Benjamin January Timeline

[brigdh]

Here's a timeline of ages, dates, and other such information that I put together from the Ben January books. I'm posting in case other people might find it helpful as well. This is very much not comprehensive– I mostly put it together while procrastinating on writing fic– and focuses particularly on Ben, Rose, and Hannibal, with other characters sort of getting ignored. Whoops. Some of it contradicts itself but, eh, what can you do. Information in paragraphs was not directly stated in the book, but follows logically from what was.


A Free Man of Color
1833 Feb - Spring
Ben: 40
Ben left NO in 1817. Met Ayasha in 1824, she was 18 at the time. St Denis Janvier died in 1822. Ben was 9 when freed.

Fever Season
September '33-April '34
In Sept, Ben is "near" his 41st birthday. He left NO in 1817, he was 24 at the time. St Denis Janvier died in 1822. Ben was 8 when freed and Olympe 6.
Rose and Hannibal have known each other for 10 months. Rose's school has been going for a year. She left home at 20.
Madame Lalaurie's house discovered April 10, 1834.

Graveyard Dust
June '34
Ben: 41

Sold Down the River
November 1834
Ben: 42 "as of three weeks ago". Was born in 1793. (Between this and Fever Season, Ben's birthday must be in October.) Januarys were freed in 1801. Ben was 7. He only stayed in Paris for two weeks after Ayasha's death.
Rose: 28

Die Upon A Kiss
Feb 1835
Ben: 42
Ayasha died on August 15, 1832.

Wet Grave
Summer 1835
Ben: 42. Spent first 6 years in France as student and doctor. St-Denis Janvier died in 1822. Ben was married to Ayasha for ten years (note: this doesn't match the dates given in aFMoC).
Ben and Rose's wedding day: Sept 26

Days of the Dead
Sept-Nov 1835
Ben: 42. Came back to NO in 1832, had left in 1817.
Hannibal is "a few years" older than Ben. He was 12 at the Peace of Amiens (1803, so he would be 44).

Dead Water
June (1836)
Ben: 43

Dead and Buried
October 1836
Hannibal left Paris at 30, it's been 17 years since. (This would mean he pretended to kill himself in 1819, and is currently 47. Also his and Ben's time in Paris overlaps by two years, 1817-19.)*

The Shirt on His Back
March - Oct 1837
Ben: 43
Shaw came to NO in 1829.

Ran Away
Dec 1837
Ben arrived in France in 1817, when he was 22. He returned from France in '33, and had been there 16 years. He was 7 when freed.

Good Man Friday
Jan - March 1838
Minou was born in 1811. Ben was 16 at the time. He visited London in 1822.
A woman is "a year or two younger than Rose – twenty-five or -six". (Making Rose 27 or 28.)**
Ben was "not quite eight" when freed.


*The math on this doesn't match his age from Days of the Dead, so someone is lying or mistaken or rounding the numbers.
**Rose apparently doesn't age. She may be a vampire.

Comments

[somebraveapollo.livejournal.com]

His wife? A vampire. His boyfriend? A consumptive Celtic elf. <3

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha. I want this AU.

[somebraveapollo.livejournal.com]

Livia is 'nearing sixty' in Graveyard Dust, and she's sixty-four in Sold Down the River, and sixty-three in Dead and Buried. Livia is either a Time Lady, or she's very good at keeping indelicate information muddled.

Olympe was six when Ben was eight.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I totally believe Livia has both those skills.

[somebraveapollo.livejournal.com]

I knowwwww, she is obviously one of those morally dubious superheroes whose families don't know about it. And every time she gives Ben financial advice, it is actually a use of her Time Lady skills - she sees Ben losing all the money - but he never listens and this vexes her.

(Livia trivia of the day: she actually had this whole plan for Ben and Rose to make a school for white boys and hire Hannibal. I just, hee, WHY WOULD THEY HIRE HANNIBAL, he is not exactly respectable-school material. I guess she was thinking she might as well save his financial future while she's at it)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

OMG I love this idea!

(She knew Hannibal was going to get on the wagon and become... well, still not respectable, no, but at least not a danger-to-schoolchildren.)

[somebraveapollo.livejournal.com]

i... am the worst and have a sudden craving for Livia (and Minou, for counterbalance) giving Hannibal a social makeover now that he's sober. Then Rose arrives with the cavalry and stops them from cutting his hair!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

YES. Holding up different colored dresses against him to decide what waistcoat he needs (this part he does not mind so much), trying to convince not to mention Kentucky Williams and Kate the Gouger quite so often, and then stealing his hair ribbons...

Rose will have to think of some better reason not to cut his hair than "it's sexy", of course. Though maybe Minou suspects.

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

OMG YAY THANK YOU THANK YOU THIS IS REALLY USEFUL (even if it means I will have to fudge dates for things. Whatever.)

Re: Hannibal's age, the Peace of Amiens was signed in March 1802, so that would have Hannibal be born in 1790 or 1789 and if he's thirty in 1819, that works. Unless that refers to when the peace ended, which was in 1803.

Someone should write the vampire!Rose fic.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

The exact line is: "he'd once told January he remembered, at the age of twelve, everyone talking about the Peace of Amiens and the hope that Napoleon would be content with the Consulship of France." So you're probably right, he was referring more to the signing. (I know nothing about 'the Peace of Amiens' and came up with 1803 after a brief google.)

Yesssssss.

[lavode.livejournal.com]

Then she could hang out with Lydia Asher from Hambly's vampire books! That would be amazing.

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

I have to confess that I haven't read anything of Hambly's outside of the January books, but that does sound amazing.