on her mahogany bed under a golden-yellow quilt, drinking tea with mare’s milk, one of her fads.

In a farewell letter to Marina (in VN’s novel Ada, 1969, Van's, Ada's and Lucette's mother) Demon Veen (Van’s and Ada’s father) mentions his aunt's ranch near Lolita, Texas, and Marina’s runaway maid who will be stuffed with mercury: