7: McNab: A reference to a nickname Nabokov gives the protagonist in the book, Vadim McNab, because Americans have difficulty pronouncing his last name.

8: “Two lewd young ladies … ribald novella.”: Alludes to a story of two women, one dressed as a male, in a sexual novel, perhaps a response to the criticism he received for writing Lolita.

8: Baroness Bredow (born Tolstoy): The grandmother of Ada Bredow, the first cousin that Vadim flirted with in his childhood. Also the one who tells Vadim to “Look at the Harlequins!” In Ada, Dorothy Vinelander “married a Mr Brod or Bred.” Bred  means “delirium” in Russian.

8: “Look at the Harlequins!”: The title of the novel, first referenced when Baroness Bredow tells Vadim to “Stop moping!” and “Look at the harlequins!” She says, “…Trees are harlequins, words are harlequins. So are situations and sums. Put two things together–jokes, images– and you get a triple harlequin. Come on! Play! Invent the world! Invent reality!” By definition, a Harlequin is “a comic character in com media dell’arte and the harlequinade, usually masked, dressed in multicolored, diamond-patterned tights, and carrying a wooden sword or magic wand.”

9: Imperial Sanatorium at Tsarskoe: Reference to the sanatorium in Tsarskoye Selo, a town now in Pushkino.

9: Mstislav Charnetski: a Polish landowner and distant relative of Vadim.

9: John III (Sobieski): The king of Poland from 1674 to 1696. Also the Grand Duke of Lithuania. He stabilized Poland and was referred to as the “lion” after his famous victory against the Ottomans.

10. “And whither…(Let me see your papers.)”: Reference to a Russian Folk Song, Ech Yablochko, referenced both in Look at the Harlequins and Bend Sinister.

10: Count Starov: Vadim’s patron, Christian name Nikifor Nikodimovich. Perhaps a reference to Ivan Yegorovich Starov, an 18th century Russian architect and urban planner.

11: “I should add…but enough of those edible beads.”: A response to claims made by Nabokov’s first biographer, Andrew Fields, about his uncle.