I recalled that in PF the judge who lives next door to the Shade house had an encounter in his professional capacity with 'a parricide aged six.' Some years past I wondered aloud on the List if John Shade might not have been that youthful offender. I was considering the possibility that Shade had murdered his mother, Caroline Lukin Shade, whose name is echoed in the name of Shade's shade, Charles Kinbote. Among other clues, I found the absence of any parental photographs in the Shade home telling, especially in conjunction with the fact that in RLS's J & H, Mr Hyde destroys a portrait he finds of Dr Jekyll's father ... Some may recall that I argue that PF is essentially a re-telling of that story (n.b. in PF Shade is always 'Dr' and Kinbote is always 'Mr').  

I (ck) am struck anew by the "pale jellies" -  could they be pale fire jellies, perhaps? Previously I had assumed this was simply a reference to ectoplasm, however in my more gruesome mood it occurs to me that as some may be aware, the explosive gelignite is actually a jelly (aka roaring jelly):

*I have omitted the excerpts quoted by Jansy - they are in the archives of course.