«Notte e fiamme»
Leila«Notte e fiamme» (“Night and Flames”) links a chapter heading to Lelia’s description of an experience in which dream, night, and flame seem to fill both her inner life and the world around her. Its recurrence gives the phrase force as a compact expression of the chapter’s atmosphere and her emotional intensity.
Appearance and Recurrence
The phrase first appears as the heading of Chapter 16. Later, after leaving the hotel in the evening and visiting the place where Massimo Alberti had said goodbye to her, Lelia returns and remains at the window until nearly midnight. She watches the lights cast across the water and the far shore, then thinks of everything as dream, night, and flames, both within and outside herself.
Function and Significance
The repeated phrase connects the chapter’s title with Lelia’s state of mind without separating feeling from setting: night and flames describe her experience inwardly as well as the scene she inhabits. Its return after her visit to the place of farewell also binds the landscape to her longing for Massimo Alberti. The phrase does not explain or resolve that longing; instead, it gives the chapter a heightened, dreamlike emotional register.
