NPPF - Pale Fire Chronology (Part 3)

Wed Aug 27 16:00:13 CDT 2003

> 1953
> Exiled from Zembla for incompatibility, Disa returns to the Villa
> Disa (n. 433-434).
>
>
> 1954
> The Bibliothèque de la Pléiade publishes an edition of _A la
> Recherche des temps perdus_ (n. 181--I haven't checked this).
>
> 1955
> Conmal dies (I.). Charles complies with his dying request by beginning
> to teach at Onhava University (n. 12).
> Col. Gusev, at seventy, is one of the greatest parachutists of all
> time (I.).
>
> 1956 Sometime
> Charles visits Disa for the second time since her exile (n. 433-434).
> A German academic and his Swedish wife attend a Sport Festival in
> Zembla and see King Charles (n. 894).
> The English translation of Charles's book on surnames is published
> in Oxford (n. 894).
>
> October
> The Haunted Barn.  A student and his girlfriend are disturbed by
> rattling sounds and lights.  The _Wordsmith Gazette_ makes the story
> notorious, and psychic researchers visit.  Hazel decides to
> investigate and gather data for a psychology paper.  The first time,
> with Jane Provost, a thunderstorm drowns out any manifestations.
> A few nights later, Hazel goes by herself and receives a cryptic
> communication from a will-o-the-wisp.  Returning home she's
> frightened by her father waiting for her on the porch.  On a later
> night, Hazel and her parents go the barn and wait in vain.  Shade
> complains to the authorities and the barn is razed. (n. 347).
>
> 1957 By March
> Shade finishes _Supremely Blest_, his book on Pope ("recently" at the
> time of Hazel's death) (l. 384).
>
> March
> After a humiliating blind double-date, Hazel drowns (herself).  (ll.
> 385-500, n. 293, I.).
> Not long thereafter, Jane Provost tries to talk to the Shades, and
> later writes Sybil a long letter, never answered (n. 385-386).
>
> Sometime
> Paul Hurley, Jr., becomes head of the English Department at Wordsmith
> (n. 376-377).
> Baron Radomir Mandevil fights a duel (n. 169).
>
> 1958 Sometime
> Shade sends "The Nature of Electricity" to _The Beau and the
> Butterfly_ (n. 347).
>
> March
> The Shades hear noises, play chess. (ll. 653-664).  This may be the
> previous March; Shade seems to telescope the time between Hazel's
> death and the incidents of 1959.
>
> May 1
> The Zemblan Revolution breaks out (n. 433-434).  Soon (maybe the
> same day) the Soviet-backed Extremists depose Charles Xavier
> (n. 12, I.) and hold him captive in the South West Tower (n. 130).
> Disa writes Charles a wild letter, which the palace commandant reads
> him.
>
> After May 1
> Romulus Arnor is executed (I.).
>
> Summer
> The Shades, starting to recover from their grief, go to Italy
> (ll. 668-670).  Around this time Shade's "bunch of essays _The
> Untamed/ Seahorse_" is published and "universally acclaimed".
> (ll. 671-672)
>
> July?
> "Several weeks" before her next attempt, Disa flies to Stockholm
> in an attempt to help Charles, but is turned back by her loathed
> cousin "Curdy Buff" (n. 433-434).
>
> Mid July
> Two Russian experts, Andronnikov and Niagarin, begin searching the
> Onhava Palace for the Crown Jewels (n. 130).
>
> Mid August
> Charles Xavier is accused of communicating with sympathizers by
> heliograph and moved from the tower to a "dismal lumber room".  He
> remembers the secret passage.  Though Odon tries to convince him to
> postpone his attempt, after ostensibly going to bed Charles escapes
> to the theater, interrupting Odon in a performance of _The Merman_.
> The two run outside to Odon's racing car (n. 130).  Odon drives
> west and up to Mandevil Forest, where he leaves Charles.  Charles
> climbs Mt. Mandevil for two hours in the rainy night (repeating the
> opening couplet of Goethe's "Erlkönig" in both German and Zemblan,
> n. 662) and takes shelter in the house of a farmer named Griff.
> The next morning he leaves (snubbing the farmer's daughter's sexual
> offer) and crosses the mountains west to Blawick.  On his mountain
> walk he sometimes feels Fate reaching for him (n. 597-608).  In
> Blawick he reunites with Odon, who takes him to the Rippleson Caves
> and a boat (n. 149, n. 597-608).  Meanwhile Royalist pranksters
> impersonate him, one in a fixed-speed chase on a chairlift (n. 70).
> This chaff lasts "almost a year", as the Extremist govenment thinks
> Charles is still in Zembla and tries to prevent his escape by air
> (n. 171).
> Disa, alarmed by rumors that Charles might be condemned to death,
> flies to Brussels and charters a plane, but a message from Odon
> tells her that Charles is out of Zembla and she should return to
> Villa Disa and wait for further communications (n. 433-434).
> Perhaps a bit later, Charles reclines on the sofa in Oswin Bretwit's
> flat in Meudon (n. 286).
>
> Early fall
> Charles is in Nice and Mentone (n. 240).
>
> August, September, October
> Sybil continues translating Marvell and Donne into French.  Hurricane
> Lolita, Mars, the Shah's wedding, Russian espionage, Sybil's portrait
> l. 677-682).
>
> Sometime in this period
> Charles shaves for the last time (n. 12).
> Andronnikov and Niagarin keep tearing apart the palace looking for
> the Crown Jewels (n. 681).
>
> September
> Joe Lavender tells Disa that a representative of her husband will
> visit her, but in fact Charles himself visits her briefly, also
> seeing her friend and attendant, Fleur de Fyler (n. 433-434).
>
> Oct. 17
> Shade has an apparent heart attack and "dies".  Dr. Ahlert treats him
> and reassures him wittily (ll. 682-728, n. 691, n. 727-728).
>
> Oct. 18 or 19
> Charles, henceforth called Kinbote, parachutes near Sylvia's "manor"
> and converses with her (n. 691).
>
> Oct. 20
> Sylvia leaves for Africa (Monday).  Kinbote continues to stay at her
> manor (n. 691).  Sometime probably in the next year Sylvia divorces
> Lionel Lavender, Joe Lavender's cousin (I.).
>
> Nov. 1 or 2
> Kinbote meets Billy Reading, president of Wordsmith, in New York.
> Kinbote spends the time till Christmas in the libraries of Washington
> and New York (n. 691).
>
> After Oct. 17
> Shade reads Jim Coates's article about Mrs. Z.'s near-death experience,
> drives 300 miles west to interview both of them, is disappointed by
> the fountain-mountain misprint, and finds some "faint hope"
> (ll. 745-834).
>
> Dec. 25
> Kinbote spends Christmas in Florida (n. 691).
>
> Late 1958 or early 1959
> After several months of impersonating Charles Xavier, Julius
> Steinmann is captured and shot by a firing squad.  Not killed, he
> is treated in a hospital, where Gradus bursts in and shoots at him
> twice, missing both times.  Steinmann disappears (n. 171).
>
> 1959 Early or mid Jan.?
> Classes start at Wordsmith College.  Shade resumes teaching.
> Kinbote arrives in New Wye (FW).
>
> Between Kinbote's arrival and (probably) his gardener's moving in
> Kinbote goes to a student-faculty party where he demonstrates
> Zemblan wrestling and gets a note accusing him of having hal.....s
> (n. 62).
>
> Between Kinbote's arrival in New Wye and the murder of Shade:
> Kinbote overhears Gerald Emerald referring to him as "the Great
> Beaver" and unties G. E.'s bow tie (FW).
> Dr. Nattochdag cautions Kinbote about criticizing his colleagues and
> their courses (FW).
> A drama students' skit caricatures Kinbote (FW).
> Kinbote finds that his gardener is "impotent" (n. 998).
> A visiting German lecturer suspects that Kinbote is the ex-King.
> In the process of trying to change the subject, Shade blows
> Kinbote's cover by mentioning the surname book, unless Charles had
> used the name Kinbote for his nom d'académie back in 1956.  Gerald
> Emerald insults the King, and Kinbote snubs him (n. 894).
>
> Jan. or early Feb.
> Kinbote writes Shade to introduce himself before moving in next
> door.  The Shades never read the letter (n. 691).
>
> Feb. 5
> Kinbote moves into the Goldsworth chateau (FW).

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