Pale Fire - Vladimir Nabokov [110]
Oleg, Duke of Rahl, 1916-1931, son of Colonel Gusev, Duke of Rahl (b. 1885, still spry); K.’s beloved playmate, killed in a toboggan accident, 130.
Onhava, the beautiful capital of Zembla, 12, 71, 130, 149, 171, 181, 275, 579, 894, 1000.
Otar, Count, heterosexual man of fashion and Zemblan patriot, b. 1915, his bald spot, his two teenage mistresses, Fleur and Fifalda (later Countess Otar), blue-veined daughters of Countess de Fyler, interesting light effects, 71.
Paberg, see Bera Range.
Payn, Dukes of, escutcheon of, 270; see Disa, my Queen.
Poems, Shade’s short: The Sacred Tree, 49; The Swing, 61; Mountain View, 92; The Nature of Electricity, 347; one line from April Rain, 470; one line from Mont Blanc, 782; opening quatrain of Art, 957.
Potaynik, taynik (q.v.).
Religion: contact with God, 47; the Pope, 85; freedom of mind, 101; problem of sin and faith, 549; see Suicide.
Rippleson Caves, sea caves in Blawick, named after a famous glass maker who embodied the dapple-and-ringle play and other circular reflections on blue-green sea water in his extraordinary stained glass windows for the Palace, 130, 149.
Shade, Hazel, S’s daughter, 1934-1957; deserves great respect, having preferred the beauty of death to the ugliness of life; the domestic ghost, 230; the Haunted Barn, 347.
Shade, John Francis, poet and scholar, 1898-1959; his work on Pale Fire and friendship with K, Foreword; his physical appearance, mannerisms, habits, etc., ibid.; his first brush with death as visualized by K, and his beginning the poem while K plays chess at the Students’ Club, 1; his sunset rambles with K, 12; his dim precognition of G, 17; his house seen by K in terms of lighted windows, 47; his starting on the poem, his completing Canto Two, and about half of Three, and K’s three visits at those points of time, ibid.; his parents, Samuel Shade and Caroline Lukin, 71; K’s influence seen in a variant, 79; Maud Shade, S’s father’s sister, 86; K shown S’s clockwork memento mori, 143; K on S’s fainting fits, 162; S beginning Canto Two, 167; S on critics, Shakespeare, education, etc., 172; K’s watching S’s guests arriving on his and S’s birthday, and S writing Canto Two, 181; his worries over his daughter recalled, 230; his delicacy, or prudence, 231; his exaggerated interest in the local fauna and flora, 238, 270; the complications of K’s marriage compared to the plainness of S’s, 275; K’s drawing S’s attention to a pastel smear crossing the sunset sky, 286; his fear that S might leave before finishing their joint composition, 288; his waiting vainly for S on July 15th, 338; his walk with S through old Hentzner’s fields and his reconstitution of S’s daughter’s expeditions to the Haunted Barn, 347; S’s pronunciation, 367; S’s book on Pope, 384; his grudge against Peter Provost, 385; his work on lines 406-416 synchronized with G’s activities in Switzerland, 408; again his prudence, or considerateness, 417; his having possibly glimpsed twenty-six years ago Villa Disa and the little Duchess of Payn with her English governess, 433; his apparent assimilation of the Disa material and K’s promise to divulge an ultimate truth, ibid.; S’s views on Prejudice, 470; K’s views on Suicide, 493; S’s and K’s views on sin and faith, 549; S’s crabbed hospitality and delight in meatless cuisine at my house, 579; rumors about his interest in a female student, ibid.; his denial of a stationmaster’s insanity, 629; his heart attack synchronized with K’s spectacular arrival in the USA, 691; K’s allusion to S in a letter to Disa, 768; his last ramble with S and his joy at learning S is working hard on the “mountain” theme—a tragic misunderstanding, 802; his games of golf with S, 819; his readiness to look up references for S, 887; S’s defense of the King of Zembla, 894; his and K’s hilarity over the rot in a textbook compiled by Prof. C., psychiatrist and literary expert (!), 929; his beginning his last batch of cards, 949; his revealing to K the completion of his task, 991; his death from a bullet meant