119: some crater in the Azores: The Azores is a region in Portugal known for its nine volcanic islands.
120: Strashno starayus’ (страшно стараюсь): While Nabokov translates this to “trying terribly”, the verb in Russian of to try and to suffer are very similar
120: Grand Velour: An extravagant restaurant in France. Also spelled “Grand Vefour”.
120: Rene Clair: A French filmmaker that rose to prominence around the time that sound began to be included in film. Rene’s CAREER spanned from 1924-1976. During the early 1930’s, Rene’s films expressed admiration and respect for the working CLASS citizens of France, a sentiment that defined the Socialist realism movement in Russia at the time, although VV does not express such distain at the French filmmaker’s movie.
120: Great Scarab: In Ancient Egyptian mythology, scarabs were associated with the sun god Ra, and signified change.
120: Transformation: A reoccurring motif. See pg 74
121: malevolent Hamlet: an allusion to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, set in Denmark.
121: Kovalevskian”outlet”: Sofia Kovalevskaya was one of the first famous female Russian mathematicians.
121: masturbation guilt : This kind of guilt results from the conflict between what feels good and what society decides dictates to be right.
121: Paragon University, Oregon : “Paragon” meaning an excellent example, VV shows admiration for a fellow literary colleague.
121: iridescent bubbles in my alembics: Literally, the bubbles formed by archaic chemistry equipment.
121: Look at the harlequins, everybody … immortal one!: motif, the reader is put in a set with all of VV’s wives.
122: Dolly: Darya Alexandrovna Oblonsky, Anna Karenina, Tolstoy
122: Thracia: Greek Thrace
122: Pahlavi: Iran or Persia
122: Fata Morganic: a mirage
122: Cockney: a Londoner.
122: Didactic Prose: instructional prose
122: Dramatic Poetry: strongly associated with tragedy.
122: Erotic Idyll: sexual fulfillment
123: Tauchnitz: a family of German publishers, early 19th century
125: The Carrick.: The Overcoat, word origin