Jansy Mello [But I'm still confused with the "feuilles d'alarme" - I cannot locate it anywhere in my English editions of Pale Fire .How did the word arise in the first place?] I followed A. Bouazza's indications concerning the "feuilles d'alarme and found them, in CK note's to line 171 (in Everyman's Library, The Library of America and Gallimard's Feu pâle. I had been looking for the word exclusively in the note that also referenced the "volant en arričre" emblematic image ( CK note to line 408).. Unfortunately I won't be able to peruse the text of CK's note to line 171 in which the "synesthetic clue" from the "antiphonal glitters" seems to obvious and quite explicit (the "feuilles d'alarme" had "glitter and rattle" improved, i.e: as expected, there's a blend of light and sound) to compare what CK wrote about those tinfoil scares in these two instances.
Jerry Friedman: couldn't find this word in Google Books "except for uses that seem to be later than PF and to refer to alarm systems for buildings" I'm certain that this chronological aberrancy is important, just as its two distant appearances in CK's notes in PF. I'm reviewing some of VN's Russian lectures, and Tolstoy has come to my attention thru VN's markers. Right now, Anna's death and the dream shea shared with Vronski, and VN's exuberant comments about Tolstoy's chronology. As I pointed out while quoting from CK to line 408, the report plays with time (The King and Gradus, at tdifferent times, shared the same view of the vineyards with its tinkle of stonemasons at work and the echoing "tinfoil scares" (later we hear Shade's Clink.Clunk of tossed horse shoes) In Anna Karenin, VN stresses Tolstoy gradual intimations of destiny using the sound of metal clangors in train-stations and examines its distinct ressurgences in the novel. In PF we have curious chronologies two, gradual intimations and the sound of metallic things, there's even a dream...
The feuilles d'alarm are warning signals, right? And there is a diagonal patch of light, the Red Admiral has a diagonal stripe, bend gules.. It arises in CK to line 408 and, again, close to Shade's death and the approach of Gradus. I remember he received a special tie as a gift from a brother in law and he is wearing it: it has a diagonal stripe (if memory isn't now deceiving me) and resembles the wings of a Vanessa butterfly. I'm really sorry that I cannot stop and read more now, I must wait for a few days before I can check this novel thread... A.Bouazza's tip has been most helpful!