Notes:Timelines/Books

The Anne of Green Gables series by L. M. Montgomery has several clues as to when it takes place, though explicit clues and dates are absent. The most prominent clue of all is the obvious fact that Rilla of Ingleside takes place during World War I, and putting the clues together will produce a fairly accurate estimate of when things took place. The series was never meant to be set in a particular year or day, as Anne of Green Gables was written well before World War I, and Rilla of Ingleside was written only three years after World War I. L. M. Montgomery likely described life in the Anne of Green Gables books similar to what she was experiencing or had just experienced. However, the dating clues as deduced from the numerous clues in the books are below.

Dating clues
Rilla of Ingleside begins in June 1914. It is a day after Archduke Ferdinand is assassinated, which makes it 29th June. Rilla says that she will be fifteen next month (July 1914) so she was born in July 1899. Jem is aged 21. .

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

In Anne's House of Dreams, it is June when 'Leslie returns home'. Jem is born in the following chapter, though a date is not given. It is just possible that Jem's birthday falls in June, though some time in the following few months seems more likely. If his birthday is in June, he would be just 21 at the beginning of Rilla of Ingleside; if it is later on, he would be 22 later that same year. We can assume that his birthday is later in the year, so that the year in which he was born would be 1914 - 22 = 1892.

Working backwards, this means that Joyce was born in 1891, Anne and Gilbert therefore married in 1890. Their engagement must have begun three years before that, in 1887, and their course at Redmond would have started four years previously, in 1883. The two years Anne spent teaching at Avonlea would have begun in August 1881, and this is the point at which Anne of Avonlea begins, at which point Anne is said to be 'half-past sixteen'. Anne's birthday is in March, which means that she was born in 1881 - 16 = 1865.

At the beginning of Anne of Ingleside, it is 'nine years since Anne went away [from Green Gables]'. It is therefore presumably 1899 (the description of the woods in chapter two suggests late spring or summer). At this stage, Jem is seven years old, and Shirley is two. Rilla is just about to be born. This must be early July 1899, because in June 1914 Rilla says 'next month I'll be fifteen', and by the end of August 1899 Anne had recovered from Rilla's birth. Shirley must have been born between two and three years before this, in late 1896 or early 1897. Walter is six years old, so he was born in late 1892 or early 1893. But Jem was born in late summer or autumn 1892, so Walter must have been born in spring or early summer 1893.

Notes and references
[[Category:Study notes}}