Fwd: NPPF - Pale Fire Chronology (Part 5)

Thu Aug 28 08:19:29 CDT 2003

> July 3
> Sybil tells Kinbote that Shade has begun a poem but will not discuss
> it till he's done (n. 47-48).  Kinbote notes in his diary "poem
> begun!" (n. 42).
>
> July 4
> Shade finishes Canto 1 (FW) including Card 9 (n. 109).  In the
> evening, Kinbote drives a young friend 200 miles to his home,
> where Kinbote attends two all-night parties (n. 181).
> Oswin Bretwit suffers a pain in his groin that keeps him awake this
> night and the next two. (n. 286).
>
> July 5  Shade's sixty-first birthday.  He starts Canto 2 (FW, l. 181,
> n. 181) and reaches line 208.  Kinbote breakfasts at the second
> party and returns home.  In the evening Shade gives his birthday
> party, which the uninvited Kinbote watches. (n. 181).
> At noon Zemblan time, Gradus leaves Onhava for Copenhagen,
> synchronized with Shade's waking up. (n. 1-4, n.181).
>
> July 6
> At 3 AM Shade returns to his desk and brings his poem up to line 230.
> At sunrise (4:30), Kinbote infers that the Shades are making love.
> In the morning, Kinbote delivers to Sybil his present for John and
> the third volume of _A la recherche des temps perdus_ (n. 181).
> Later, Shade writes at least the next card (n. 231).  In the
> evening, Shade and Kinbote go on a ramble, with Sybil accompanying
> them part of the way, and Shade refuses to discuss his progress on
> his poem (n. 238, n. 802).  As Shade reaches line 230, Gradus and
> the Zemblan consul in Copenhagen buy clothes for Gradus to wear in
> later notes (shortly before noon Copenhagen time) (l. 181).
>
> July 7
> Shade's writings include lines 286-299 (n. 286, n. 287).  Kinbote,
> on his way to Dr. Ahlert's office for a 3:30 appointment, runs into
> the Shades and learns from them and Dr. Ahlert that they're
> planning to rent the Hurleys' ranch in Cedarn in August.  Kinbote
> gets information from a travel agency and mails a booking for a
> nearby cabin (perhaps the same day) (n. 287).
> Gradus flies to Paris, telephones Oswin Bretwit from the airport,
> and has a futile interview with him. (n. 286).
>
> July 8
> Oswin Bretwit dies during surgery (n. 286, I.).
>
> July 10
> Shade's writing includes lines 406-416 and another card (n. 403-404).
> Gradus drives from Geneva to Lex, where Odon is resting at Joe
> Lavender's villa.  Gradus is shown around by Gordon Krummholz, who
> mentions that the King had gone to the Côte d'Azur, but Lavender
> sends Gradus away by phone (n. 403-404).  Back in Geneva, Gradus
> has an incoherent phone conversation  with Headquarters, who think
> he's suggested breaking into the Villa Disa to look for letters
> with the ex-king's address (n. 470).
>
> July 11  Shade finishes Canto 2 (FW).
> Kinbote prowls around the Shades' house, sees them crying, and
> bangs a garbage can but (believes he) isn't discovered (n. 47-49).
> Gradus visits a Finnish bathhouse and sees his bare feet for the
> last time until July 21 (n. 949).
>
> Mid July
> Kinbote sees his plan of the Onhava Palace in a storage niche
> in the Shades' house (n. 71).  (This could be at his intrusion of
> July 15.)
>
> July 14
> Shade's writings include line 596 (n. 596).
> Around this day ("a week before Shade's death") a clubwoman tells
> Kinbote in a grocery store that he is remarkably disagreeable and
> insane (FW).
> Gradus, having fretted in his hotel in Geneva for four days,
> telegraphs Headquarters to say he's moving to the Hotel Lazuli in
> Nice (n. 596).
>
> July 15
> Kinbote waits in vain for Shade (I. s.v. Shade, reference given as
> 338 instead of the correct 334) to go on a promised walk.  Eventually
> he intrudes into the Shades' house, but Shade begs off (n. 47-48,
> this being St. Swithin's Day).
> Gradus lands in Nice in the early afternoon and sees but doesn't
> recognize the  Shadow Izumrudov as well as Andronnikov and Niagarin.
> He learns from the  cabbie taking him to his hotel that Disa has
> gone to Italy for the rest of July (n. 697).  That night or early
> the next morning, Andronnikov and Niagarin break into the Villa
> Disa and find, among other things, Kinbote's letter of April 2
> with his work address (n. 741).
>
> July 16
> Izumrudov gives Gradus the information about Kinbote and orders him
> to America to continue his mission (n. 741).
>
> July 18
> Gradus travels by train to Paris (n. 949).
> That night, or in the early morning of July 19, Shade writes card
> 65 (second part of line 797 to line 809) (n. 802).
>
> July 19
> Kinbote prays in two churches.  As he gets home, he hallucinates
> Shade calling to him.  When he reaches Shade, he breaks down in
> tears, as a result of which Shade agrees to go on a ramble with
> him at eight.  By then Shade has finished Canto 3 and started
> Canto 4.  He cuts the ramble short to get back to his poem (FW,
> n. 802,n. 835-838).
>
> July 20
> Shade begins writing with line 873 (n. 873).  He cites Pope in a
> footnote on Zembla (n. 937).
> At the same time, Gradus at Orly airport boards a jetliner for
> America (n. 873).  He arrives in New York and after finding that
> the early flight is full and the train is inconvenient, makes
> a plane reservation (n. 949).
>
> July 21
> Shade starts with line 949 (n. 949).
> Gradus passes time in New York learning all kinds of interesting
> information from the _New York Times_, among other things.  He
> checks in at the airport at 2 PM and arrives in New Wye after 5,
> not feeling so good.  He gets to the Wordsmith campus, and after
> various good and bad directions and a glimpse of Kinbote in the
> library, he gets a ride from Gerald Emerald to within sight of
> Shade's house (n. 949).  Kinbote gets home from the library and
> finds that Shade is nearly finished with the poem.  He induces
> Shade to come over for Tokay and walnuts (n. 991).  A Red Admiral
> cavorts around them in the evening light (n. 993-995).  As they
> arrive at Kinbote's house, Jack Grey or Jakob Gradus, who has
> been waiting, shoots at them.  Several bullets miss, but one
> kills Shade.  The gardener subdues Grey with a spade, and Kinbote
> calls the police, who take Grey into custody.  Sybil arrives.
> Probably that night, believing from the gardener's testimony
> that Kinbote had tried to shield Shade, she brings up the
> possibility of recompense and agrees to let Kinbote edit the poem.
> Kinbote puts the poem in his valise (FW, n. 1000).
>
> July 22
> Kinbote reads the poem at daybreak and is bitterly disappointed to
> find no mention of Zembla, but rereads it later and likes it better
> (partly because he finds gleams of Zembla in it) (n. 1000).
>
> "Immediately after Shade's death"
> Sybil and Kinbote sign a contract according to which he'll edit
> "Pale Fire" without remuneration (FW).  Could this be about the
> time ("later") when Kinbote learns what epithets Sybil applied
> to him behind his back (n. 247)?
>
> Shortly afterwards ("immediately upon John Shade's demise")
> Prof. Hurley circulates a mimeographed letter expressing concern
> over Kinbote's editing the poem (n. 376-377).
>
> July 22-29
> Kinbote circulates in New Wye with the poem sewn into his clothes.
> He interviews Jack Grey once or twice.  Grey "confesses" that he
> is Gradus, the Shadows' regicide.  "A few days" after the last
> interview, Grey kills himself (n. 1000, I.).
>
> July 24
> In a newspaper interview a "professed Shadean" states that "Pale
> Fire" is fragmentary (FW).
>
> July 25
> Sybil Shade affirms in a document (her contract with Kinbote?) that
> Shade "never intended to go beyond four parts" (FW).
>
> July 25-29
> During "the last week of July", the August issue of the _Nouvelle
> Revue Candienne_, with two translations by Sybil, appears in New
> Wye.  Kinbote makes critical notes but doesn't communicate them to
> Sybil (n. 678).
>
> July 29
> Kinbote leaves New Wye for NY after a "lugubrious week" (FW, n. 1000).
> That day or shortly thereafter, Kinbote has the ms. of "Pale Fire"
> photographed and, at sunset, he rejects one of Shade's publishers
> (FW).
>
> Probably the next day
> Kinbote makes a publication deal with "good old Frank" (FW).
>
> Before Aug. 21
> En route from New York to Cedarn, Kinbote spends a couple of days
> in Chicago, where he sees Prof. Hurley's Appreciation of Shade
> (n. 71) and meets Jane Provost.  Jane gives him information about
> Hazel and the Haunted Barn incident.  Pete Provost is, "alas,
> selling automobiles in Detroit" (n. 385-386).
>
> After reaching Cedarn
> Kinbote sends Sybil a letter with queries about the poem (FW).
>
> Early Sept.?
> The "little blue-jeaned fisherman" stops fishing near Kinbote's
> cabin. (n. 609-614).
>
> At least a month after Kinbote's letter
> Sybil sends Kinbote a telegram asking him to accept Professors C.
> and H. as co-editors (FW).
>
> Sometime in here
> A newspaper reprints Shade's poem "Mountain View" (n. 92).
>
> Oct. 19  Kinbote finishes the Foreword (FW).
>
> Oct. 19? 20? Kinbote commits suicide (_Strong Opinions_).
>
> 1979 July 1
> An $11,000,000 note for the Decker Glass Manufacturing Company comes
> due.

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