Talk:Without Dogma

time
previous edit claimed the plot starts 1883 (no references). Though the novel contains no hints as to exact timing, it is clear the plot could not have been set in 1883. This is because: 1) the novel started to appear in serialised format in the Warsaw newspaper Słowo in December 1889, and its least parts were published in October 1890; 2) on year prior to completing a school (probably a college, so he must have been in his teens) in Metz the protagonist, Leon, volunteered to troops of Don Carlos and for 2 months he shuttled across the Pyrenees "with the unit of Tristan"; 3) the novel starts when Leon is 35; 4) Leon commits suicide the following year.

All 4 points can hardly be combined so that it all makes sense. The only option I see as acceptable is that Leon was born in 1854, he volunteered to the Carlists in 1873 (at the age of 19), the plot starts in 1889 (when he is 35) and it ends in 1890. The logic is still somewhat bent here, as in the 1870s the 19-year-olds were supposed to be at a university, not at a college. However, if we assume that he had been born later (say, 1857) and he had volunteered in 1873 at the age of 16, then the plot would have started in 1892, this is 3 years after the novel went to print. rgds, --89.64.67.136 (talk) 19:14, 27 January 2021 (UTC)