Timeline of the Baudelaires
Aug 12, 2014 15:19:52 GMT -5
Liam R. Findlay, Hermes, and 6 more like this
Post by gliquey on Aug 12, 2014 15:19:52 GMT -5
Books are referred to by number (e.g. 1) instead of by initials (e.g. TBB) and numbers like 13-58 refer first to the book number (TE) and then to the page number in my edition of the book.
Recently, the timeline in which the series occurs has become more and more interesting to me. I'll make the distinction now and say that this will not focus on the Baudelaire parents, nor on how Lemony Snicket and the time of his research/publication slots into place. I apologize if any of this (or all of this) is past news, but it was certainly interesting for me to work out and I'd like to see if my timeline stands up to cross-examination.
We start off with the more boring bits: 1-6.
In book 1, the children stay at Mr. Poe's house. This is the only time we here mentions of his family. They stay here while Mr. Poe searches for a guardian - this may mean (or, depending on your interpretation, has to mean) that they stay at his house between books when Mr. Poe is again searching for guardians.
Now, book 1 should cover long enough for Olaf to properly write and rehearse (with a group of unsuspecting actors) his play, The Marvelous Marriage. However, when the Baudelaires go to Mr. Poe to complain about Olaf, he says "You've only been there a few days" [1-65]. Assuming "a few days" is more than "a couple of days" (2) but less than "a week" (7), that means the Baudelaires have been there 3-6 days.
The following morning, Olaf tells them about the play: the only performance is "on this Friday night". Presumably, if it was Thursday he would have said "tomorrow night" - this means it is in at least 2 days time. If it was Friday, he would probably have said "next Friday", so this means that it is between Saturday and Wednesday, or in 2-6 days time.
Adding 3-6 days and 2-6 days gives a minimum of 5 days and a maximum of 12 days, but this is only while they stay at Olaf's house. They spend a few days at Mr. Poe's house, too, so maybe book 1 covers 2 to 3 weeks in total.
Book 2 lasts ten days - the time between their arrival and their intended departure to Peru.
Book 3 lasts for maybe a week. After they meet Josephine, Snicket describes the "days that followed". One day, they meet Olaf in the supermarket and he phones them "that night" [3-55]. Josephine pretends to commit suicide "after hours and hours" of the Baudelaires waiting, so presumably the following morning. They have lunch at the Anxious Clown and the leech attack occurs in "the middle of the night" [3-165]. The book ends in the morning after Olaf escapes.
Book 4 lasts for roughly one lumber cycle. Each part of the process lasts for a few days. When they arrive, they start debarking: presumably, this is the first part of the process. Then, they do the sawing and the string parts before Klaus is tripped by the bald man. The following day, they start stamping and Klaus is tripped again; the day after that, Dr. Orwell dies. Mr. Poe takes "the first available train" [4-177], which seemed to be in the afternoon based on when the Baudelaires arrived, so can be said to be the same day as Dr. Orwell dying (not that it matters much). Overall, they experience an unspecified period of debarking, full sawing and string sessions, a day of stamping and a final day in which Sir refuses to take care of the children. Maybe it lasts 2 weeks in all.
Book 5 could last anywhere from two weeks to a few months. They have time to lose track of what day it is in their repetitive schedule before meeting Olaf, experiencing 9 S.O.R.E. nights (plus a tenth night where the Quagmires do S.O.R.E.) and getting triple expelled.
Book 6 lasts for maybe a week or two. They develop a vague "mixed bag" routine with Jerome, and spend a long couple of days after Olaf appears going up and down the shaft.
For those books, specific time periods are rare luxuries. We know that the whole thing lasts for less than a year (see day 3) but as for time spent between guardians at Mr. Poe's, we can only guess. From here on in though, it starts to get interesting. From 7 to the end of 12, we have a very exact sequence of events.
Day 1: The Baudelaires go on the train to V.F.D. and have the long walk to the council meeting. They than watch the sunset migration and get the first couplet from Hector.
Day 2: The Baudelaires do chores and get the second couplet. "Olaf" (Jacques) is captured.
Day 3: After Sunny gets the third couplet, here's the real Olaf! Jacques is dead and the Baudelaires are locked up. Then, they realize that it is Klaus' 13th birthday. This tells us that the whole series has lasted under a year so far, as Klaus was 12 when described in book 1.
Day 4: They break out from jail with the fourth couplet and run away. They run essentially for the rest of the day, and then either at night on day 4 or early on day 5, they arrive at the Last Chance General Store and send a telegram to Mr. Poe.
Day 5: They hop aboard the V.F.D. van and get sent to work with Hal. They sleep in the unfinished section of the hospital.
Day 6: They sneak back into the Library of Records at night and Violet is captured.
Day 7: Violet nearly has a cranioectomy. The hospital burns down and the Baudelaires escape in Olaf's trunk. Upon careful inspection of the start of 9, they escape at lunch and travel as "evening turn to night". This means that the car journey only lasts a few hours and day 7 is the day when the Baudelaires get jobs in the House of Freaks.
Day 8: Olaf asks his first question to Lulu (is there an alive Baudelaire parent?); the Baudelaires perform in the normal Freaks' exhibit and, after learning Lulu's real name is Olivia, they plan to escape to the Mortmain Mountains.
Day 9: Olaf asks his second question (where are the Baudelaires?); everything is a disaster; Lulu and the bald man die. Sunny is kidnapped and Violet and Klaus have to stop the caravan before hiding in the Snow Scouts' cave.
Day 10: Presumably, Quigley takes Violet/Klaus up the Vertical Flame Diversion after midnight, so on day 10. In any case, on this day, they find the burned down HQ, tell Sunny to find the last safe place, find out the meeting is on Thursday and build a trap for Esme.
Day 11: They go up the mountain with Esme and watch the Snow Scouts get kidnapped. They go down the waterfall and lose Quigley. They meet Widdershins and, after setting course for the sugar bowl, sleep.
Olaf's path on this day is rather odd. Klaus punctured his tyres and he was (supposedly) forced to go down the mountain via the path, but his octopus submarine still appears quite soon after. We presume Olaf is on the submarine but I don't think Snicket explicitly says he was.
I'm most comfortable with the events of Day 11 because of this quote:
Day 12: They go to the grotto and fail to find the sugar bowl. Although they lose track of time, through references to Sundays and Mondays, we can work out that they stay overnight and return to the Queequeg the following day.
I have to admit that I am currently rereading the series and am mid-way through book 11. Day 13 onwards is where I'm mostly likely to be making mistakes.
Day 13: After seeing the balloons which denote Violet's 15th birthday, they are kidnapped by Olaf. (Thanks dante for noticing I originally got this wrong.)
Day 14: They go to Briny Beach and meet Kit. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 end at 3 p.m. On page 161, there are 12 "Wrong!"s, indicating midnight.
Day 15: Dewey dies (early in the morning). Frank/Ernest locks up the Baudelaires. The trial takes place (a day early - this is Wednesday) and the Baudelaires end up in the same boat as Olaf.
Finally, book 13 takes an indeterminate amount of time and book 14 is set a year later.
-----
Leftover thoughts:
The Baudelaires discover the message in the fridge on day 10. It is explicitly stated that day 10 is a Sunday, so we can work out the days of the week for the rest around that. Although we can deduce that Violet, Klaus and Sunny travel to V.F.D. on a Wednesday, the most important thing that can be learned is probably something that we could have worked out without all of this.
When was the Fridge message placed? If it was placed before day 9/Thursday - longer than a week before the meeting at Denouement - then it would be very confusing for anyone reading the code before day 9: they would think that the Thursday referred to was day 9's Thursday. Therefore, it seems likely to me that the message was placed in the fridge on day 9/10, before Violet/Klaus/Quigley arrive. This supports theories that volunteers were sneaking about in the Valley of Four Drafts over the last month: the scrap of paper surviving in the library was the exact stanza required for the code, and someone threw the sugar bowl out of the window, and Dewey/Kit were rescuing things there too (I think).
We also know that Violet's birthday is exactly 10 days after Klaus', making Violet either 1 year and 355 days or 1 year and 354 days older than Klaus, depending on leap years. (Thanks fragilethings for noticing I got this wrong.)
Recently, the timeline in which the series occurs has become more and more interesting to me. I'll make the distinction now and say that this will not focus on the Baudelaire parents, nor on how Lemony Snicket and the time of his research/publication slots into place. I apologize if any of this (or all of this) is past news, but it was certainly interesting for me to work out and I'd like to see if my timeline stands up to cross-examination.
We start off with the more boring bits: 1-6.
In book 1, the children stay at Mr. Poe's house. This is the only time we here mentions of his family. They stay here while Mr. Poe searches for a guardian - this may mean (or, depending on your interpretation, has to mean) that they stay at his house between books when Mr. Poe is again searching for guardians.
Now, book 1 should cover long enough for Olaf to properly write and rehearse (with a group of unsuspecting actors) his play, The Marvelous Marriage. However, when the Baudelaires go to Mr. Poe to complain about Olaf, he says "You've only been there a few days" [1-65]. Assuming "a few days" is more than "a couple of days" (2) but less than "a week" (7), that means the Baudelaires have been there 3-6 days.
The following morning, Olaf tells them about the play: the only performance is "on this Friday night". Presumably, if it was Thursday he would have said "tomorrow night" - this means it is in at least 2 days time. If it was Friday, he would probably have said "next Friday", so this means that it is between Saturday and Wednesday, or in 2-6 days time.
Adding 3-6 days and 2-6 days gives a minimum of 5 days and a maximum of 12 days, but this is only while they stay at Olaf's house. They spend a few days at Mr. Poe's house, too, so maybe book 1 covers 2 to 3 weeks in total.
Book 2 lasts ten days - the time between their arrival and their intended departure to Peru.
In ten days we leave for Peru... [2-14]
Book 3 lasts for maybe a week. After they meet Josephine, Snicket describes the "days that followed". One day, they meet Olaf in the supermarket and he phones them "that night" [3-55]. Josephine pretends to commit suicide "after hours and hours" of the Baudelaires waiting, so presumably the following morning. They have lunch at the Anxious Clown and the leech attack occurs in "the middle of the night" [3-165]. The book ends in the morning after Olaf escapes.
Book 4 lasts for roughly one lumber cycle. Each part of the process lasts for a few days. When they arrive, they start debarking: presumably, this is the first part of the process. Then, they do the sawing and the string parts before Klaus is tripped by the bald man. The following day, they start stamping and Klaus is tripped again; the day after that, Dr. Orwell dies. Mr. Poe takes "the first available train" [4-177], which seemed to be in the afternoon based on when the Baudelaires arrived, so can be said to be the same day as Dr. Orwell dying (not that it matters much). Overall, they experience an unspecified period of debarking, full sawing and string sessions, a day of stamping and a final day in which Sir refuses to take care of the children. Maybe it lasts 2 weeks in all.
Book 5 could last anywhere from two weeks to a few months. They have time to lose track of what day it is in their repetitive schedule before meeting Olaf, experiencing 9 S.O.R.E. nights (plus a tenth night where the Quagmires do S.O.R.E.) and getting triple expelled.
Book 6 lasts for maybe a week or two. They develop a vague "mixed bag" routine with Jerome, and spend a long couple of days after Olaf appears going up and down the shaft.
For those books, specific time periods are rare luxuries. We know that the whole thing lasts for less than a year (see day 3) but as for time spent between guardians at Mr. Poe's, we can only guess. From here on in though, it starts to get interesting. From 7 to the end of 12, we have a very exact sequence of events.
Day 1: The Baudelaires go on the train to V.F.D. and have the long walk to the council meeting. They than watch the sunset migration and get the first couplet from Hector.
Day 2: The Baudelaires do chores and get the second couplet. "Olaf" (Jacques) is captured.
Day 3: After Sunny gets the third couplet, here's the real Olaf! Jacques is dead and the Baudelaires are locked up. Then, they realize that it is Klaus' 13th birthday. This tells us that the whole series has lasted under a year so far, as Klaus was 12 when described in book 1.
Day 4: They break out from jail with the fourth couplet and run away. They run essentially for the rest of the day, and then either at night on day 4 or early on day 5, they arrive at the Last Chance General Store and send a telegram to Mr. Poe.
Day 5: They hop aboard the V.F.D. van and get sent to work with Hal. They sleep in the unfinished section of the hospital.
Day 6: They sneak back into the Library of Records at night and Violet is captured.
Day 7: Violet nearly has a cranioectomy. The hospital burns down and the Baudelaires escape in Olaf's trunk. Upon careful inspection of the start of 9, they escape at lunch and travel as "evening turn to night". This means that the car journey only lasts a few hours and day 7 is the day when the Baudelaires get jobs in the House of Freaks.
Day 8: Olaf asks his first question to Lulu (is there an alive Baudelaire parent?); the Baudelaires perform in the normal Freaks' exhibit and, after learning Lulu's real name is Olivia, they plan to escape to the Mortmain Mountains.
Day 9: Olaf asks his second question (where are the Baudelaires?); everything is a disaster; Lulu and the bald man die. Sunny is kidnapped and Violet and Klaus have to stop the caravan before hiding in the Snow Scouts' cave.
Day 10: Presumably, Quigley takes Violet/Klaus up the Vertical Flame Diversion after midnight, so on day 10. In any case, on this day, they find the burned down HQ, tell Sunny to find the last safe place, find out the meeting is on Thursday and build a trap for Esme.
Day 11: They go up the mountain with Esme and watch the Snow Scouts get kidnapped. They go down the waterfall and lose Quigley. They meet Widdershins and, after setting course for the sugar bowl, sleep.
Olaf's path on this day is rather odd. Klaus punctured his tyres and he was (supposedly) forced to go down the mountain via the path, but his octopus submarine still appears quite soon after. We presume Olaf is on the submarine but I don't think Snicket explicitly says he was.
I'm most comfortable with the events of Day 11 because of this quote:
Perhaps it was because of their long, exhausting day, which had begun on the icy summit of Mount Fraught... [11-110, emphasis added]
Day 12: They go to the grotto and fail to find the sugar bowl. Although they lose track of time, through references to Sundays and Mondays, we can work out that they stay overnight and return to the Queequeg the following day.
I have to admit that I am currently rereading the series and am mid-way through book 11. Day 13 onwards is where I'm mostly likely to be making mistakes.
Day 13: After seeing the balloons which denote Violet's 15th birthday, they are kidnapped by Olaf. (Thanks dante for noticing I originally got this wrong.)
Day 14: They go to Briny Beach and meet Kit. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 end at 3 p.m. On page 161, there are 12 "Wrong!"s, indicating midnight.
Day 15: Dewey dies (early in the morning). Frank/Ernest locks up the Baudelaires. The trial takes place (a day early - this is Wednesday) and the Baudelaires end up in the same boat as Olaf.
Finally, book 13 takes an indeterminate amount of time and book 14 is set a year later.
-----
Leftover thoughts:
The Baudelaires discover the message in the fridge on day 10. It is explicitly stated that day 10 is a Sunday, so we can work out the days of the week for the rest around that. Although we can deduce that Violet, Klaus and Sunny travel to V.F.D. on a Wednesday, the most important thing that can be learned is probably something that we could have worked out without all of this.
"Today's Friday," Quigley said. "The gathering of the volunteers is less than a week away." [10-240; day 10]
When was the Fridge message placed? If it was placed before day 9/Thursday - longer than a week before the meeting at Denouement - then it would be very confusing for anyone reading the code before day 9: they would think that the Thursday referred to was day 9's Thursday. Therefore, it seems likely to me that the message was placed in the fridge on day 9/10, before Violet/Klaus/Quigley arrive. This supports theories that volunteers were sneaking about in the Valley of Four Drafts over the last month: the scrap of paper surviving in the library was the exact stanza required for the code, and someone threw the sugar bowl out of the window, and Dewey/Kit were rescuing things there too (I think).
We also know that Violet's birthday is exactly 10 days after Klaus', making Violet either 1 year and 355 days or 1 year and 354 days older than Klaus, depending on leap years. (Thanks fragilethings for noticing I got this wrong.)