- August, 1903, is the time Nabokov calls the "birth of consciousness"—at age four he understands his mother to be his mother and his father to be his father.
- Nabokov, having settled in with his readers, describes the magic of his pillow fort. So relateable!
- "History begins...not far from one end of this divan…" (1.2.1)
- "I made a tent of my bedclothes and let my imagination play in a thousand dim ways with shadowy snowslides of linen…" (1.2.2)
- From underneath the blankets, Vladimir essentially plays "pretend," like so many other children before and after. But the man he'll become is foreshadowed in his brand of play: it's all about the senses! It's the light through the sheets, and the grain of the fabric.