Posted by Robert Hill on August 23, 2002 at 16:39:55 from 195.92.168.170 user eclrh.
In Reply to: Timescale (was John's watch) posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on August 23, 2002 at 14:14:04:
The problem with timescales is not that AR provides too little
information but that he provides too much. Not everything he says can
be true. S&A is said to be set in 1929 and Swallowdale in 1931,
yet it is clear from numerous references that they are one year apart.
The usual solution is to ignore the date of 1929 in S&A, presumably
because it is mentioned only once (at the signing of the treaty near
the end of chapter 10), whereas 1931 is mentioned twice in Swallowdale
(on top of Kanchenjunga and in a footnote, in chapter 7, about Captain
Flint's book).
Provided we ignore either the 1929 or the 1931, the relative chronology
of all the books (except PD, ML, GN) is perfectly clear and consistent
from lots of references.
Of course, there are still some slight chronological problems about
Bridget's remarkable rate of ageing, the relative ages of Peggy and
Susan, and other such matters which have been discussed here before.