28: Violet McD – Likely another self-reference. Violet McD sounds suspiciously similar to Vivian Darkbloom, an anagram of Nabokov’s name and a character that appears in both Ada, or Ardor and Lolita. In Ada Vivian Darkbloom is the annotator, and in Lolita she works with Humbert Humbert’s nemesis Quilty.

28: Accroche-coeur – French for “kiss curl“.

29: Nymphet – One of the most famous reoccurring themes in Nabokov’s work. Nymphet is the term Humbert Humbert uses to describe Dolly (and all other sexually alluring young girls) in Lolita. Another self-reference as well — the “amateurs” of a “later era” are likely Humbert, Quilty and their ilk.

29: “Indecent games with Ivor” – Incestuous relationships are a constant in Nabokov’s work.

30: Intercourse – using the word “intercourse” to describe Iris and Ivor’s daily conversations emphasizes the incestuous nature of their relationship.

31: Caleçon de bain – French for swimming trunks.

31: Repoussé – French for “to push back”. Repousse is also a technique of hammering a design into metal from the reverse side.

31: Flayed consciousness – “Flayed” implies Vadim’s consciousness is stripped bare, open to the “fiends”, or headaches, that assault him.

31: Du côté de chez Swann – The first volume of Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past, containing the well-known madeline event. A nod to Nabokov’s obsession with memory. Vadim finding the novel “curious” is a mark of separation between Nabokov and our narrator.

31: Cressida – A character in Shakespeare’s tragedy Troilus and Cressida, Cressida is often seen as the embodiment of a faithless lover.

32: Shakespeare’s flawed farce – The play Troilus and Cressida.

32: Mnemosyne – A character in Greek mythology. Mnemosyne is mother to the nine muses and, most importantly, memory incarnate.

32: Bechstein – A famous German piano company in the same vein as Steinway.

32: Nachinanie – Russian for an “undertaking”, as in an initiative or beginning. Related to the Russian root nacha- (meaning beginning).