regshoe

First posted on Tumblr, but I think this is a better place to keep it!

Part 2 ; Part 3

This is a complete chronology of the Raffles stories. All of the dates are at least reasonable extrapolations from clues present in the stories, but many of the dates can't be fixed exactly, and there is a degree of subjective judgement involved, especially in resolving the definite contradictions in canon. Parts 2 and 3 explain how I worked it all out.

Feel free to point out any mistakes or argue over my interpretations!

Thanks to The Annotated A.J. Raffles and Crossroads of the Curious—the only other chronologies I'm aware of—for providing corroboration, and to Raffles Redux for the publication dates of the stories.

THE TIMELINE

Before canon

1863: Birth of Raffles

Early 1867: Birth of Bunny

1880: Bunny goes to public school and meets Raffles

1881: Raffles leaves school and goes to university (canon disagrees with itself about whether Oxford or Cambridge!)

December, 1882: Events related in ‘Le Premier Pas’

1888: Bunny comes into his inheritance and begins squandering it

First Innings

Sunday, 15 March, 1891: ‘The Ides of March’

Mid to late April, 1891: ‘A Costume Piece’

May, 1891, beginning Wednesday, 27 May: ‘Out of Paradise’ and the events related in ‘The Last Word’

Monday, 13 July to Saturday, 15 August, 1891: ‘Gentlemen and Players’

Overnight on Saturday, 15 to Sunday, 16 August, 1891: Framing story of ‘Le Premier Pas’

Mid-October, 1891: ‘Wilful Murder’

September, 1892: ‘Nine Points of the Law’

November, 1892: ‘The Return Match’

February, 1893: ‘The Criminologists’ Club’

End of March, 1893: ‘The Chest of Silver’

July, 1893: ‘Mr Justice Raffles’

Late August to September, 1893: ‘The Rest Cure’

June to early July, 1894, ending on or around Monday, 2 July: ‘The Field of Philippi’

Overnight on Thursday, 19 to Friday, 20 July, 1894: ‘A Bad Night’

Late March, 1895: ‘A Trap to Catch a Cracksman’

April, 1895: ‘The Spoils of Sacrilege’; Bunny renounces his life of crime and goes to live at Thames Ditton

Sunday, 16 June to Tuesday, 9 July, 1895: ‘The Gift of the Emperor’

Interval

July to August, 1895: Raffles on Elba

August, 1895: Bunny tried and sentenced for his crimes, begins serving his sentence in Wormwood Scrubs

August, 1895 to March, 1896: Raffles living and working on the vineyard at Baiae; events related in ‘The Fate of Faustina’

April, 1896 to March, 1897: Raffles in Genoa

Late February, 1897: Bunny released from prison

March, 1897: Raffles takes on the guise of Mr Maturin and sails for England

Second Innings

Tuesday, 11 May, 1897: ‘No Sinecure’

June, 1897, ending on Saturday, 19 June: ‘A Jubilee Present’

August, 1897: Framing story of ‘The Fate of Faustina’

September, 1897: ‘The Last Laugh’; ‘To Catch a Thief’

Late September to early November, 1897: ‘An Old Flame’

November, 1897 to March, 1898, main events in March: ‘The Wrong House’

June to November, 1898: Bunny publishes the stories making up ‘The Amateur Cracksman’; the book follows in 1899

December, 1899: ‘The Raffles Relics’

October, 1899 to April, 1900: ‘The Knees of the Gods’

After canon

May, 1900: Bunny returns to England

Thursday, 28 June, 1900: Bunny unexpectedly meets his ex-fiancee; she later writes, and Bunny receives, the letter that makes up most of ‘The Last Word’

January to September, 1901: Bunny publishes the stories making up ‘The Black Mask’, with the book following shortly afterwards

December, 1904 to September, 1905: Bunny publishes the stories making up ‘A Thief in the Night’, with the book following shortly afterwards

Summer, 1907: Final chapter of ‘Mr Justice Raffles’, in which Bunny and Teddy Garland meet again

1909: Bunny publishes ‘Mr Justice Raffles’