How much time passed between the mansion fire and island?

[Foxy]

Carrie E. Abelabudite  had a pretty good timeline going on during the reread this year.  Here is my guestimate (I don't remember everything perfectly, so there may be some errors here):

TBB: Kids lived with Mr. Poe for a few days, then lived with Count Olaf maybe two weeks?
(2 1/2 weeks)

TRR: Kids lived with Mr. Poe for a few days, then lived with Uncle Monty for maybe three weeks?
(6 weeks)

TWW: Kids lived with Mr. Poe for a few days (I can't wait until this part stops), then lived with Aunt Josephine for maybe a week.
(7 1/2 weeks)

TMM: Kids lived with Mr. Poe for a few days, then lived at the mill for a cycle of log making, however long that is...
(10 weeks)

TAA: Kids lived with Mr. Poe maybe for a week or two while Mr. Poe had a difficult time finding a school to take them, then stayed at Prufrock Prep for half a semester.
(17 weeks)

TEE: Kids lived with Mr. Poe for a few days, then lived with the Squalors for a few days.
(18 1/2 weeks)

TVV: Kids lived with Mr. Poe for a few days (for the last time!), then went to the village four days (four couplets indicate four days)
(19 1/2 weeks)

THH: Kids are at the hospital for a few days.
(20 weeks)

TCC: Kids are at the carnival for a few days.
(20 1/2 weeks)

TSS: Kids are in the mountains for a few days.
(21 weeks)

TGG: Friday-Monday
21 weeks 4 days

TPP: Monday-Wednesday
21 weeks 6 days

TE: Not completely sure how long the children were on the island, but it felt like a while.

So this is my rough estimate, poke holes where I didn't do my research.

[Hermes]

I don't think it's possible to say just how much time passed before the Baudelaires arrived on the island, but it's certainly less than a year, since Violet is fourteen at the beginning, and has her fifteenth birthday near the end.

Books 7-12 can be plotted in detail, and take approximately two weeks. The earlier books are harder to plot, because we don't know how much time the Baudelaires spent with Mr Poe between books. Someone a while ago pointed out that several books include references to a full moon, suggesting they happen at intervals of about a month. That would make the first half of the series last about six months.

[Foxy]

Aug 29, 2019 8:17:41 GMT -5 Hermes said:

Someone a while ago pointed out that several books include references to a full moon, suggesting they happen at intervals of about a month. That would make the first half of the series last about six months.

That's a brilliant observation! Unless the Snicket-moon doesn't follow the laws of the real-world moon, hahaha.

[Optimism is my Phil-osophy]

The odd thing to me about all this is that Sunny's birthday is not recorded. She was born in the fall, wasn't she? Or was it late summer? Has she turned old on the island?


Look ... I turned became a pessimistic professor.

[Dante]

Sunny never has an on-screen birthday because that would require deciding how old she's meant to be.

[Foxy]

Aug 30, 2019 11:19:48 GMT -5 Optimism is my Phil-osophy said:

The odd thing to me about all this is that Sunny's birthday is not recorded. She was born in the fall, wasn't she? Or was it late summer? Has she turned old on the island?


Look ... I turned became a pessimistic professor.

Congrats, Jean!  Why do you think Sunny was born in the fall?

My guess about Sunny is she was a little late of a walker, so over a year old when she started walking.  Maybe even eighteen months?  I think her first birthday may have been before the series started.  But this is just a guess based on my own readings and experiences with infants and babies.

Sept 1, 2019 5:24:32 GMT -5 Dante said:

Sunny never has an on-screen birthday because that would require deciding how old she's meant to be.

Much to my chagrin.  Sunny deserved a birthday!

[Hermes]

There's a passage in TE about an incident that happened in the autumn when Sunny was just a few weeks old.

She may well have ad a birthday while they were with Mr Poe: on the other hand it's also possible she doesn't have one in the period of the series, her first birthday coming just before the fire. To fix things more precisely we would have to know when False Spring is, but it could equally well be in early winter (like St Martin's Summer), late winter (like Groundhog Day) or indeed midwinter.