by Austen, Jane
The Walk to Meryton 132
Wed., Nov. 20 The Philips's party 140
Thur., Nov. 21 Jane and Elizabeth discuss Wickham 158
Bingley invites the Bennets to the Ball 160
Fri.-Mon., Nov. 22-25 The Bennets wait for the Ball 164
Tues., Nov. 26 The Ball at Netherfield 166
Wed., Nov. 27 Mr. Collins proposes to ElizabethBingley goes to London (mentioned on p. 192) 194
Thur., Nov. 28 Elizabeth sees Wickham in Meryton 214
Netherfield party leaves for London 216
Charlotte talks to Mr. Collins 226
Fri., Nov. 29 Mr. Collins proposes to Charlotte 226
Sat., Nov. 30 Announcement of engagement 232
Tues., Dec. 3 Mr. Collins's letter of thanks arrives 240
Mon., Dec. 16 Mr. Collins returns to LongbournIn the letter arriving Tues., Dec. 3, which wasprobably written two days earlier, Mr. Collinssays he will return “Monday fortnight” (p. 240). 242
VOLUME II PAGE
Dec. 17-19 Miss Bingley's second letter to Jane The most likely dates, based on the letter being mentioned after Mr. Collins's arrival on the 16th, Jane being described as waiting a day or two to tellElizabeth (p. 248), and Mr. Collins's departure being mentioned after that. 246
Sat., Dec. 21 Mr. Collins ends second visit 258
Mon., Dec. 23 The Gardiners arrive for Christmas 258
Mon., Dec. 30 The Gardiners leave, with Jane The Gardiners are said to have “staid a week” at Longbourn (p. 264). 268
Early Jan. Mr. Collins arrives to stay with the Lucases 268
Tues., Jan. 7 Jane visits Miss Bingley in London A probable date: Jane is described as writing to Elizabeth after “a week in town” (which would be around Jan. 6), and of intending to call on Miss Bingley the next day. 270, 272
Wed., Jan. 8 Charlotte says goodbye to Elizabeth The day is identified in the text; the date is not certain, but is probable. Mr. Collins is described as arriving at the Lucases “soon after” the Gardiners and Jane left, with the marriage “fast approaching.” An interval of nine days from the Gardiners' departure, rather than one of either two or sixteen days, seems logical. 268
Thurs., Jan. 9 Marriage of Mr. Collins and Charlotte 270
Early Feb. Miss Bingley returns visit to Jane Described as an interval of four weeks. 272
Late March (1st day) Elizabeth, Sir William, and Maria depart See essay below for why it should be late March. 278
Late March (2nd day) The travelers arrive at the Collinses 286
Late March (3rd day) Visit of Miss De Bourgh 290, 292
Late March (4th day) First dinner at Rosings Invitation (p. 292) is for “next day.” 294
Late March, Early April Sir William leaves the Collinses Said to be “a week” after their arrival. 308
Early to Mid-April Darcy and Col. Fitzwilliam arrive at Rosings This happens two weeks, and possibly a few days, after Elizabeth's arrival in the area. It may occur on a Monday, since on Sunday Darcy is said to have been there “almost a week” (p. 316). 310
Early to Mid-April (next day) Darcy and Col. Fitzwilliam call at the Collinses 312
Mid-April(Good Friday) Elizabeth sees Darcy at church 316
Mid-April(Easter Sunday) Elizabeth sees Darcy in the evening at Rosings 316
Mid-April(next day) Darcy sees Elizabeth at the parsonage 326
Mid to LateApril Darcy frequently sees Elizabeth This is over a ten day period: he has been in the area for approximately a week when he starts seeing her (on a Monday); he proposes on Thursday and leaves two days later; since his visit lasts “nearly three weeks” (p. 430), this interval would be a week and a half long. 332, 336
Late April Elizabeth walks with Col. Fitzwilliam 336
(Thursday) Darcy proposes in the evening Col. Fitzwilliam says he and Darcy plan to leave on Saturday. Since they leave two days later, and nothing indicates they have changed their plans, this day should be Thursday. 348
Late April (Friday) Darcy delivers his letter to Elizabeth 360
Late April (Saturday) Darcy and Col. Fitzwilliam leave 388
Early May (Friday) Elizabeth's last dinner at Rosings 394
Early May (Saturday) Elizabeth and Maria depart for London This is the next Saturday after Darcy's departure (p.390). 396
Second Week of May Elizabeth, Jane, and Maria return home They stayed in London “a few days” (p. 400). 402
Mid-May (next day) Elizabeth tells Jane of Darcy's proposal 412
Mid to Late May Lydia invited to Brighton This occurs in the second week of Elizabeth's return home (p. 422). 424
Fourth Week of May Lydia and the Regiment leave for Brighton The Regiment was scheduled to leave two weeks after Elizabeth's return home (p. 402). 430, 434
Mid-June Kitty begins to recover her spirits 440
Mid to Late June Elizabeth learns her trip must be delayed This is four weeks before it does begin. 440
Mid to Late July Elizabeth and the Gardiners leave on their trip The most likely date is around July 20. The trip is supposed to last three weeks. On Aug. 5-7 (see below) Elizabeth and the Gardiners are forced to leave for home. Until then, while clearly near the end of their trip, they seemed not to be planning to leave immediately. That, plus the two full days that travel back home at a normal pace would take, suggests the trip was supposed to end around August 10, and this provides the basis for the most likely departure date. 442
Late July Elizabeth and the Gardiners on tour 442
Early Aug. They arrive within five miles of Lambton See below for reasons for date. 442
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In the following section most dates are too uncertain to be given. But, unless stated otherwise, each day mentioned is the first of those days to fall after the previous day mentioned.
Saturday Lydia and Wickham run away togetherAs discussed in the essay below, this date wouldbe July 30, July 31, or August 1 (calculating backfrom the date of the wedding). 496, 498
Sunday Col. Forster sends an express to the BennetsWickham and Lydia arrive in London 496498, 584
Monday, Early Aug. Elizabeth and the Gardiners decide to visitPemberley the next dayThis is the same day they arrive near Lambton. 444
Col. Forster arrives at the Bennets 498
Jane writes first letter to Elizabeth 496
Tuesday Elizabeth and the Gardiners tour Pemberley 446
Mr. Bennet goes to London 500, 520
Jane writes second letter to Elizabeth 498
Wednesday Darcy and his sister visit Elizabeth 474
Mr. Bennet writes home 520
Thursday Elizabeth and the Gardiners visit Pemberley again They decided to go the previous evening (p. 484). 486
Friday Jane's letters arrive 496
Elizabeth and the Gardiners leave Lambton 510
Saturday Elizabeth and the Gardiners arrive at Longbourn 518
Darcy leaves Pemberley for London This latter event, like several others listed below, has a later page number because it is narrated in retrospect in a letter of Mrs. Gardiner (pp. 582-590). 582
Sunday Mr. Gardiner leaves for London 534, 536
Tuesday A letter from Mr. Gardiner arrives 536
Wednesday or Thursday A letter from Mr. Collins arrives This letter cannot be precisely dated, but it seems to arrive between Mr. Gardiner's two letters. 538
Darcy locates Wickham and Lydia Described as two or three days after he arrived in London, which was probably on Monday since it usually required at least two days then to travel from Derbyshire to London. 584
Friday Another letter arrives from Mr. Gardiner 540
Darcy first stops by the Gardiners' house 586
Saturday Mr. Bennet returns home 542
Darcy calls and this time sees Mr. Gardiner 586
Sunday Darcy calls again and sees both Gardiners 586
Monday, Mid- Mr. Gardiner's express to the Bennets 546
August Second Half of August Lydia moves in with the Gardiners Two weeks
of preparations for the wedding Lydia was at the Gardiners two weeks (p. 576). 550, 588
Monday, End of August Lydia and Wickham marry, come to Longbourn This must be just before Sept. 1, for Lydia speaks of that day as upcoming (p. 576), while Sept. 6 comes soon after this (see below); it is also exactly two weeks after Mr. Gardiner's express. 570
Tuesday Darcy dines with the Gardiners 590
Wed. or Thur. Darcy leaves London 590
Fri.-Mon. Lydia reveals Darcy's secret 578
Elizabeth writes to Mrs. Gardiner First event said to occur “soon after” Lydia's arrival, but it cannot be very soon, for Elizabeth's letter isprobably written the same day, and it quickly leads to Mrs. Gardiner's writing back on Sept. 6 (at least a week after the wedding). 578
Sun.-Tues., Sept. 6. Mrs. Gardiner replies to Elizabeth See essay below for uncertainty of the calendar. 582
Mon.-Wed. Elizabeth receives letter 582
Wed.-Fri. Lydia and Wickham depart Said to be “soon” after he and Elizabeth talk, which was the same day as the letter (p. 592). 598
Mid-Sept. Mrs. Bennet hears of Bingley's return Said to happen “shortly” after Lydia has gone, and to be “a day or two” before next event. 600
Wed. or Thur., Mid-Sept. Bingley arrives at Netherfield The day is given on p. 600; it would be approximately a week after the departure of Lydia and Wickham. 604
Sat. or Sun. Bingley and Darcy call on the Bennets This is three days after Bingley's arrival. 604
Tuesday Bingley and Darcy dine at Longbourn 616
Wed. or Thur. Darcy's confession to Bingley Described as occurring the day before Darcy's departure (see next note). 674
Thur. or Fri. Darcy leaves; Bingley sees the Bennets Said to be “a few days” after the dinner at Longbourn; two or three days seems most likely. 624
Fri. or Sat. Bingley comes again, and stays all day The day after above, and day before below. 624
Sat. or Sun. Bingley returns, proposes to Jane By this point it would be late September. 628
Neither exact calendar dates nor days of the week can be supplied for the final sequence of events, but the events generally can be placed in definite order. They would happen during the beginning of October (for Day Three falls “about a week after Bingley's engagement with Jane”—p. 638), with the first day or two possibly falling in September.
Day One Lady Catherine hears a rumor that Elizabeth is engaged to Darcy Lady Catherine says this occurred two days before her visit (p. 642). 642
Day Two Mr. Collins writes to warn Mr. Bennet Mr. Collins says that he told Lady Catherine of the rumor “last night.” 660
Day Three Lady Catherine's visit to Elizabeth 638
Day Four Mr. Collins's letter arrives, and is read to Elizabeth by Mr. Bennet 656, 658
Day Six or Seven Darcy visits and proposes to Elizabeth This is said to take place “before many days had passed after Lady Catherine's visit.” Three or four days later seems the most likely period. 664, 666
Day Seven or Eight Darcy and Elizabeth walk again The Bennets are told of the engagement 682, 684
Day Eight or Nine Darcy dines at the Bennets 690
Day Eleven or Elizabeth and Darcy talk further 692
Twelve Elizabeth writes to Mrs. Gardiner Elizabeth has delayed “three days” to tell Mrs. Gardiner of the engagement. 696
Later in the Year Double wedding of Elizabeth and Darcy, and Jane and Bingley Elizabeth, in her letter to Mrs. Gardiner, speaks of their coming to Pemberley at Christmas, so the wedding would presumably be before then. 702
One Year Later Bingley and Jane leave Netherfield, and find a home not far from Pemberley. 702
The issue of Pride and Prejudice's chronology has sparked differing interpretations, for the dates provided in the novel are not all compatible. The novel mentions three specific dates along with their days: Monday, Nov. 18, Tuesday, Nov. 26, and Monday, Aug. 2 (of the following year). The first two days are compatible; furthermore, since 1811 would have contained both days, and Jane Austen composed the final version of the novel in 1811 and 1812, many have supposed that she followed the calendars for those years when preparing the manuscript. Unfortunately, 1812 did not contain a Monday, August 2, nor would any year that succeeded a year containing a Monday, November 18 and Tuesday, November 26. This has left anyone wishing to date the novel with a dilemma.
The solution adopted by R. W. Chapman in his notes to The Oxford Illustrated Jane Austen, the leading scholarly edition of the novels and the one whose chronology is frequently followed here, is to argue that the novel is nonetheless set in 1811-1812. His argument is founded on the correct assertion that Monday, Aug. 2—the date put on the express letter by Mr. Gardiner informing the Bennets of Lydia's engagement—is a mistake; in fact, the letter must have been written approximately two weeks later (see p. 549, note 10). Chapman postulates that Jane Austen confused the date of Mr. Gardiner's letter with the date of the express sent to the Bennets telling them of Lydia's running away, which was on Sunday, Aug. 2 if the novel was aligned with the 1812 calendar.
Chapman's theory, however, suffers from a fatal flaw. One other specific day mentioned in the novel is Easter (p. 316), which occurs at the midpoint of Elizabeth's six-week visit to the Collinses (see above and p. 310). In 1812 Easter fell early, on March 29. This would make Elizabeth's visit last from early March until late April. But when Elizabeth returns home, after she has stayed with the Gardiners in London for “a few days,” it is said to be “the second week of May,” i.e., sometime between May 8 and May 14 (see above and pp. 400 and 402). That would not have been possible if Elizabeth had left in late April. Chapman notices this problem but tries to resolve it by arguing that Jane Austen must have been mistaken in describing the visit to the Gar-diners as lasting a few days. Instead he proposes that the visit lasted approximately three weeks (he does not propose that the statement that Elizabeth returned in the second week of May was mistaken, for a much earlier return would be incompatible with the description of later events).
This attempted solution, in addition to supposing that the normally scrupulous Jane Austen would make such a flagrant error in describing the length of the visit to the Gardiners, runs into other serious problems. The most glaring is that a week before Elizabeth leaves the Collinses Lady Catherine talks of traveling to London herself a month after their departure, and says that will be in early June (p. 390)—such a statement would not make sense if Elizabeth were leaving in late April. In addition, a visit of only a few days to the Gardiners is more logical, for a number of reasons. First, as Chapman himself acknowledges, it is only after Elizabeth has stayed with the Gardiners and returned home that she tells Jane of Darcy's proposal—this subject is described as a secret that “had weighed on her for a fortnight” (pp. 416 and 418). But since Darcy's proposal occurred almost two weeks before Elizabeth left the Collinses, it could not still be a fortnight unless she had stopped for only a brief time at the Gardiners; it is also hard to imagine Elizabeth keeping such important news from Jane over the course of a three-week stay at the Gardiners. Second, Elizabeth is said to have little opportunity to talk to Jane during the visit because of the various engagements Mrs. Gardiner has arranged for them, something far more plausible for a short visit than a long one. Third, it would not really make sense for Jane, who has been staying with the Gardiners for four months, and Elizabeth, who will see them again for an extended vacation in the summer, to remain with the Gardiners for such a long time. It would make even less sense for Maria Lucas—who has no connection with the Gardiners and seems to be close to neither Jane nor Elizabeth—to continue accompanying Elizabeth as she does, rather than returning to her nearby family in Hertfordshire, if Elizabeth were stopping in London for three weeks.
This leaves two possibilities. The first is that Jane Austen did not use calendars at all, or at least not any from a specific pair of years. She could have used an 1811 calendar for the action in the first part of the novel, the part with the most precis
e sequence of events, and then not bothered with a calendar for the remainder of the action. Or she could have dispensed with calendars altogether: having arbitrarily chosen November 18 as the date of Mr. Collins's Monday arrival at the Bennets, she could easily have calculated the need to make Tuesday of the next week November 26, and she could have then plotted the remaining sequence of days from the first part of the novel without any reference to calendar dates. In either case, she could have planned the rest of the novel with a purely imaginary year in mind, one in which Easter fell in the middle of April, as it often does. As for the remaining exact date of Monday, August 2, since it is certainly wrong it is impossible to know how it was derived.
Supporters of the idea that Jane Austen used specific calendars in this novel have pointed to some evidence that she used one in Mansfield Park, but even for that novel the evidence is not certain, and the other novels do not provide any clear indication of the use of a calendar. In fact, in the case of Persuasion, in which the action is stated to occur in 1814-15, the one exact day indicated—Monday, February 1—is wrong by the calendar.
The second possibility is that Pride and Prejudice, which does involve a more precise sequence of days than in her other novels, is based on the 1811 and 1812 calendars, but that at the time Jane Austen was writing the passages set in the spring, she did not check the date of Easter and see that it was at the end of March. A similar error occurs in Mansfield Park, if in fact it was composed with reference to exact calendars. The one exact date in that novel is Thursday, December 22; it also refers, for the following spring, to a “particularly late” Easter; but any year close to the time Jane Austen was writing Mansfield Park that included a Thursday, December 22 was followed by a year in which Easter was early.
As for the possibility that she could have envisaged another specific pair of years besides 1811-12, a possibility suggested by Jane Austen's having composed an initial version of Pride and Prejudice many years earlier, that is excluded by the days and dates related to Lydia's wedding. As mentioned above, the wedding must have occurred on one of the last days of August; the wedding is also specified as happening on Monday. But a year in which November 26 is a Tuesday is followed by a year in which the last Monday in August is the 25th, unless the second year is a leap year. In that case the last Monday is August 31; this of course would work for the novel, but during Jane Austen's lifetime there were no leap years following a year with a Tuesday, November 26, except for the already discussed 1812.
