First Impressions
Posted by Ann on October 15, 1997 at 19:29:24:
In response to Chapman chronology, written by Tilde on October 15, 1997 at 03:57:35
] "Tuesday November 26" also happened in 1805, in 1799 and in 1793, so why place it in 1811 ?
] Did she update the dates when she revised the manuscript ?
] What else did she update ?
Because no one has ever seen First Impressions in about 200 years, no one knows what was in it. I have heard one theory that it was a novel in letters like Lady Susan. I believe that most think that it was heavily revised, but then again, it is impossible to know.
As for the dates, this is what Chapman says about it not being the years you list, it is a bit complicated, and turns on the story taking place in a leap year:
Now Lydia and Wickham came to Longbourn on their wedding-day, which was a Monday, and were to stay 'not above ten days'. 'Soon after their arrival'--say on Wednesday or Thursday--Lydia let out the secret of Darcy's presence at the wedding. Elizabeth at once wrote to her aunt for enlightenment, and the answer, which she received 'as soon as she possibly could', is dated Sept. 6. The wedding day, therefore, should be some six days before 6 September....In a year, following a year in which 18 November is a Monday, 6 September is Saturday in an ordinary year and Sunday in a leap year; the preceding Monday is 1 September in an ordinary year, 31 August in a leap year. But the wedding day cannot have been 1 September, or Lydia could not, on the evening of that day, be sure that Wickham would 'kill more birds on the first of September, than anybody else in the country'. It follows that the wedding was Monday, 31 August, in a leap year. It follows also that the almanacs used by Miss Austen were those of 1811 and 1812. For though 18 November was a Monday in 1799 and again in 1805, 1800 and 1806 were not leap years.
Now I would also think that it would be datable using Easter as well, since that occurs at different times each year, but I don't know about that.
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