Chronology of the Anne Books (2024)

Chronology of the Anne Books

Rilla of Ingleside begins in June 1914 (RoI, ch 1, 1st page). It is thesame day that Archduke Ferdinand is assassinated, which makes it 28th June.Rilla says (RoI, ch 2, last page) that she will be fifteen next month (July1914) so she was born in July 1899. Jem is aged 21. (RoI, ch 1, 5th page).

It is May when Rainbow Valley begins (RV, ch 1), Rilla is six years oldand Jem is 13 (RV, ch 3). Rilla will therefore be seven in July, and the yearmust be 1906. The Meredith children's ages are: Jerry 12, Faith 11, Una 10 andCarl 9 (RV, ch 2). The twins (Nan and Di) were ten years old at this time (RV,ch 3), and so were born some time between June 1895 and May 1896, depending onwhether they were just 10 or nearly 11.

In AHoD, it is June when 'Leslie returns home' (AHoD, ch 33). Jem isborn in the following chapter, though a date is not given. It must either beJune or shortly after. It can't be much later because in chapter 35, when Annehad 'come downstairs again' after Jem's birth (perhaps about 3 weeks to a monthlater) there are some indications that we are still in high summer — sayAugust at the latest. Susan is more concerned about the dry spell than aboutpolitics, and Captain Jim 'seldom went out in his boat that summer'. All thissuggests that Jem was born in June or July.

If Jem was born before June 28th, then at the beginning of RoI he mustbe only just 21. If his birthday is later than this, he must be nearly 22, atthe start of RoI. The first possibility can be ruled out as follows. Rilla'sbirth occurs some time in AoI, which begins 'nine years since [Anne] went away[from Green Gables]' (AoI, ch 1). Rilla is therefore born at least 9 yearsafter Anne and Gilbert were married, which makes it at least 8 years afterJoyce was born and at least 7 years after Jem was born. If Jem is at least 7years older than Rilla, he must be at least 15 + 7 = 22 in 1914.

I conclude that Jem's birthday is some time in July in the year 1914 -22 = 1892. AoI must begin in 1914 - 15 = 1899. This would make 1890 the yearAnne and Gilbert were married. AHoD, ch 4 speaks of a 'September breeze' on themorning of Anne's wedding, and ch 8 looks back over the four week honeymoon andcalls it 'that September'. According to AHoD, ch 2, the wedding took place whenshe was 25 years old, 14 years after she came to Green Gables. Anne wastherefore born in 1890 - 25 = 1865. Her birthday is in March (AoA, ch 13). InAoGG, ch 8, Marilla tells Anne there are only two weeks of school left beforethe summer vacation. I suppose that means it was some time in June, so thatAnne must have arrived in Green Gables some time in May or June.

Returning to AoI, in ch 2 there were 'still plenty of June lillies',which suggests late June or early July. There are a few chapters before Rillais born (July 1899), which suggests that June is more likely than July for thestart of the book. At this stage, Shirley is two years old (AoI, ch 3), so hemust have been born in late 1896 or early 1897. Walter is six (AoI, ch 7), sohe was born in late 1892 or early 1893. But if Jem was born in July 1892, thenWalter must have been born towards the end of that range of dates, say aboutJune 1893.

This gives the following dates.

There is a slight inconsistency between the books, over the question ofMarilla's age. RV, ch 2 says that Marilla is 85. Anne's age would have been 25(her age at marriage) plus the (roughly) two years before Jem was born, plus 13(Jem's age at the start of RV). This makes a total of 40, so that Marilla is 85- 40 = 45 years older than Anne. On the other hand AotI, ch 22 says 'Marillafelt that of her sixty years, she had lived only the nine that had followed theadvent of Anne'. Nine years after Anne arrived, she would have been 11 + 9 =20, so Marilla would have been 20 + 45 = 65 years old at this point, not 60. Wecan only conclude that 'of her sixty years' is using very round figures —by no means unreasonably, however.