Setting

Physical setting

Mark Haddon’s novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is set in the late 1990s, around the same time as the novel was written. This is suggested by Christopher’s references to watching the TV series Blue Planet on video (p. 100) and playing the game Minesweeper on his computer (p. 27). Christopher sometimes makes specific references to the time of day, but not to the date or year. For example, the novel opens: “It was 7 minutes after midnight.” (p. 1). This is perhaps because Christopher likes to have a timetable to organize his day: “I like timetables because they make sure you don’t get lost in time.” (p. 195)

The novel is primarily set in Swindon, a town in England. Swindon is not a well-off town and Christopher’s father in particular doesn’t like it much: “He sometimes says things like, ‘We’ve got to get out of this town, ...