Geographic locations in A Series of Unfortunate Events
Encyclopedia
This is a list of fictional locations that appear in the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events
, by Lemony Snicket
.
, The Hostile Hospital
, and The Carnivorous Carnival. They are famous for their magnificent blue sunsets. The Baudelaires mention that they had always wanted to see the Hinterlands and were promised by their parents that they would visit one day. The Hinterlands are also home to the Caligari Carnival, which is the only attraction in the area. The Caligari Carnival is at the end of Rarely Ridden Road.
. The range is first mentioned in The Ersatz Elevator
, when Jerome Squalor refers to Mount Fraught, the largest mountain in the range.
The Valley of the Four Drafts, in which the Snow Scouts gather, is in the Mortmain Mountains. The range is also the location of the penultimate safe place for V.F.D.
members, the only other being the Hotel Denouement. When The Man With a Beard but No Hair and the Woman With Hair but No Beard started a fire at the penultimate safe place for the members of the V.F.D., the sugar bowl was tossed out a window down the Stricken Stream, which arises on Mount Fraught and flows to the sea.
The mountain range is home to Snow Gnats and V.F.D. Lions.
The range is very difficult to climb, since it consists of sheer drops and plateau
x arranged in a staircase. The range is very cold during winter and false spring, with blizzards and ice further hindering climbing. The Snow Scouts are headed by Bruce and they include many important people including formerly Quigley Quagmire, Carmelita Spats, and possibly the children of C.M. Kornbluth and the Duchess of Winnipeg.
(See also List of VFDs.)
. The grotto is located below Anwhistle Aquatics, to which it is linked by vertical tunnels.
The name Gorgonian is an apparent reference to gorgon
s, deadly creatures of Greek mythology. This refers to the presence of the deadly Medusoid Mycelium in the grotto. Medusa
was a Gorgon.
The Baudelaire children, accompanied by Fiona, visit the grotto because they believe that the sugar bowl
may have been carried into it via its underwater entrance, after having been thrown into the Stricken Stream. They do not find the sugar bowl, but they do find several items washed up on a beach in the grotto which later become useful. While visiting the grotto, Sunny Baudelaire
becomes infected by the Medusoid Mycelium.
al beach
where The Bad Beginning
begins.
The beach's name is a literary allusion
to Lewis Carroll
's famous poem The Walrus and the Carpenter
of which a verse goes as follows:
In the first novel, The Bad Beginning
, Briny Beach is where the Baudelaire children, Violet
, Klaus
, and Sunny
, learn from Mr. Poe
that their parents have died in a fire which destroyed their home. From then on, the series occasionally mentions the beach when referring to the orphans' ongoing misery and woe. In The Grim Grotto
(the eleventh novel), the beach is where the Baudelaires meet Kit Snicket for the first time when she picks them up to take them to Hotel Denouement, leaving behind Mr. Poe, who had come to take the children to the police. This visit, the Baudelaires' second in the series, is alluded to in the "Author's Notes" section of the Rare Edition of The Bad Beginning. These notes also allude to Violet
returning to Briny Beach alone for a third time. This, however, does not occur within the series.
takes place is sometimes called "Olaf Land" because that was the only name given to it (although only used by Count Olaf
) as the correct name is unknown. (It is mentioned in The Bad Beginning
, but not by name.)
All things are supposed to return to its shores, including Esmé's fire dress from the Slippery Slope. The true name of the island is unknown. Count Olaf informally names it "Olaf Land" after seeing it for the first time. Believing that the inhabitants are primitive, he thinks they will accept him as king. None of the island's other inhabitants refer to the island as "Olaf Land", and Olaf is actually banished to the coastal shelf by Friday when he attempts to establish himself as king. Ishmael is the island's facilitator but he keeps the secret of V.F.D. from the other islanders. When Bertrand and Beatrice Baudelaire
were the leaders of the island, they attempted to create a utopian society there. It is the final resting place of Kit Snicket and Count Olaf
.
It is also mentioned in The Bad Beginning: Rare Edition
that the island used to have a rule that forbade people from removing its fruit. This may also be a Biblical reference to Adam and Eve
.
It is apparent that Lemony Snicket
visited this island on a boat, possibly the Prospero, to gather information about the Baudelaire orphans, as the letter to his editor at the back of The Penultimate Peril
is a napkin marked with a picture of a boat.
is a landform onto which the Baudelaires and Count Olaf are deposited after they have survived a violent storm. The shelf is littered with junk. The Baudelaires are discovered by a six or seven year old girl named Friday, who takes them to a colony of castaways on a nearby island, leaving Olaf because she thinks he's rude.
After every storm, the islanders search the shelf for wreckage that might be useful. It is said that everything eventually ends up on the island's shores.
). One of the notable points of the lake is the leeches that inhabit its waters. If anyone goes into Lake Lachrymose within an hour after eating, the Lachrymose Leeches will smell the food and devour them. This is how Ike and likely Josephine Anwhistle meet their end. There are various features around the lake, including Curdled Cave (which is for sale), a cliff which formerly held Josephine Anwhistle's house, beaches, and the Town of Lake Lachrymose.
The resort town is bustling during good weather, but in the bad weather, things are dead. The Anxious Clown restaurant is of particular note, which supposedly has a V.F.D.
member disguised as a waiter saying, "I didn't realize this was a sad occasion." The food is horrible. Some meals include the Extra Fun Family Appetizer (a bunch of things served up together and fried with a sauce), the Surprising Chicken Salad, and Cheer-up Cheeseburgers. Known customers include Mr. Poe and his sister, Eleanora (in The Unauthorized Autobiography), the Baudelaire orphans, Count Olaf
(under the disguise of Captain Sham), Jacques Snicket (possibly), and Lemony Snicket
, when he had to collect a secret message.
Another important place is Damocles
Dock, where the Fickle Ferry docks. Captain Sham's Sailboat Rentals is located here. Other places are the Lavender Lighthouse
, marking Curdled Cave
's location, a clothing
store called Look! It Fits!, the Rancorous Rocks, and the Wicked Whirlpool
, the last 3 of which are simply things mentioned, and don't have any importance to the story.
It is known that Captain Widdershins patrolled Lake Lachrymose in his submarine, the Queequeg.
Notably, the word "lachrymose" means "tearful", "piteous", or "mournful". It stems from the Latin word "Lacrimosa". This is significant on at least two levels – firstly, it fits with the series' theme of misery, and secondly (perhaps more importantly), Lacrimosa
is a movement of Mozart's
Requiem in D Minor
, famously known as the last piece of music he ever penned. Mozart's music is employed by the V.F.D.
as a form of code.
, disguised as Captain Sham, forced her to hand over the Baudelaires to him. The Baudelaires go to rescue her, and in order to get her out of the cave Klaus
tells her that the cave is for sale. As she is afraid of realtors, she reluctantly agrees to go. It is believed that this could have once been a "safe place", as Kit reveals in The Penultimate Peril that there was a cave used as a safe place until vicious realtors claimed it as their own. This could also be the cause of Aunt Josephine's fear of realtors.
. It is probably the source of wood for the Lucky Smells Lumbermill. Its trees are described as "very tall and had practically no branches, so they looked almost like metal pipes instead of trees" It should be noted that the word, "Finite," means limited, and it is said by Charles in The Penultimate Peril that the Finite Forest is running low on trees..
. The Baudelaires pass through the city in The Penultimate Peril
when traveling to the Hotel Denouement.
Devotees) is the town where the Baudelaires go to live with Hector. They believe that it is related to the mysterious V.F.D.
they are searching for, but in fact there is no connection except for the V.F.D. Carrier Crows. The entire village looks after the Baudelaires as they believe in the aphorism "It takes a village to raise a child."
". Paltryville is surrounded by the dark and gloomy Finite Forest. It is not listed in any guidebook because of its very low population, yet is capable of sustaining an optician's practice. It consists of Patryville Station, Lucky Smells Lumbermill, Dr. Orwell's Optician, and a few shops without windows.
. A marine research and rhetorical advice center, (mentioned in The Wide Window
), it was moderated by Gregor Anwhistle, ichthyologist
and Josephine Anwhistle's brother in law. An article from the Daily Punctilio states that Anwhistle Aquatics was burned down by Fernald
, although Snicket discloses to the reader that Captain Widdershins also participated in the center's destruction.
One of Anwhistle Aquatics's roles was to investigate the Medusoid Mycelium. However, when it was burnt down, the Gorgonian Grotto was filled with the deadly fungus that was left behind. It also trained salmon under the Voluntary Fish Domestication program, until the entire fleet was seized by Café Salmonella.
It is implied that the sugar bowl
once found its way to Anwhistle Aquatics, but had been removed by the time the Baudelaires reached the Gorgonian Grotto.
, the Baudelaires, Mr. Poe
, and Count Olaf
(disguised as Captain Sham) eat there. Their waiter, Larry, says, "I didn't realize this was a sad occasion", a V.F.D.
code.
Known customers include Mr. Poe, his sister, Eleanora, the Baudelaire children, and Count Olaf
, and Jacques Snicket.
The menu includes the Extra Fun Family Appetizer (a bunch of things fried together and served with a sauce), Surprising Chicken Salad
, and Cheer-up Cheeseburger
s (cheeseburgers with the ingredients made into a smiling face).
According to Jacques Snicket in a letter to Lemony in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
, the food there is dreadful.
-themed seafood
restaurant mentioned throughout A Series of Unfortunate Events
.
It first appeared in The Ersatz Elevator
when Jerome Squalor (encouraged by his wife Esmé Squalor
) took Violet
, Klaus
, and Sunny Baudelaire
there. According to Esmé, it is a very "in", or fashionable, restaurant. The café is located in the fish district. All waiters wear the waiter costumes described in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
, using the salmon variety. The interior is completely decorated with salmon. There are also salmon in the flower vases instead of flowers.
All the food served contains salmon, with dishes such as salmon Ice Cream
, salmon Pie
, and salmon Ravioli
. Instead of using ice to keep drinks cool, the restaurant uses frozen chunks of salmon.
It is mentioned that the Café Salmonella captured the V.F.D salmon, which were trained to find forest fires.
. It is the primary setting of The Carnivorous Carnival, the ninth novel in the series.
The carnival is owned and run by Madame Lulu, a colleague of Count Olaf
's. Among the carnival's assets are a ticket booth, phone booth, several caravans and tents, and a worn down roller coaster
.
The carnival could be a reference to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
, a silent expressionist film that involves a freak show.
The carnival's prime attraction is the House of Freaks, featuring Hugo the hunchback, Colette the contortionist, and Kevin the ambidextrous person, all of whom believed wholeheartedly that they were unfit for the real world.
During the time of The Carnivorous Carnival, a lion
pit was added to the carnival. It is believed that the lions mentioned in The Slippery Slope, (Volunteer Feline Detectives), were captured by Olaf from the Mortmain Mountains and brought to Caligari Carnival. The Baudelaire orphans also disguise themselves as freaks to hide out there: Violet
and Klaus
as Beverly and Elliott the two-headed freak, and Sunny
as Chabo the wolf-baby.
The carnival is destroyed by Count Olaf and his troupe
, along with Esmé Squalor
, to hide the evidence of his having been there. According to The Grim Grotto
, the ashes and smoke from the fire are visible across The Hinterlands for days.
It is also mentioned by The Man With a Beard but No Hair and the Woman With Hair but No Beard, in The Slippery Slope
, that an important piece of evidence hidden inside a figurine has been sold at Caligari Carnival. Retrospective reading shows that the figurine seller in The Carnivorous Carnival is given unusual emphasis for a character who never appears, but there has been no further mention of this.
and Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
. While Lemony is writing down the Baudelaire children's stay at the Heimlich Hospital, he mentions that he was for some reason crouching down behind the altar of the Cathedral of the Alleged Virgin, while a friend of his is playing a sonata on the pipe organ to drown out the sounds of his typewriter to not let it be heard by the worshippers sitting in the pews. The mournful melody of the sonata reminds Lemony of a tune his father used to sing while he cleaned the dishes, and refers to the expression that "music has charms to sooth a savage beast". In Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
, on the map of the city, it shows the Cathedral the of Alleged Virgin, north-west of Uncle Monty's house, and farther north-west of the Hazy Harbor. It is located on Lousy Lane.
, a series of novels by Daniel Handler
under the pen name Lemony Snicket
. It is notoriously inaccurate, frequently getting names wrong and printing stories that bear no resemblance to the truth.
The Daily Punctilio is first mentioned in The Vile Village
. From the end of that book, the newspaper's stories follow the Baudelaire orphans everywhere for the remainder of the series. The Baudelaires are forced to go on the run after the Punctilio runs a story saying they (mistakenly referred to as "Veronica, Klyde, and Susie Baudelaire") murdered "Count Olaf" (Jacques Snicket; mistakenly referred to as "Count Omar").
According to The Unauthorized Autobiography, The Daily Punctilio, as well as serving a primary source of news in the series, provides sections of a particular interest such as the Financial Times, which is the only section that Mr. Poe reads, as well as the Music Section, which is what Vice Principal Nero reads, as well as hosting obituaries such as the fictional obituary of Lemony Snicket, despite the fact that he is not dead.
In Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography, there are portions of Lemony Snicket
's play reviews for the Daily Punctilio. He is fired by Eleanora Poe, chief editor and Mr. Poe's sister, after mocking the acting ability of Esmé Squalor
in a play by Al Funcoot (an anagram of Count Olaf
). He attempts to publish one last article, but is caught by Eleanora Poe. Also, from portions of the newspaper in The Unauthorized Autobiography, it is implied that Count Olaf
or one of his henchmen changed articles that included investigations by volunteers, at least one of which could have led back to Olaf himself.
Finally, the Daily Punctilio seems to have caused problems to V.F.D. that are not directly related to the Baudelaires; for example, Geraldine Julienne writes a series of articles called "Secret Organizations You Should Know About" that describes the organization. In The Unauthorized Autobiography, minutes from a V.F.D. meeting show the members discussing where to move as the location of their current headquarters are once again to be printed in the article. This is the only mentioned information that the Punctilio printed correctly. It is also revealed that a spy was in the midst of V.F.D., possibly Count Olaf
and Esme Squalor
(referred to as "O" and "E").
(In somewhat chronological order)
'Incident at Lucky Smells Lumbermill!
The majority of these contain codes, hints, or V.F.D.
-related things, and scraps of many of them can be found in The Unauthorized Autobiography
.
The Daily Punctilo's motto, "All the news in fits of print", is a parody of The New York Times motto, "All the news that's fit to print."
and titular location in The Hostile Hospital
, a novel of the series A Series of Unfortunate Events
by Lemony Snicket
.
The hospital is only half completed, one half being fully functional, and the other half being a wooden frame. One half of the lawn is well kept and green, the other half a large plot of dirt. One side has the word 'Heimlich' written across it in fancy gold, while the other has an old piece of a cardboard box with the word 'Hospital' written in ballpoint pen. The completed half is a beautiful white building with carved portraits of famous doctors above the windows. Parts of the hospital include an operating theater, a library of records, patient rooms, and supply closets. The supply closets contain a sink, alphabet soup, rubber bands, doctor's coats, surgical masks, and sometimes a window.
Known wards include the "Stubbed Toe
Ward", the "Sore Throat
Ward", the "Ear
Ward", the "Ward for People with Nasty Rash
es", the "Accidentally Swallowed Something You Shouldn't Have Ward", the "Plague Ward", and the "Surgical
Ward".
Every day, the Volunteers Fighting Disease sing to the patients in the hospital and give them heart-shaped balloons to cheer them up.
The name Heimlich is a reference to Henry Heimlich
, an American physician best known for the Heimlich Maneuver.
Heimlich Hospital is burned down by Count Olaf
in the The Hostile Hospital
.
series of novels, A Series of Unfortunate Events
. The hotel is the "last safe place" for the V.F.D.
. It is a large building organized in the same way as a library
, by the Dewey Decimal System. This is similar to the organization of the Library Hotel
. It is owned by identical triplet brothers, Frank, Ernest and Dewey Denouement, although Dewey remains in the shadows. The Hotel Denouement has exactly 10 floors, organized accordingly with the Dewey Decimal system, from the basement to the rooftop salon (not ranked numerically).
At the end of The Penultimate Peril, the Hotel Denouement is burned down by Sunny Baudelaire
to provide a signal to V.F.D. that the meeting planned for Thursday is canceled, as the last safe place is no longer safe. However, Lemony Snicket mentions that the real safe place was safe and never found by the enemy.
The words "HOTEL DENOUEMENT" and "ENTRANCE" on the front of the hotel, as well as the floor numbers, are all in mirror writing. There is a reason for this: the hotel is in front of a reflecting pond
, and what appears to be its reflection in the pond is in fact the real safe place, containing many V.F.D. secrets, including information on everyone ever involved or acquainted with the V.F.D. The pond also serves as a signal for the V.F.D, showing to Dewey and Frank that volunteers are on the way. The Hotel was made with wood from Lucky Smells Lumbermill.
in A Series of Unfortunate Events
. It is only mentioned in The Penultimate Peril
to be a place the Baudelaires stayed when their parents were still alive. Kit Snicket regards it, in the same book, to be "a lovely place". The Penultimate Peril states that it is still standing, along with a list of its amenities. It makes no appearance in the books and is not portrayed in the film
, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
.
and hypnotism before her death. The Miserable Mill
describes the building as a huge eye, being a mostly brown oval, which contains a white circle then containing a green circle, which in turn contains a round black door. It looks much like Count Olaf
's tattoo. In the book the illustration differs slightly from the description. The waiting room inside the office is small, containing a sofa, chairs, and magazines. Dr. Orwell's receptionist, Count Olaf, disguised as Shirley, has his desk in the waiting room.
The store sells fresh limes, canned meat, plastic knives, white envelopes, red wine, leather wallets, sleeping bags and much more. The floor is made of different types of tile, all for sale. The usefulness of such a General Store is undetermined.
The store appears in The Hostile Hospital
and in the movie Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
during the events of The Bad Beginning
. Count Olaf looks through magazines there as his plan to overrun the Baudelaires with a train fails.
located in Paltryville, and is the site of most of the action in The Miserable Mill
.
It is surrounded by a long wooden wall with one gate that has "Lucky Smells Lumbermill" stuck on it with gum. This sign is claimed to be the second most disgusting in the world, after a sign with the word 'BEWARE' spelt out with dead monkeys. In the mill, there is a dormitory, the mill itself, a storage shed, and a building where Sir and Charles work and live.
The workers at the mill aren't treated very well. They are forced to live in a windowless room (with the exception of the windows drawn on the walls with a ballpoint pen
) in uncomfortable bunk beds. The only meals are chewing gum
for lunch (which is only 5 minutes long), and disgusting casseroles for dinner. All workers are paid with expired coupons. However, this could change because near the end of the book Phil reads in The Paltryville Constitution that it is illegal to pay workers in coupons. But is never said if the workers were ever paid with money. In the thirteenth book, a place called Lucky Smells Melon Farm is mentioned. It is possible that the Lumbermill was once a melon farm.
There is a library at the mill, but it only consists of three books:
located in the banking district of the city. Mr. Poe, executor of the Baudelaire estate, is Vice President in charge of Orphan Affairs. A teacher from Prufrock Preparatory School, Mrs. Bass, robs
the bank prior to The Penultimate Peril
.
n school in The Austere Academy
.
Named after The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
by T. S. Eliot
, it contains a cafeteria, an administrative building, and a theater where Vice Principal Nero performs his dire violin concerts for six hours at a time. Its motto inscribed on the arch at the entrance to the school is "Memento Mori
" which means "Remember you will die". There is a dormitory that is shaped like a giant tombstone (from the Baudelaire's point of view) or a big toe
(from Mr. Poe's point of view) and made entirely of stone, in which students have to have a parent or guardian's permission to stay. Inside the dormitory, there is a living room, a game room, and a large lending library. All students have their own room and a fresh bowl of fruit every Wednesday. If parent or guardian's permission is not obtained, which the Baudelaires, the main characters of the series, cannot obtain because they are orphans, then pupils are forced to live in the Orphans' Shack.
The shack, called "The Orphans' Shack" since Duncan and Isadora Quagmire, two orphans, were forced to live there, is made entirely of tin. Bales of hay can be used as beds. Tiny crabs scurry around on the floor. The walls are all painted bright green with tiny pink hearts, and a fungus
drips from the ceiling.
The school has a number of bizarre and strict rules, irrationally similar to those of the orphans' previous guardians, thought up by Vice Principal Nero. If a pupil is late for class, their hands are tied behind their back for meals. Being late for a meal means having no cups to drink from (and drinks are poured straight onto the tray). Entering the administrative building is punished by not being allowed to use normal cutlery. Failure to attend Vice Principal Nero's nightly six hour long concerts is dealt with by having to buy Nero a bag of sweets and watching him eat them.
The Baudelaires are sent to live at Prufrock Preparatory in The Austere Academy. While Klaus
and Violet
are students, Sunny
is given the job of secretary to Vice Principal Nero, who is obnoxious and ignorant. Two fellow students and orphans, Duncan and Isadora Quagmire, become friends with the Baudelaires and figure prominently in several of the later books in the series. Carmelita Spats, another student, bullies and teases the Baudelaires and Quagmires mercilessly during their stay at the school, and also returns in several books.
There is some speculation that Prufrock was a V.F.D.
training school. Mr. Remora teaches note-taking skills, and Vice Principal Nero mentions that a bowl of fresh fruit is placed in the dormitory every Wednesday, which could be a very subtle reference to the sugar bowl
or it may be another version of Verbal Fridge Dialogue.
In The Austere Academy, Count Olaf
disguises himself as "Coach Genghis", a new faculty member at Prufrock, in his latest attempt to kidnap the Baudelaires and steal their fortune. Due to a switch around by the Baudelaires and the Quagmires, however, Olaf ends up kidnapping Isadora and Duncan instead. It is also hinted in The Beatrice Letters
that the younger Beatrice Baudelaire may have attended this school also.
Several students from Prufrock are kidnapped by Olaf at some point and used in The Grim Grotto as slave labour on his stolen submarine.
. Commonly mistaken by others to be a cattle farm, it is in fact a dairy farm and the place to which several of Snicket's letters (titled "Dear Dairy" in an effort to conceal information from potential enemies, who would mistake it for a misspelling of "Dear Diary
") are addressed. At least one arson
attempt has been made against it by someone disguised as a cow.
The initials of its name suggest that it has some association with V.F.D.
, and some evidence, such as the letters Snicket sends there, points to them as, at the least, unwitting allies.
It is suggested in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
that one of Count Olaf
's associates hides here disguised as a cow for a period of time while trying to figure out what happened to Dr. Montgomery's reptile collection.
This building is supposedly burnt down, according to a letter from Brett Helquist
to Lemony Snicket, in which he encloses a picture suspiciously similar to that of the Baudelaire home in The Bad Beginning
.
mentioned in Lemony Snicket
's autobiography
. It is where Snicket and Beatrice
were to be married. It is also where Jerome Squalor and Esmé
are married.
Snicket's autobiography includes two letters, addressed to Snicket and Squalor, informing both of their wedding arrangements. While the structure of both letters are similar, Snicket's letter contains a message written in the Sebald Code, warning him to avoid the vineyard under the pretense of an anticipated arson
attack.
The vineyard is also briefly mentioned in The Carnivorous Carnival as a weekend vacation location for the Baudelaire family prior to Sunny's birth.
when a banker, Arthur Poe
, drives the Baudelaires to their new house, where Count Olaf lives.
al place in the series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
. The house first appears in The Bad Beginning
.
The exterior of the house looks very unclean. The bricks are all stained with soot and grime. The entire building sags to the side. Only two small windows are visible from the front. Above the windows, a dirty tower tilts slightly to the left. On the front door, which needs repainting, an image of an eye is carved.
The interior is similar to the exterior, in that the entire house is unkempt and filthy. The house includes a main hallway, a kitchen, a dining room, two bedrooms, and a room in the tower. Every room that has been described in the book is dirty, dimly lit, and unpleasant to be in.
The main entryway has one bare light hanging from the ceiling, a stuffed lion's head nailed to the wall, and a bowl of apple cores on a small wooden table. The bedroom in which the three Baudelaire children stay while living in Count Olaf's house is a small, dirty room with one bed, one cracked window, a pair of curtains, an empty refrigerator box (which the children keep their clothes in), and a small pile of rocks, for their entertainment (as Count Olaf states). The tower room has walls covered in nothing but pictures of eyes, a desk covered with various things, a few chairs, broken bottles of wine on the floor, and a few lit candles.
The Baudelaire children mention in The Bad Beginning that they feel that many eyes are watching them, and notes of Lemony Snicket from the rare edition of The Bad Beginning mention that Count Olaf's house has hidden secret peepholes, cameras, and microscopic lenses.
The Vile Village
mentions that the Quagmires are hidden in the tower room for a short while before being hastily moved again.
No one seems to want to even go near the house, or at least not Violet
, Klaus
, and Sunny Baudelaire
, and the next door neighbour Justice Strauss.
's. Her home has a garden where the Baudelaire children garden with her during their stay with Count Olaf. The house also has a library with books on a variety of topics, including law, which helps Klaus foil Count Olaf's marital scheme in The Bad Beginning
.
's book series, A Series of Unfortunate Events
, refers to the home of the Baudelaire orphans' late father's cousin's wife's brother, herpetologist
Montgomery Montgomery. The house features a strong snake motif, with sculptures, paintings and (in the large front yard) topiaries
of serpents. The home includes at least five bedrooms, a kitchen, a foyer
, a living room and a large glass conservatory, used to house Montgomery's reptile collection; the second book in the series, The Reptile Room
, takes its name from this room. At the end of this room there is a library, which is well guarded by the snakes. There are probably more rooms, as the home is rather large. It has many stories, as shown in the illustration.
In The Slippery Slope
, it is revealed that the house is connected by a mysterious tunnel to the Quagmire Mansion. The purpose of this tunnel is as yet unknown. It is also mentioned that the house has been burned down.
It was mentioned (by Quigley Quagmire in The Slippery Slope and by Lemony Snicket in The Unauthorized Autobiography
) that books concerning V.F.D.
were hidden in Dr. Montgomery's library.
, the third novel in A Series of Unfortunate Events. The structure is built on the edge of a cliff, being held up by a series of stilts
and struts. It is of somewhat small size. The main feature of the house is a wide window, which provides a view of Lake Lachrymose and is the site where Aunt Josephine fakes her suicide later in the book. There is also a library that contains books only on grammar. Josephine Anwhistle considers grammar to be the greatest joy in life. The house has only two bedrooms. It also has a dining room, a kitchen, and a living room. Although the building has electricity, gas, central heating, and a telephone line, none of these are used due to Josephine's many phobias.
The house was later blown right off the cliff during Hurricane Herman.
It is mentioned in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography that the second half of a V.F.D. meeting manuscript is hidden in Ivan Lachrymose: Lake Explorer, under someone's bed. In The Wide Window, when the Baudelaire orphans are looking for an atlas under a bed in Aunt Josephine's house, one of the books under there is Ivan Lachrymose: Lake Explorer. This suggests that the manuscript is indeed hidden there. Also, in The Grim Grotto, Captain Widdershins said he and the crew of the Queequeg saved books from the house that were being destroyed in Lake Lachrymose.
, the Baudelaire orphans stay at the building's penthouse apartment, home of their new guardians Esmé
and Jerome Squalor.
667 Dark Avenue has 66 floors, with one apartment on each floor. (The doorman at 667 only remembers the number of floors as either 48 or 84. 66 happens to be the average of the two numbers) There is one set of elevator doors on every floor, except on the 66th floor, where there is a second set of elevator doors. Despite this, elevator use is said to be not in style, and everyone uses the stairs instead. This reflects the obsession with current trends that permeates the building and its street. When nautical theming comes into fashion, the entire lobby is redecorated to reflect this.
Esmé Squalor may be the perpetrator of some of these trends, considering that elevator disuse helps to hide the use of the second set of elevator doors on the top floor that hide a shaft and underground passageway leading to the former site of the Baudelaire Mansion, which burned down before the events of The Bad Beginning
. Another side effect of lift disuse is that, due to flawed acoustic design, conversations from inside the apartments can easily be overheard from the stairwell.
According to Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
, there is another floor above the penthouse, but it is never explained how any one would be able to access it, leaving readers to speculate that there may once have been a genuine elevator in the ersatz elevator shaft, allowing for an easier journey from the secret passage.
The building's address 667 is similar to 666, the Number of the Beast
(whichever building is across the street will actually be 666 Dark Avenue), and, at the beginning of the novel, it is a literal dark avenue, with all the light blocked out by large trees. Later in the novel, light becomes fashionable again and the trees are chopped down.
A Series of Unfortunate Events
A Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of children's novels by Lemony Snicket which follows the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire after their parents' death in an arsonous house fire...
, by Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler . Snicket is the author of several children's books, serving as the narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events and appearing as a character within the series. Because of this, the name Lemony Snicket may refer to both a fictional...
.
Hinterlands
The Hinterlands are a fictional area of wasteland/desert appearing in The Vile VillageThe Vile Village
The Vile Village is the seventh novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. After escaping Olaf once again, the Baudelaire orphans are taken into the care of a whole village, only to find lots of rules and chores, evil seniors, and Count Olaf and his evil girlfriend...
, The Hostile Hospital
The Hostile Hospital
The Hostile Hospital is the eighth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.-Plot and summary:The book begins where the previous one left off, with the three Baudelaire children escaping the Village of Fowl Devotees...
, and The Carnivorous Carnival. They are famous for their magnificent blue sunsets. The Baudelaires mention that they had always wanted to see the Hinterlands and were promised by their parents that they would visit one day. The Hinterlands are also home to the Caligari Carnival, which is the only attraction in the area. The Caligari Carnival is at the end of Rarely Ridden Road.
Mortmain Mountains
The Mortmain Mountains are a fictional mountain range in The Slippery SlopeThe Slippery Slope
The Slippery Slope is the tenth installment in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Daniel Handler under the pseudonym of Lemony Snicket.-Plot Summary:...
. The range is first mentioned in The Ersatz Elevator
The Ersatz Elevator
The Ersatz Elevator is the sixth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Daniel Handler under the pseudonym of Lemony Snicket. The Baudelaires are sent to live with the wealthy Esmé and Jerome Squalor.-Plot summary:...
, when Jerome Squalor refers to Mount Fraught, the largest mountain in the range.
The Valley of the Four Drafts, in which the Snow Scouts gather, is in the Mortmain Mountains. The range is also the location of the penultimate safe place for V.F.D.
V.F.D.
V.F.D. is a secret organization within the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The purposes of the organization are never made clear, although the name of the organization is connected to various interpretations of the word "fire." V.F.D...
members, the only other being the Hotel Denouement. When The Man With a Beard but No Hair and the Woman With Hair but No Beard started a fire at the penultimate safe place for the members of the V.F.D., the sugar bowl was tossed out a window down the Stricken Stream, which arises on Mount Fraught and flows to the sea.
The mountain range is home to Snow Gnats and V.F.D. Lions.
The range is very difficult to climb, since it consists of sheer drops and plateau
Plateau
In geology and earth science, a plateau , also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau...
x arranged in a staircase. The range is very cold during winter and false spring, with blizzards and ice further hindering climbing. The Snow Scouts are headed by Bruce and they include many important people including formerly Quigley Quagmire, Carmelita Spats, and possibly the children of C.M. Kornbluth and the Duchess of Winnipeg.
(See also List of VFDs.)
Gorgonian Grotto
The Gorgonian Grotto is a fictional cave shaped like a cone featured in The Grim GrottoThe Grim Grotto
The Grim Grotto is the eleventh novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.-Plot:The book begins where The Slippery Slope left off, with the Baudelaires traveling on a collapsing toboggan down the Stricken Stream of the Mortmain Mountains, leaving Quigley Quagmire...
. The grotto is located below Anwhistle Aquatics, to which it is linked by vertical tunnels.
The name Gorgonian is an apparent reference to gorgon
Gorgon
In Greek mythology, the Gorgon was a terrifying female creature. The name derives from the Greek word gorgós, which means "dreadful." While descriptions of Gorgons vary across Greek literature, the term commonly refers to any of three sisters who had hair of living, venomous snakes, and a...
s, deadly creatures of Greek mythology. This refers to the presence of the deadly Medusoid Mycelium in the grotto. Medusa
Medusa
In Greek mythology Medusa , " guardian, protectress") was a Gorgon, a chthonic monster, and a daughter of Phorcys and Ceto. The author Hyginus, interposes a generation and gives Medusa another chthonic pair as parents. Gazing directly upon her would turn onlookers to stone...
was a Gorgon.
The Baudelaire children, accompanied by Fiona, visit the grotto because they believe that the sugar bowl
Sugar bowl (A Series of Unfortunate Events)
The sugar bowl is a fictional object from A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. It was first mentioned by name in The Hostile Hospital, in which Snicket ponders whether it was necessary to have stolen it from Esmé Squalor. It is indirectly mentioned in The Ersatz Elevator by Esmé...
may have been carried into it via its underwater entrance, after having been thrown into the Stricken Stream. They do not find the sugar bowl, but they do find several items washed up on a beach in the grotto which later become useful. While visiting the grotto, Sunny Baudelaire
Sunny Baudelaire
Sunny Baudelaire is one of the protagonists of Lemony Snicket's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events. Sunny is the youngest of the three Baudelaire orphans, and is described as an infant through much of the series...
becomes infected by the Medusoid Mycelium.
Briny Beach
Briny Beach is a fictionFiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
al beach
Beach
A beach is a geological landform along the shoreline of an ocean, sea, lake or river. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles or cobblestones...
where The Bad Beginning
The Bad Beginning
The Bad Beginning is the first of thirteen novels in American author Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was later released in paperback under the name The Bad Beginning; or, Orphans! The novel tells the story of three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who are orphaned...
begins.
The beach's name is a literary allusion
Allusion
An allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference to, or representation of, people, places, events, literary work, myths, or works of art, either directly or by implication. M. H...
to Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
's famous poem The Walrus and the Carpenter
The Walrus and the Carpenter
"The Walrus and the Carpenter" is a narrative poem by Lewis Carroll that appeared in his book Through the Looking-Glass, published in December 1871. The poem is recited in chapter four, by Tweedledum and Tweedledee to Alice. The poem is composed of 18 stanzas and contains 108 lines, in an...
of which a verse goes as follows:
-
- "O Oysters, come and walk with us!"
- The Walrus did beseech.
- "A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
- Along the briny beach:"
In the first novel, The Bad Beginning
The Bad Beginning
The Bad Beginning is the first of thirteen novels in American author Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was later released in paperback under the name The Bad Beginning; or, Orphans! The novel tells the story of three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who are orphaned...
, Briny Beach is where the Baudelaire children, Violet
Violet Baudelaire
Violet Baudelaire is one of the main characters in the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket and appears in all thirteen books. She is the oldest of the Baudelaire orphans at 14 years old, and often helps her 12-year-old brother Klaus and her baby sister Sunny...
, Klaus
Klaus Baudelaire
Klaus Baudelaire is one of the main characters in the children's book series, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket who appears in all thirteen novels. Klaus is the middle child of the Baudelaire orphans; he has an older sister named Violet and a younger sister named Sunny...
, and Sunny
Sunny Baudelaire
Sunny Baudelaire is one of the protagonists of Lemony Snicket's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events. Sunny is the youngest of the three Baudelaire orphans, and is described as an infant through much of the series...
, learn from Mr. Poe
Arthur Poe
Arthur Poe is a fictional character in the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. Poe is a banker in charge of the Baudelaire and Quagmire fortunes and the Baudelaire orphans' guardianship...
that their parents have died in a fire which destroyed their home. From then on, the series occasionally mentions the beach when referring to the orphans' ongoing misery and woe. In The Grim Grotto
The Grim Grotto
The Grim Grotto is the eleventh novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.-Plot:The book begins where The Slippery Slope left off, with the Baudelaires traveling on a collapsing toboggan down the Stricken Stream of the Mortmain Mountains, leaving Quigley Quagmire...
(the eleventh novel), the beach is where the Baudelaires meet Kit Snicket for the first time when she picks them up to take them to Hotel Denouement, leaving behind Mr. Poe, who had come to take the children to the police. This visit, the Baudelaires' second in the series, is alluded to in the "Author's Notes" section of the Rare Edition of The Bad Beginning. These notes also allude to Violet
Violet Baudelaire
Violet Baudelaire is one of the main characters in the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket and appears in all thirteen books. She is the oldest of the Baudelaire orphans at 14 years old, and often helps her 12-year-old brother Klaus and her baby sister Sunny...
returning to Briny Beach alone for a third time. This, however, does not occur within the series.
The Island
The Island on which most of The EndThe End (A Series of Unfortunate Events)
The End is the thirteenth and final novel in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was published on October 13, 2006.- Plot description :...
takes place is sometimes called "Olaf Land" because that was the only name given to it (although only used by Count Olaf
Count Olaf
Count Olaf is the primary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. In the series, Olaf is an actor and is known to have committed many crimes as a member of the fire-starting side of V.F.D. prior to the events of the first book in...
) as the correct name is unknown. (It is mentioned in The Bad Beginning
The Bad Beginning
The Bad Beginning is the first of thirteen novels in American author Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was later released in paperback under the name The Bad Beginning; or, Orphans! The novel tells the story of three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who are orphaned...
, but not by name.)
All things are supposed to return to its shores, including Esmé's fire dress from the Slippery Slope. The true name of the island is unknown. Count Olaf informally names it "Olaf Land" after seeing it for the first time. Believing that the inhabitants are primitive, he thinks they will accept him as king. None of the island's other inhabitants refer to the island as "Olaf Land", and Olaf is actually banished to the coastal shelf by Friday when he attempts to establish himself as king. Ishmael is the island's facilitator but he keeps the secret of V.F.D. from the other islanders. When Bertrand and Beatrice Baudelaire
Mr. and Mrs. Baudelaire
The Baudelaire family is one of several prominent fictional families created by American author Lemony Snicket for his novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events...
were the leaders of the island, they attempted to create a utopian society there. It is the final resting place of Kit Snicket and Count Olaf
Count Olaf
Count Olaf is the primary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. In the series, Olaf is an actor and is known to have committed many crimes as a member of the fire-starting side of V.F.D. prior to the events of the first book in...
.
It is also mentioned in The Bad Beginning: Rare Edition
The Bad Beginning
The Bad Beginning is the first of thirteen novels in American author Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was later released in paperback under the name The Bad Beginning; or, Orphans! The novel tells the story of three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who are orphaned...
that the island used to have a rule that forbade people from removing its fruit. This may also be a Biblical reference to Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve were, according to the Genesis creation narratives, the first human couple to inhabit Earth, created by YHWH, the God of the ancient Hebrews...
.
It is apparent that Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler . Snicket is the author of several children's books, serving as the narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events and appearing as a character within the series. Because of this, the name Lemony Snicket may refer to both a fictional...
visited this island on a boat, possibly the Prospero, to gather information about the Baudelaire orphans, as the letter to his editor at the back of The Penultimate Peril
The Penultimate Peril
The Penultimate Peril is the twelfth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.-Plot:The book starts off where The Grim Grotto left off...
is a napkin marked with a picture of a boat.
Coastal shelf
The coastal shelfContinental shelf
The continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent and associated coastal plain. Much of the shelf was exposed during glacial periods, but is now submerged under relatively shallow seas and gulfs, and was similarly submerged during other interglacial periods. The continental margin,...
is a landform onto which the Baudelaires and Count Olaf are deposited after they have survived a violent storm. The shelf is littered with junk. The Baudelaires are discovered by a six or seven year old girl named Friday, who takes them to a colony of castaways on a nearby island, leaving Olaf because she thinks he's rude.
After every storm, the islanders search the shelf for wreckage that might be useful. It is said that everything eventually ends up on the island's shores.
Lake Lachrymose
Lake Lachrymose is a very large lake, affected as it is by Hurricane Herman (a hurricane in The Wide WindowThe Wide Window
The Wide Window is a children's novel and the third novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. It was later released in paperback under the name The Wide Window; or, Disappearance! In The Wide Window, the Baudelaire orphans are sent to live with their third...
). One of the notable points of the lake is the leeches that inhabit its waters. If anyone goes into Lake Lachrymose within an hour after eating, the Lachrymose Leeches will smell the food and devour them. This is how Ike and likely Josephine Anwhistle meet their end. There are various features around the lake, including Curdled Cave (which is for sale), a cliff which formerly held Josephine Anwhistle's house, beaches, and the Town of Lake Lachrymose.
The resort town is bustling during good weather, but in the bad weather, things are dead. The Anxious Clown restaurant is of particular note, which supposedly has a V.F.D.
V.F.D.
V.F.D. is a secret organization within the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The purposes of the organization are never made clear, although the name of the organization is connected to various interpretations of the word "fire." V.F.D...
member disguised as a waiter saying, "I didn't realize this was a sad occasion." The food is horrible. Some meals include the Extra Fun Family Appetizer (a bunch of things served up together and fried with a sauce), the Surprising Chicken Salad, and Cheer-up Cheeseburgers. Known customers include Mr. Poe and his sister, Eleanora (in The Unauthorized Autobiography), the Baudelaire orphans, Count Olaf
Count Olaf
Count Olaf is the primary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. In the series, Olaf is an actor and is known to have committed many crimes as a member of the fire-starting side of V.F.D. prior to the events of the first book in...
(under the disguise of Captain Sham), Jacques Snicket (possibly), and Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler . Snicket is the author of several children's books, serving as the narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events and appearing as a character within the series. Because of this, the name Lemony Snicket may refer to both a fictional...
, when he had to collect a secret message.
Another important place is Damocles
Damocles
Damocles is a figure featured in a single moral anecdote commonly referred to as "the Sword of Damocles," which was a late addition to classical Greek culture. The figure belongs properly to legend rather than Greek myth. The anecdote apparently figured in the lost history of Sicily by Timaeus of...
Dock, where the Fickle Ferry docks. Captain Sham's Sailboat Rentals is located here. Other places are the Lavender Lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
, marking Curdled Cave
Cave
A cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. The term applies to natural cavities some part of which is in total darkness. The word cave also includes smaller spaces like rock shelters, sea caves, and grottos.Speleology is the science of exploration and study...
's location, a clothing
Clothing
Clothing refers to any covering for the human body that is worn. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of nearly all human societies...
store called Look! It Fits!, the Rancorous Rocks, and the Wicked Whirlpool
Whirlpool
A whirlpool is a swirling body of water usually produced by ocean tides. The vast majority of whirlpools are not very powerful. More powerful ones are more properly termed maelstroms. Vortex is the proper term for any whirlpool that has a downdraft...
, the last 3 of which are simply things mentioned, and don't have any importance to the story.
It is known that Captain Widdershins patrolled Lake Lachrymose in his submarine, the Queequeg.
Notably, the word "lachrymose" means "tearful", "piteous", or "mournful". It stems from the Latin word "Lacrimosa". This is significant on at least two levels – firstly, it fits with the series' theme of misery, and secondly (perhaps more importantly), Lacrimosa
Lacrimosa (Requiem)
The Lacrimosa is part of the Dies Irae sequence in the Requiem mass. Its text comes from the 18th and 19th stanzas of the sequence. Many composers, including Mozart, Berlioz, and Verdi have set the text as a discrete movement of the Requiem.-Latin Text:...
is a movement of Mozart's
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
Requiem in D Minor
Requiem (Mozart)
The Requiem Mass in D minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at the composer's death. A completion by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had anonymously commissioned the piece for a requiem Mass to commemorate the...
, famously known as the last piece of music he ever penned. Mozart's music is employed by the V.F.D.
V.F.D.
V.F.D. is a secret organization within the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The purposes of the organization are never made clear, although the name of the organization is connected to various interpretations of the word "fire." V.F.D...
as a form of code.
Curdled Cave
Curdled Cave is where Aunt Josephine was hiding when Count OlafCount Olaf
Count Olaf is the primary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. In the series, Olaf is an actor and is known to have committed many crimes as a member of the fire-starting side of V.F.D. prior to the events of the first book in...
, disguised as Captain Sham, forced her to hand over the Baudelaires to him. The Baudelaires go to rescue her, and in order to get her out of the cave Klaus
Klaus Baudelaire
Klaus Baudelaire is one of the main characters in the children's book series, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket who appears in all thirteen novels. Klaus is the middle child of the Baudelaire orphans; he has an older sister named Violet and a younger sister named Sunny...
tells her that the cave is for sale. As she is afraid of realtors, she reluctantly agrees to go. It is believed that this could have once been a "safe place", as Kit reveals in The Penultimate Peril that there was a cave used as a safe place until vicious realtors claimed it as their own. This could also be the cause of Aunt Josephine's fear of realtors.
The Finite Forest
The Finite Forest is where the Baudelaires meet misery, as written in the book The Miserable MillThe Miserable Mill
The Miserable Mill is the fourth of thirteen novels in American author Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It is to be released in paperback under the name The Miserable Mill; or, Hypnotism! The novel tells the story of the Baudelaire orphans continuing their adventure, but this time...
. It is probably the source of wood for the Lucky Smells Lumbermill. Its trees are described as "very tall and had practically no branches, so they looked almost like metal pipes instead of trees" It should be noted that the word, "Finite," means limited, and it is said by Charles in The Penultimate Peril that the Finite Forest is running low on trees..
The city
The city is where the Baudelaires' house was, and where 667 Dark Avenue is, the location of the Baudelaires' sixth guardian, Jerome and Esmé Squalor. It is never given a name. It has various districts which correspond to what would be sold there: for example the Fish District would sell fish. Being the place where the Baudelaires grew up, there are attractions that the children distinctly remember, such as the Verne Museum, Violet's favourite museum for inventing, the Abramnovitch bookstore, which is the favourite bookstore of Klaus, and Pincus Hospital, where Sunny was born. In the film, the Baudelaires' letter from their parents is addressed to BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
. The Baudelaires pass through the city in The Penultimate Peril
The Penultimate Peril
The Penultimate Peril is the twelfth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.-Plot:The book starts off where The Grim Grotto left off...
when traveling to the Hotel Denouement.
Village of Fowl Devotees
V.F.D. (Village of FowlFowl
Fowl is a word for birds in general but usually refers to birds belonging to one of two biological orders, namely the gamefowl or landfowl and the waterfowl...
Devotees) is the town where the Baudelaires go to live with Hector. They believe that it is related to the mysterious V.F.D.
V.F.D.
V.F.D. is a secret organization within the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The purposes of the organization are never made clear, although the name of the organization is connected to various interpretations of the word "fire." V.F.D...
they are searching for, but in fact there is no connection except for the V.F.D. Carrier Crows. The entire village looks after the Baudelaires as they believe in the aphorism "It takes a village to raise a child."
Paltryville
Paltryville is where the Baudelaires go to live in "The Miserable MillThe Miserable Mill
The Miserable Mill is the fourth of thirteen novels in American author Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It is to be released in paperback under the name The Miserable Mill; or, Hypnotism! The novel tells the story of the Baudelaire orphans continuing their adventure, but this time...
". Paltryville is surrounded by the dark and gloomy Finite Forest. It is not listed in any guidebook because of its very low population, yet is capable of sustaining an optician's practice. It consists of Patryville Station, Lucky Smells Lumbermill, Dr. Orwell's Optician, and a few shops without windows.
Anwhistle Aquatics
Anwhistle Aquatics is first mentioned in The Grim GrottoThe Grim Grotto
The Grim Grotto is the eleventh novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.-Plot:The book begins where The Slippery Slope left off, with the Baudelaires traveling on a collapsing toboggan down the Stricken Stream of the Mortmain Mountains, leaving Quigley Quagmire...
. A marine research and rhetorical advice center, (mentioned in The Wide Window
The Wide Window
The Wide Window is a children's novel and the third novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. It was later released in paperback under the name The Wide Window; or, Disappearance! In The Wide Window, the Baudelaire orphans are sent to live with their third...
), it was moderated by Gregor Anwhistle, ichthyologist
Ichthyology
Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish. This includes skeletal fish , cartilaginous fish , and jawless fish...
and Josephine Anwhistle's brother in law. An article from the Daily Punctilio states that Anwhistle Aquatics was burned down by Fernald
Hook-handed man
Fernald is a villain from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. He is known for having two large and sharp hooks where his hands should be...
, although Snicket discloses to the reader that Captain Widdershins also participated in the center's destruction.
One of Anwhistle Aquatics's roles was to investigate the Medusoid Mycelium. However, when it was burnt down, the Gorgonian Grotto was filled with the deadly fungus that was left behind. It also trained salmon under the Voluntary Fish Domestication program, until the entire fleet was seized by Café Salmonella.
It is implied that the sugar bowl
Sugar bowl (A Series of Unfortunate Events)
The sugar bowl is a fictional object from A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. It was first mentioned by name in The Hostile Hospital, in which Snicket ponders whether it was necessary to have stolen it from Esmé Squalor. It is indirectly mentioned in The Ersatz Elevator by Esmé...
once found its way to Anwhistle Aquatics, but had been removed by the time the Baudelaires reached the Gorgonian Grotto.
The Anxious Clown
The Anxious Clown is a fast food restaurant. In The Wide WindowThe Wide Window
The Wide Window is a children's novel and the third novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. It was later released in paperback under the name The Wide Window; or, Disappearance! In The Wide Window, the Baudelaire orphans are sent to live with their third...
, the Baudelaires, Mr. Poe
Arthur Poe
Arthur Poe is a fictional character in the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. Poe is a banker in charge of the Baudelaire and Quagmire fortunes and the Baudelaire orphans' guardianship...
, and Count Olaf
Count Olaf
Count Olaf is the primary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. In the series, Olaf is an actor and is known to have committed many crimes as a member of the fire-starting side of V.F.D. prior to the events of the first book in...
(disguised as Captain Sham) eat there. Their waiter, Larry, says, "I didn't realize this was a sad occasion", a V.F.D.
V.F.D.
V.F.D. is a secret organization within the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The purposes of the organization are never made clear, although the name of the organization is connected to various interpretations of the word "fire." V.F.D...
code.
Known customers include Mr. Poe, his sister, Eleanora, the Baudelaire children, and Count Olaf
Count Olaf
Count Olaf is the primary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. In the series, Olaf is an actor and is known to have committed many crimes as a member of the fire-starting side of V.F.D. prior to the events of the first book in...
, and Jacques Snicket.
The menu includes the Extra Fun Family Appetizer (a bunch of things fried together and served with a sauce), Surprising Chicken Salad
Chicken salad
Chicken salad is any salad that comprises chicken as a main ingredient. Other common ingredients include mayonnaise, hard-boiled egg, celery, pepper, peas and a variety of mustards....
, and Cheer-up Cheeseburger
Cheeseburger
A cheeseburger is a hamburger with cheese that has been added to it. Traditionally, the cheese is placed on top of the patty, but the burger can include many variations in structure, ingredients, and composition...
s (cheeseburgers with the ingredients made into a smiling face).
According to Jacques Snicket in a letter to Lemony in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography was first released on May 1, 2002. The book's content relates to the author Lemony Snicket and his series of books, A Series of Unfortunate Events...
, the food there is dreadful.
Café Salmonella
The Café Salmonella is a salmonSalmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
-themed seafood
Seafood
Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...
restaurant mentioned throughout A Series of Unfortunate Events
A Series of Unfortunate Events
A Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of children's novels by Lemony Snicket which follows the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire after their parents' death in an arsonous house fire...
.
It first appeared in The Ersatz Elevator
The Ersatz Elevator
The Ersatz Elevator is the sixth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Daniel Handler under the pseudonym of Lemony Snicket. The Baudelaires are sent to live with the wealthy Esmé and Jerome Squalor.-Plot summary:...
when Jerome Squalor (encouraged by his wife Esmé Squalor
Esmé Squalor
Esmé Gigi Geniveve Squalor is the secondary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. She is Count Olaf's girlfriend. Prior to the events of the series she was a professional stage actress and member of V.F.D. Esmé is distinguished...
) took Violet
Violet Baudelaire
Violet Baudelaire is one of the main characters in the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket and appears in all thirteen books. She is the oldest of the Baudelaire orphans at 14 years old, and often helps her 12-year-old brother Klaus and her baby sister Sunny...
, Klaus
Klaus Baudelaire
Klaus Baudelaire is one of the main characters in the children's book series, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket who appears in all thirteen novels. Klaus is the middle child of the Baudelaire orphans; he has an older sister named Violet and a younger sister named Sunny...
, and Sunny Baudelaire
Sunny Baudelaire
Sunny Baudelaire is one of the protagonists of Lemony Snicket's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events. Sunny is the youngest of the three Baudelaire orphans, and is described as an infant through much of the series...
there. According to Esmé, it is a very "in", or fashionable, restaurant. The café is located in the fish district. All waiters wear the waiter costumes described in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography was first released on May 1, 2002. The book's content relates to the author Lemony Snicket and his series of books, A Series of Unfortunate Events...
, using the salmon variety. The interior is completely decorated with salmon. There are also salmon in the flower vases instead of flowers.
All the food served contains salmon, with dishes such as salmon Ice Cream
Ice cream
Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...
, salmon Pie
Pie
A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients....
, and salmon Ravioli
Ravioli
Ravioli are a traditional type of Italian filled pasta. They are composed of a filling sealed between two layers of thin egg pasta dough and are served either in broth or with a pasta sauce. The word ravioli is reminiscent of the Italian verb riavvolgere , though the two words are not...
. Instead of using ice to keep drinks cool, the restaurant uses frozen chunks of salmon.
It is mentioned that the Café Salmonella captured the V.F.D salmon, which were trained to find forest fires.
Caligari Carnival
Caligari Carnival is a carnival in A Series of Unfortunate EventsA Series of Unfortunate Events
A Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of children's novels by Lemony Snicket which follows the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire after their parents' death in an arsonous house fire...
. It is the primary setting of The Carnivorous Carnival, the ninth novel in the series.
The carnival is owned and run by Madame Lulu, a colleague of Count Olaf
Count Olaf
Count Olaf is the primary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. In the series, Olaf is an actor and is known to have committed many crimes as a member of the fire-starting side of V.F.D. prior to the events of the first book in...
's. Among the carnival's assets are a ticket booth, phone booth, several caravans and tents, and a worn down roller coaster
Roller coaster
The roller coaster is a popular amusement ride developed for amusement parks and modern theme parks. LaMarcus Adna Thompson patented the first coasters on January 20, 1885...
.
The carnival could be a reference to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a 1920 silent horror film directed by Robert Wiene from a screenplay by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. It is one of the most influential of German Expressionist films and is often considered one of the greatest horror movies of the silent era. This movie is cited as...
, a silent expressionist film that involves a freak show.
The carnival's prime attraction is the House of Freaks, featuring Hugo the hunchback, Colette the contortionist, and Kevin the ambidextrous person, all of whom believed wholeheartedly that they were unfit for the real world.
During the time of The Carnivorous Carnival, a lion
Lion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
pit was added to the carnival. It is believed that the lions mentioned in The Slippery Slope, (Volunteer Feline Detectives), were captured by Olaf from the Mortmain Mountains and brought to Caligari Carnival. The Baudelaire orphans also disguise themselves as freaks to hide out there: Violet
Violet Baudelaire
Violet Baudelaire is one of the main characters in the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket and appears in all thirteen books. She is the oldest of the Baudelaire orphans at 14 years old, and often helps her 12-year-old brother Klaus and her baby sister Sunny...
and Klaus
Klaus Baudelaire
Klaus Baudelaire is one of the main characters in the children's book series, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket who appears in all thirteen novels. Klaus is the middle child of the Baudelaire orphans; he has an older sister named Violet and a younger sister named Sunny...
as Beverly and Elliott the two-headed freak, and Sunny
Sunny Baudelaire
Sunny Baudelaire is one of the protagonists of Lemony Snicket's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events. Sunny is the youngest of the three Baudelaire orphans, and is described as an infant through much of the series...
as Chabo the wolf-baby.
The carnival is destroyed by Count Olaf and his troupe
Count Olaf's associates
Count Olaf's theater troupe is a group of cohorts allied with Count Olaf and his crimes in the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. The members are frequently referred to as Count Olaf's "associates", "assistants", "comrades", "accomplices" or...
, along with Esmé Squalor
Esmé Squalor
Esmé Gigi Geniveve Squalor is the secondary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. She is Count Olaf's girlfriend. Prior to the events of the series she was a professional stage actress and member of V.F.D. Esmé is distinguished...
, to hide the evidence of his having been there. According to The Grim Grotto
The Grim Grotto
The Grim Grotto is the eleventh novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.-Plot:The book begins where The Slippery Slope left off, with the Baudelaires traveling on a collapsing toboggan down the Stricken Stream of the Mortmain Mountains, leaving Quigley Quagmire...
, the ashes and smoke from the fire are visible across The Hinterlands for days.
It is also mentioned by The Man With a Beard but No Hair and the Woman With Hair but No Beard, in The Slippery Slope
The Slippery Slope
The Slippery Slope is the tenth installment in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Daniel Handler under the pseudonym of Lemony Snicket.-Plot Summary:...
, that an important piece of evidence hidden inside a figurine has been sold at Caligari Carnival. Retrospective reading shows that the figurine seller in The Carnivorous Carnival is given unusual emphasis for a character who never appears, but there has been no further mention of this.
Cathedral of the Alleged Virgin
The Cathedral of the Alleged Virgin is a cathedral mentioned in The Hostile HospitalThe Hostile Hospital
The Hostile Hospital is the eighth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.-Plot and summary:The book begins where the previous one left off, with the three Baudelaire children escaping the Village of Fowl Devotees...
and Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography was first released on May 1, 2002. The book's content relates to the author Lemony Snicket and his series of books, A Series of Unfortunate Events...
. While Lemony is writing down the Baudelaire children's stay at the Heimlich Hospital, he mentions that he was for some reason crouching down behind the altar of the Cathedral of the Alleged Virgin, while a friend of his is playing a sonata on the pipe organ to drown out the sounds of his typewriter to not let it be heard by the worshippers sitting in the pews. The mournful melody of the sonata reminds Lemony of a tune his father used to sing while he cleaned the dishes, and refers to the expression that "music has charms to sooth a savage beast". In Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography was first released on May 1, 2002. The book's content relates to the author Lemony Snicket and his series of books, A Series of Unfortunate Events...
, on the map of the city, it shows the Cathedral the of Alleged Virgin, north-west of Uncle Monty's house, and farther north-west of the Hazy Harbor. It is located on Lousy Lane.
The Daily Punctilio
The Daily Punctilio is a fictional sensationalist newspaper from A Series of Unfortunate EventsA Series of Unfortunate Events
A Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of children's novels by Lemony Snicket which follows the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire after their parents' death in an arsonous house fire...
, a series of novels by Daniel Handler
Daniel Handler
Daniel Handler is an American author, screenwriter and accordionist. He is best known for his work under the pen name Lemony Snicket.-Personal life:...
under the pen name Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler . Snicket is the author of several children's books, serving as the narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events and appearing as a character within the series. Because of this, the name Lemony Snicket may refer to both a fictional...
. It is notoriously inaccurate, frequently getting names wrong and printing stories that bear no resemblance to the truth.
The Daily Punctilio is first mentioned in The Vile Village
The Vile Village
The Vile Village is the seventh novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. After escaping Olaf once again, the Baudelaire orphans are taken into the care of a whole village, only to find lots of rules and chores, evil seniors, and Count Olaf and his evil girlfriend...
. From the end of that book, the newspaper's stories follow the Baudelaire orphans everywhere for the remainder of the series. The Baudelaires are forced to go on the run after the Punctilio runs a story saying they (mistakenly referred to as "Veronica, Klyde, and Susie Baudelaire") murdered "Count Olaf" (Jacques Snicket; mistakenly referred to as "Count Omar").
According to The Unauthorized Autobiography, The Daily Punctilio, as well as serving a primary source of news in the series, provides sections of a particular interest such as the Financial Times, which is the only section that Mr. Poe reads, as well as the Music Section, which is what Vice Principal Nero reads, as well as hosting obituaries such as the fictional obituary of Lemony Snicket, despite the fact that he is not dead.
In Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography, there are portions of Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler . Snicket is the author of several children's books, serving as the narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events and appearing as a character within the series. Because of this, the name Lemony Snicket may refer to both a fictional...
's play reviews for the Daily Punctilio. He is fired by Eleanora Poe, chief editor and Mr. Poe's sister, after mocking the acting ability of Esmé Squalor
Esmé Squalor
Esmé Gigi Geniveve Squalor is the secondary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. She is Count Olaf's girlfriend. Prior to the events of the series she was a professional stage actress and member of V.F.D. Esmé is distinguished...
in a play by Al Funcoot (an anagram of Count Olaf
Count Olaf
Count Olaf is the primary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. In the series, Olaf is an actor and is known to have committed many crimes as a member of the fire-starting side of V.F.D. prior to the events of the first book in...
). He attempts to publish one last article, but is caught by Eleanora Poe. Also, from portions of the newspaper in The Unauthorized Autobiography, it is implied that Count Olaf
Count Olaf
Count Olaf is the primary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. In the series, Olaf is an actor and is known to have committed many crimes as a member of the fire-starting side of V.F.D. prior to the events of the first book in...
or one of his henchmen changed articles that included investigations by volunteers, at least one of which could have led back to Olaf himself.
Finally, the Daily Punctilio seems to have caused problems to V.F.D. that are not directly related to the Baudelaires; for example, Geraldine Julienne writes a series of articles called "Secret Organizations You Should Know About" that describes the organization. In The Unauthorized Autobiography, minutes from a V.F.D. meeting show the members discussing where to move as the location of their current headquarters are once again to be printed in the article. This is the only mentioned information that the Punctilio printed correctly. It is also revealed that a spy was in the midst of V.F.D., possibly Count Olaf
Count Olaf
Count Olaf is the primary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. In the series, Olaf is an actor and is known to have committed many crimes as a member of the fire-starting side of V.F.D. prior to the events of the first book in...
and Esme Squalor
Esmé Squalor
Esmé Gigi Geniveve Squalor is the secondary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. She is Count Olaf's girlfriend. Prior to the events of the series she was a professional stage actress and member of V.F.D. Esmé is distinguished...
(referred to as "O" and "E").
Hard News
(In somewhat chronological order)
- Verifying Fernald's Defection
- An article by Jacques Snicket explaining that Fernald "Widdershins"Hook-handed manFernald is a villain from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. He is known for having two large and sharp hooks where his hands should be...
burned down Anwhistle Aquatics, discovered in the Gorgonian Grotto.
- An article by Jacques Snicket explaining that Fernald "Widdershins"
- Dairy Burns Down
- This article relates how Valorous Farms Dairy, the Snicket mansion, was burned to the ground during a storm, having been "struck by lightning"1. There is an illustration which Detective Smith assumes is of the Snicket Fire2.
- 1It was actually burned down by one of Count OlafCount OlafCount Olaf is the primary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. In the series, Olaf is an actor and is known to have committed many crimes as a member of the fire-starting side of V.F.D. prior to the events of the first book in...
's associates dressed in a cow suit. - 2It is really of the Baudelaire Fire.
- Ship Departs Early!
- This article relates how The Prospero left Daedalus Dock three hours before schedule, leaving the passengers (including a woman named E1) stranded on the on-ramp. A sailor on the ship shouted out the words "Phase Two2" and "Drat!"
- 1 Esmé SqualorEsmé SqualorEsmé Gigi Geniveve Squalor is the secondary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. She is Count Olaf's girlfriend. Prior to the events of the series she was a professional stage actress and member of V.F.D. Esmé is distinguished...
. - 2 Phase Two probably refers to phase two of V.F.D. Disguise Training (Various Finery Disguises).
- Bus Arrives Late!
- This article is only mentioned.
- Arson Suspected in Destruction of Royal Gardens
- An article written by Jacques Snicket concerning the destruction of the city's Royal Gardens. It is removed, apparently by Count Olaf and/or his cohorts.
- Absolutely No Arson or Any Other Suspicious Thing Associated with the Royal Gardens, which Simply Burned to the Ground and Then Were Covered in Dirt Due to Wind, Says Official Fire Department
- An article written by Geraldine Julienne concerning the destruction of the city's Royal Gardens.
- No Poisonous Plants Were Removed from Royal Gardens Prior to Destruction, Official Fire Department Reports
- An article written by Geraldine Julienne concerning the possible removal of plants from the Poisonous Pavilion at the Royal Gardens before its destruction.1
- 1 Justice Strauss mentions in The Bad BeginningThe Bad BeginningThe Bad Beginning is the first of thirteen novels in American author Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was later released in paperback under the name The Bad Beginning; or, Orphans! The novel tells the story of three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who are orphaned...
that she is working on a case involving a poisonous plant2 and illegal use of someone's credit card. - 2 In The Bad Beginning: Rare Edition, Lemony Snicket believes that this plant was removed from the Royal Gardens, and implies that Count Olaf possesses it.
- Murder at Lucky Smells Lumbermill!
- This article relates how Count Olaf and a "henchman experiencing hair loss" were responsible for a murder1, and how a volunteer came to investigate the incident. It is removed, apparently by Count Olaf and/or his cohorts.
- 1 Likely, but not stated, to be that of Dr. Georgina Orwell.
'Incident at Lucky Smells Lumbermill!
-
- This article relates how detectives Smith, Jones, and Smithjones investigated the "accidental" death mentioned in the previous article, concluding that the worst thing about the ordeal was that one of the detectives had spilt his coffee1.
- 1 A rhyming couplet that appears later suggests that the detective's coat was not stained with coffee, but with ink.
- Twins Captured by Count Omar
- This article relates how Esmé Squalor1 and the twins Duncan and Isadora Quagmire2 have been captured by Count Omar3.
- 1 Esmé Squalor ran off with Count Olaf of her own volition.
- 2 The Quagmires are triplets.
- 3 Count Olaf.
- Baudelaire Orphans at Large!
- This article relates how the Baudelaire orphans murdered Count Omar1 and escaped from the Village of Fowl Devotees.
- 1 This time, Jacques Snicket (whom Count Olaf murdered).
"An Announcement"
- Eleanora's Announcement
- Eleanora Poe writes an apologetic article to the readers of The Daily Punctilio for Lemony Snicket's "rude" articles, adding that she has fired him, and he will never again work for them.
- Eleanora's Second Announcement
- Eleanora, apologizing for Snicket's last attempt to publish an article in the Punctilio.
The Theater Section: "A Night at the Theatre"
- The World Is Quiet Here/One Last Warning to Those Who Try to Stand in My Way Review
- Lemony Snicket complains of how the musical The World Is Quiet Here has been re-done to fit Olaf's scheme, as well as being renamed One Last Warning to Those Who Try to Stand in My Way.
- Snicket's Explanation
- Lemony Snicket tries to explain the real reason that he was fired, which relates to a secret about Eleanora Poe, but his article is cut-off part-way through.
Other Articles
- Book Article
- An article that says the following books are dangerous for children to read:
-
-
- Ramona Quimby, Age 8Ramona Quimby, Age 8Ramona Quimby, Age 8 is a juvenile fiction novel written by Beverly Cleary. It is the sixth installment in the Ramona Quimby series. It was illustrated by Alan Tiegreen and was first published in 1981. The current edition was illustrated by Tracy Dockray. It is a 1982 Newbery Honor award winner...
, by Beverly ClearyBeverly ClearyBeverly Cleary is an American author. Educated at colleges in California and Washington, she worked as a librarian before writing children's books. Cleary has written more than 30 books for young adults and children. Some of her best-known characters are Henry Huggins, Ribsy, Beatrice Quimby, her...
. - MatildaMatilda (novel)Matilda is a children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. It was published in 1988 by Jonathan Cape in London, with illustrations by Quentin Blake. The story is about Matilda Wormwood, an extraordinary child with ordinary and rather unpleasant parents, who are contemptuous of their daughter's...
, by Roald DahlRoald DahlRoald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, fighter pilot and screenwriter.Born in Wales to Norwegian parents, he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence agent, rising to the rank of Wing Commander...
. - Ivan Lachrymose: Lake Explorer, by Vincent Francis Doyle.
- Grimm's Fairy TalesGrimm's Fairy TalesChildren's and Household Tales is a collection of German origin fairy tales first published in 1812 by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the Brothers Grimm. The collection is commonly known today as Grimms' Fairy Tales .-Composition:...
, by the Brothers GrimmBrothers GrimmThe Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...
. - Green MansionsGreen MansionsGreen Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest is an exotic romance by William Henry Hudson about a traveller to the Guyana jungle of southeastern Venezuela and his encounter with a forest dwelling girl named Rima.-Plot summary:...
, by W. H. Hudson. - The Coded Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, by Edgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
. - I Lost Something at the Movies, by Lena Pukalie.
- Nine StoriesNine Stories (Salinger)Nine Stories is a collection of short stories by American fiction writer J. D. Salinger released in May 1953. It includes two of his most famous short stories, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and "For Esmé – with Love and Squalor". Nine Stories (1953) is a collection of short stories by American...
, by J. D. SalingerJ. D. SalingerJerome David Salinger was an American author, best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, as well as his reclusive nature. His last original published work was in 1965; he gave his last interview in 1980....
. - The History of Lucky Smells Lumbermill, by Sir [?].
- A Series of Unfortunate EventsA Series of Unfortunate EventsA Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of children's novels by Lemony Snicket which follows the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire after their parents' death in an arsonous house fire...
, by Lemony SnicketLemony SnicketLemony Snicket is the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler . Snicket is the author of several children's books, serving as the narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events and appearing as a character within the series. Because of this, the name Lemony Snicket may refer to both a fictional...
. - Charlotte's WebCharlotte's WebCharlotte's Web is an award-winning children's novel by acclaimed American author E. B. White, about a pig named Wilbur who is saved from being slaughtered by an intelligent spider named Charlotte. The book was first published in 1952, with illustrations by Garth Williams.The novel tells the story...
, by E. B. WhiteE. B. WhiteElwyn Brooks White , usually known as E. B. White, was an American writer. A long-time contributor to The New Yorker magazine, he also wrote many famous books for both adults and children, such as the popular Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, and co-authored a widely used writing guide, The...
. - Little House in the Big WoodsLittle House in the Big WoodsLittle House in the Big Woods is a children's novel by Laura Ingalls Wilder and was published in 1932. This book is the first of the series of books known as the Little House series....
, by Laura Ingalls WilderLaura Ingalls WilderLaura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder was an American author who wrote the Little House series of books based on her childhood in a pioneer family...
.
- Ramona Quimby, Age 8
-
-
- An article that says the following books are dangerous for children to read:
The majority of these contain codes, hints, or V.F.D.
V.F.D.
V.F.D. is a secret organization within the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The purposes of the organization are never made clear, although the name of the organization is connected to various interpretations of the word "fire." V.F.D...
-related things, and scraps of many of them can be found in The Unauthorized Autobiography
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography was first released on May 1, 2002. The book's content relates to the author Lemony Snicket and his series of books, A Series of Unfortunate Events...
.
- Telegram Article
- An article which warns that receiving telegrams can be dangerous.
- Telephone Pole Article
- An article which warns that letting telephone poles stand is dangerous, therefore they should be cut down.
Advertisements
- An advertisement for three-piece suits at a store that only sells IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n rugCarpetA carpet is a textile floor covering consisting of an upper layer of "pile" attached to a backing. The pile is generally either made from wool or a manmade fibre such as polypropylene,nylon or polyester and usually consists of twisted tufts which are often heat-treated to maintain their...
s. - An advertisement for the Veritable French Diner at 141 Dark Avenue.
The Daily Punctilo's motto, "All the news in fits of print", is a parody of The New York Times motto, "All the news that's fit to print."
Heimlich Hospital
Heimlich Hospital is a hospitalHospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
and titular location in The Hostile Hospital
The Hostile Hospital
The Hostile Hospital is the eighth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.-Plot and summary:The book begins where the previous one left off, with the three Baudelaire children escaping the Village of Fowl Devotees...
, a novel of the series A Series of Unfortunate Events
A Series of Unfortunate Events
A Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of children's novels by Lemony Snicket which follows the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire after their parents' death in an arsonous house fire...
by Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler . Snicket is the author of several children's books, serving as the narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events and appearing as a character within the series. Because of this, the name Lemony Snicket may refer to both a fictional...
.
The hospital is only half completed, one half being fully functional, and the other half being a wooden frame. One half of the lawn is well kept and green, the other half a large plot of dirt. One side has the word 'Heimlich' written across it in fancy gold, while the other has an old piece of a cardboard box with the word 'Hospital' written in ballpoint pen. The completed half is a beautiful white building with carved portraits of famous doctors above the windows. Parts of the hospital include an operating theater, a library of records, patient rooms, and supply closets. The supply closets contain a sink, alphabet soup, rubber bands, doctor's coats, surgical masks, and sometimes a window.
Known wards include the "Stubbed Toe
Toe
Toes are the digits of the foot of a tetrapod. Animal species such as cats that walk on their toes are described as being digitigrade. Humans, and other animals that walk on the soles of their feet, are described as being plantigrade; unguligrade animals are those that walk on hooves at the tips of...
Ward", the "Sore Throat
Pharyngitis
Pharyngitis is an inflammation of the throat or pharynx. In most cases it is quite painful, and is the most common cause of a sore throat.Like many types of inflammation, pharyngitis can be acute – characterized by a rapid onset and typically a relatively short course – or chronic....
Ward", the "Ear
Ear
The ear is the organ that detects sound. It not only receives sound, but also aids in balance and body position. The ear is part of the auditory system....
Ward", the "Ward for People with Nasty Rash
Rash
A rash is a change of the skin which affects its color, appearance or texture. A rash may be localized in one part of the body, or affect all the skin. Rashes may cause the skin to change color, itch, become warm, bumpy, chapped, dry, cracked or blistered, swell and may be painful. The causes, and...
es", the "Accidentally Swallowed Something You Shouldn't Have Ward", the "Plague Ward", and the "Surgical
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
Ward".
Every day, the Volunteers Fighting Disease sing to the patients in the hospital and give them heart-shaped balloons to cheer them up.
The name Heimlich is a reference to Henry Heimlich
Henry Heimlich
Dr. Henry Jay Heimlich , an American physician, has received credit as the inventor of abdominal thrusts, more commonly known as the Heimlich maneuver, though debate continues over his role in the development of the procedure...
, an American physician best known for the Heimlich Maneuver.
Heimlich Hospital is burned down by Count Olaf
Count Olaf
Count Olaf is the primary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. In the series, Olaf is an actor and is known to have committed many crimes as a member of the fire-starting side of V.F.D. prior to the events of the first book in...
in the The Hostile Hospital
The Hostile Hospital
The Hostile Hospital is the eighth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.-Plot and summary:The book begins where the previous one left off, with the three Baudelaire children escaping the Village of Fowl Devotees...
.
Hotel Denouement
The Hotel Denouement is a hotel in Lemony Snicket'sLemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler . Snicket is the author of several children's books, serving as the narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events and appearing as a character within the series. Because of this, the name Lemony Snicket may refer to both a fictional...
series of novels, A Series of Unfortunate Events
A Series of Unfortunate Events
A Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of children's novels by Lemony Snicket which follows the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire after their parents' death in an arsonous house fire...
. The hotel is the "last safe place" for the V.F.D.
V.F.D.
V.F.D. is a secret organization within the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The purposes of the organization are never made clear, although the name of the organization is connected to various interpretations of the word "fire." V.F.D...
. It is a large building organized in the same way as a library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
, by the Dewey Decimal System. This is similar to the organization of the Library Hotel
Library Hotel
The Library Hotel is a 60-room boutique hotel in New York City, located at 299 Madison Avenue , near the New York Public Library, Bryant Park, and Grand Central Terminal. The Hotel was designed by architect Stephen B...
. It is owned by identical triplet brothers, Frank, Ernest and Dewey Denouement, although Dewey remains in the shadows. The Hotel Denouement has exactly 10 floors, organized accordingly with the Dewey Decimal system, from the basement to the rooftop salon (not ranked numerically).
At the end of The Penultimate Peril, the Hotel Denouement is burned down by Sunny Baudelaire
Sunny Baudelaire
Sunny Baudelaire is one of the protagonists of Lemony Snicket's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events. Sunny is the youngest of the three Baudelaire orphans, and is described as an infant through much of the series...
to provide a signal to V.F.D. that the meeting planned for Thursday is canceled, as the last safe place is no longer safe. However, Lemony Snicket mentions that the real safe place was safe and never found by the enemy.
The words "HOTEL DENOUEMENT" and "ENTRANCE" on the front of the hotel, as well as the floor numbers, are all in mirror writing. There is a reason for this: the hotel is in front of a reflecting pond
Reflecting pool
A reflecting pool or reflection pool is a water feature found in gardens, parks, and at memorial sites. It usually consists of a shallow pool of water, undisturbed by fountain jets, for a calm reflective...
, and what appears to be its reflection in the pond is in fact the real safe place, containing many V.F.D. secrets, including information on everyone ever involved or acquainted with the V.F.D. The pond also serves as a signal for the V.F.D, showing to Dewey and Frank that volunteers are on the way. The Hotel was made with wood from Lucky Smells Lumbermill.
Floors
- Basement: Information and general works
- First Floor: "dedicated to philosophy and psychology" (p. 63)
- Second Floor: "for religion", features "a church, a cathedralCathedralA cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
, a chapelChapelA chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
, a synagogueSynagogueA synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
, a mosqueMosqueA mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
, a templeTempleA temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word "template," a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out...
, a shrineShrineA shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated....
, a shuffleboardShuffleboardShuffleboard, more precisely deck shuffleboard, and also known as shuffle-board, shovelboard, shovel-board and shove-board [archaic], is a game in which players use broom-shaped paddles to push weighted pucks, sending them gliding down a narrow and elongated court, with the purpose of...
court..." (p. 63) - Third Floor: "the social sciences", includes "ballrooms and meeting rooms" (p. 64)
- Fourth Floor: "dedicated to language" (p. 64) for foreign guests.
- Fifth Floor: "dedicated to mathematics and science" (p. 64)
- Sixth Floor: "dedicated to technology" (p. 64)
- Seventh Floor: "stands for the Arts" (p. 64)
- Eighth Floor: "reserved for rhetorical guests" (p. 62)
- Ninth Floor. history and geography
- Rooftop Salon.
- This section of the Hotel proves to be very significant. Violet finds Esmé SqualorEsmé SqualorEsmé Gigi Geniveve Squalor is the secondary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. She is Count Olaf's girlfriend. Prior to the events of the series she was a professional stage actress and member of V.F.D. Esmé is distinguished...
, Carmelita, and Daily Punctilio reporter Geraldine Julienne here. Later in the novel, the siblings find themselves on the roof of the Hotel with Count OlafCount OlafCount Olaf is the primary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. In the series, Olaf is an actor and is known to have committed many crimes as a member of the fire-starting side of V.F.D. prior to the events of the first book in...
. The children reluctantly join him in his ship - regrettably, as they must leave the caring but relatively unhelpful Justice Strauss as she supposedly perishes along with others in the terrible fire of the Hotel Denouement.
- This section of the Hotel proves to be very significant. Violet finds Esmé Squalor
Hotel Preludio
Hotel Preludio is a fictional hotelHotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
in A Series of Unfortunate Events
A Series of Unfortunate Events
A Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of children's novels by Lemony Snicket which follows the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire after their parents' death in an arsonous house fire...
. It is only mentioned in The Penultimate Peril
The Penultimate Peril
The Penultimate Peril is the twelfth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.-Plot:The book starts off where The Grim Grotto left off...
to be a place the Baudelaires stayed when their parents were still alive. Kit Snicket regards it, in the same book, to be "a lovely place". The Penultimate Peril states that it is still standing, along with a list of its amenities. It makes no appearance in the books and is not portrayed in the film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events is a 2004 black comedy film directed by Brad Silberling. It is an adaptation of the The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, and The Wide Window, being the first three books in A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket...
.
Dr. Orwell's Office
Dr. Orwell's Office is where Georgina Orwell practices optometryOptometry
Optometry is a health care profession concerned with eyes and related structures, as well as vision, visual systems, and vision information processing in humans. Optometrists, or Doctors of Optometry, are state licensed medical professionals trained to prescribe and fit lenses to improve vision,...
and hypnotism before her death. The Miserable Mill
The Miserable Mill
The Miserable Mill is the fourth of thirteen novels in American author Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It is to be released in paperback under the name The Miserable Mill; or, Hypnotism! The novel tells the story of the Baudelaire orphans continuing their adventure, but this time...
describes the building as a huge eye, being a mostly brown oval, which contains a white circle then containing a green circle, which in turn contains a round black door. It looks much like Count Olaf
Count Olaf
Count Olaf is the primary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. In the series, Olaf is an actor and is known to have committed many crimes as a member of the fire-starting side of V.F.D. prior to the events of the first book in...
's tattoo. In the book the illustration differs slightly from the description. The waiting room inside the office is small, containing a sofa, chairs, and magazines. Dr. Orwell's receptionist, Count Olaf, disguised as Shirley, has his desk in the waiting room.
Last Chance General Store
The Last Chance General Store's front is covered in posters advertising goods sold at the store. Telegrams can be sent from the store (for free if it is an emergency). The owner does not charge the Volunteers Fighting Disease for things.The store sells fresh limes, canned meat, plastic knives, white envelopes, red wine, leather wallets, sleeping bags and much more. The floor is made of different types of tile, all for sale. The usefulness of such a General Store is undetermined.
The store appears in The Hostile Hospital
The Hostile Hospital
The Hostile Hospital is the eighth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.-Plot and summary:The book begins where the previous one left off, with the three Baudelaire children escaping the Village of Fowl Devotees...
and in the movie Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events is a 2004 black comedy film directed by Brad Silberling. It is an adaptation of the The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, and The Wide Window, being the first three books in A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket...
during the events of The Bad Beginning
The Bad Beginning
The Bad Beginning is the first of thirteen novels in American author Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was later released in paperback under the name The Bad Beginning; or, Orphans! The novel tells the story of three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who are orphaned...
. Count Olaf looks through magazines there as his plan to overrun the Baudelaires with a train fails.
Lucky Smells Lumbermill
Lucky Smells Lumbermill is a sawmillSawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
located in Paltryville, and is the site of most of the action in The Miserable Mill
The Miserable Mill
The Miserable Mill is the fourth of thirteen novels in American author Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It is to be released in paperback under the name The Miserable Mill; or, Hypnotism! The novel tells the story of the Baudelaire orphans continuing their adventure, but this time...
.
It is surrounded by a long wooden wall with one gate that has "Lucky Smells Lumbermill" stuck on it with gum. This sign is claimed to be the second most disgusting in the world, after a sign with the word 'BEWARE' spelt out with dead monkeys. In the mill, there is a dormitory, the mill itself, a storage shed, and a building where Sir and Charles work and live.
The workers at the mill aren't treated very well. They are forced to live in a windowless room (with the exception of the windows drawn on the walls with a ballpoint pen
Ballpoint pen
A ballpoint pen is a writing instrument with an internal ink reservoir and a sphere for a point. The internal chamber is filled with a viscous ink that is dispensed at its tip during use by the rolling action of a small sphere...
) in uncomfortable bunk beds. The only meals are chewing gum
Chewing gum
Chewing gum is a type of gum traditionally made of chicle, a natural latex product, or synthetic rubber known as polyisobutylene. For economical and quality reasons, many modern chewing gums use rubber instead of chicle...
for lunch (which is only 5 minutes long), and disgusting casseroles for dinner. All workers are paid with expired coupons. However, this could change because near the end of the book Phil reads in The Paltryville Constitution that it is illegal to pay workers in coupons. But is never said if the workers were ever paid with money. In the thirteenth book, a place called Lucky Smells Melon Farm is mentioned. It is possible that the Lumbermill was once a melon farm.
There is a library at the mill, but it only consists of three books:
- The History of Lucky Smells Lumbermill (donated by Sir)
- The Paltryville Constitution (donated by the mayor)
- Advanced Ocular Science (donated by Dr. Orwell).
Employees
- Sir - 1st Owner
- Phil - Worker (quit)
- Foreman Firstein - Foreman (retired, no further details given but his departure is consistent with that of people murdered by Count OlafCount OlafCount Olaf is the primary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. In the series, Olaf is an actor and is known to have committed many crimes as a member of the fire-starting side of V.F.D. prior to the events of the first book in...
so that he or his associates can replace them) - The bald-headed man A.K.A. Foreman Flacutono - Foreman (quit). His name is an anagram of Count Olaf.
- Violet BaudelaireViolet BaudelaireViolet Baudelaire is one of the main characters in the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket and appears in all thirteen books. She is the oldest of the Baudelaire orphans at 14 years old, and often helps her 12-year-old brother Klaus and her baby sister Sunny...
- Worker (fired by mutual agreement) - Klaus BaudelaireKlaus BaudelaireKlaus Baudelaire is one of the main characters in the children's book series, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket who appears in all thirteen novels. Klaus is the middle child of the Baudelaire orphans; he has an older sister named Violet and a younger sister named Sunny...
- Worker (fired by mutual agreement) - Sunny BaudelaireSunny BaudelaireSunny Baudelaire is one of the protagonists of Lemony Snicket's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events. Sunny is the youngest of the three Baudelaire orphans, and is described as an infant through much of the series...
- Worker (fired by mutual agreement) - Charles - 2nd Owner
Mulctuary Money Management
Mulctuary Money Management is a bankBank
A bank is a financial institution that serves as a financial intermediary. The term "bank" may refer to one of several related types of entities:...
located in the banking district of the city. Mr. Poe, executor of the Baudelaire estate, is Vice President in charge of Orphan Affairs. A teacher from Prufrock Preparatory School, Mrs. Bass, robs
Bank robbery
Bank robbery is the crime of stealing from a bank during opening hours. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, robbery is "the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of...
the bank prior to The Penultimate Peril
The Penultimate Peril
The Penultimate Peril is the twelfth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.-Plot:The book starts off where The Grim Grotto left off...
.
Prufrock Preparatory School
Prufrock Preparatory School is a dystopiaDystopia
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...
n school in The Austere Academy
The Austere Academy
The Austere Academy is the fifth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. It was released in paperback under the name The Austere Academy: or, Kidnapping! The Baudelaire orphans are sent to a boarding school, overseen by monstrous employees...
.
Named after The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, commonly known as Prufrock, is a poem by T. S. Eliot, begun in February 1910 and published in Chicago in June 1915. Described as a "drama of literary anguish," it presents a stream of consciousness in the form of a dramatic monologue, and marked the beginning of...
by T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
, it contains a cafeteria, an administrative building, and a theater where Vice Principal Nero performs his dire violin concerts for six hours at a time. Its motto inscribed on the arch at the entrance to the school is "Memento Mori
Memento mori
Memento mori is a Latin phrase translated as "Remember your mortality", "Remember you must die" or "Remember you will die". It names a genre of artistic work which varies widely, but which all share the same purpose: to remind people of their own mortality...
" which means "Remember you will die". There is a dormitory that is shaped like a giant tombstone (from the Baudelaire's point of view) or a big toe
Toe
Toes are the digits of the foot of a tetrapod. Animal species such as cats that walk on their toes are described as being digitigrade. Humans, and other animals that walk on the soles of their feet, are described as being plantigrade; unguligrade animals are those that walk on hooves at the tips of...
(from Mr. Poe's point of view) and made entirely of stone, in which students have to have a parent or guardian's permission to stay. Inside the dormitory, there is a living room, a game room, and a large lending library. All students have their own room and a fresh bowl of fruit every Wednesday. If parent or guardian's permission is not obtained, which the Baudelaires, the main characters of the series, cannot obtain because they are orphans, then pupils are forced to live in the Orphans' Shack.
The shack, called "The Orphans' Shack" since Duncan and Isadora Quagmire, two orphans, were forced to live there, is made entirely of tin. Bales of hay can be used as beds. Tiny crabs scurry around on the floor. The walls are all painted bright green with tiny pink hearts, and a fungus
Fungus
A fungus is a member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds , as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, Fungi, which is separate from plants, animals, and bacteria...
drips from the ceiling.
The school has a number of bizarre and strict rules, irrationally similar to those of the orphans' previous guardians, thought up by Vice Principal Nero. If a pupil is late for class, their hands are tied behind their back for meals. Being late for a meal means having no cups to drink from (and drinks are poured straight onto the tray). Entering the administrative building is punished by not being allowed to use normal cutlery. Failure to attend Vice Principal Nero's nightly six hour long concerts is dealt with by having to buy Nero a bag of sweets and watching him eat them.
The Baudelaires are sent to live at Prufrock Preparatory in The Austere Academy. While Klaus
Klaus Baudelaire
Klaus Baudelaire is one of the main characters in the children's book series, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket who appears in all thirteen novels. Klaus is the middle child of the Baudelaire orphans; he has an older sister named Violet and a younger sister named Sunny...
and Violet
Violet Baudelaire
Violet Baudelaire is one of the main characters in the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket and appears in all thirteen books. She is the oldest of the Baudelaire orphans at 14 years old, and often helps her 12-year-old brother Klaus and her baby sister Sunny...
are students, Sunny
Sunny Baudelaire
Sunny Baudelaire is one of the protagonists of Lemony Snicket's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events. Sunny is the youngest of the three Baudelaire orphans, and is described as an infant through much of the series...
is given the job of secretary to Vice Principal Nero, who is obnoxious and ignorant. Two fellow students and orphans, Duncan and Isadora Quagmire, become friends with the Baudelaires and figure prominently in several of the later books in the series. Carmelita Spats, another student, bullies and teases the Baudelaires and Quagmires mercilessly during their stay at the school, and also returns in several books.
There is some speculation that Prufrock was a V.F.D.
V.F.D.
V.F.D. is a secret organization within the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The purposes of the organization are never made clear, although the name of the organization is connected to various interpretations of the word "fire." V.F.D...
training school. Mr. Remora teaches note-taking skills, and Vice Principal Nero mentions that a bowl of fresh fruit is placed in the dormitory every Wednesday, which could be a very subtle reference to the sugar bowl
Sugar bowl (A Series of Unfortunate Events)
The sugar bowl is a fictional object from A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. It was first mentioned by name in The Hostile Hospital, in which Snicket ponders whether it was necessary to have stolen it from Esmé Squalor. It is indirectly mentioned in The Ersatz Elevator by Esmé...
or it may be another version of Verbal Fridge Dialogue.
In The Austere Academy, Count Olaf
Count Olaf
Count Olaf is the primary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. In the series, Olaf is an actor and is known to have committed many crimes as a member of the fire-starting side of V.F.D. prior to the events of the first book in...
disguises himself as "Coach Genghis", a new faculty member at Prufrock, in his latest attempt to kidnap the Baudelaires and steal their fortune. Due to a switch around by the Baudelaires and the Quagmires, however, Olaf ends up kidnapping Isadora and Duncan instead. It is also hinted in The Beatrice Letters
The Beatrice Letters
The Beatrice Letters is a book by Lemony Snicket. It is tangential to the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events, and was published shortly before the thirteenth and final installment...
that the younger Beatrice Baudelaire may have attended this school also.
Several students from Prufrock are kidnapped by Olaf at some point and used in The Grim Grotto as slave labour on his stolen submarine.
Staff
- Vice Principal Nero
- Mr. Remora (eats bananas while making his students memorize every detail of his short stories in Room One; two of his students are Violet BaudelaireViolet BaudelaireViolet Baudelaire is one of the main characters in the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket and appears in all thirteen books. She is the oldest of the Baudelaire orphans at 14 years old, and often helps her 12-year-old brother Klaus and her baby sister Sunny...
and Duncan Quagmire) - Mrs. Bass (has an obsession for the metric system and has her students measure various items in Room Two; two of her students are Klaus BaudelaireKlaus BaudelaireKlaus Baudelaire is one of the main characters in the children's book series, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket who appears in all thirteen novels. Klaus is the middle child of the Baudelaire orphans; he has an older sister named Violet and a younger sister named Sunny...
and Isadora Quagmire) - Sunny BaudelaireSunny BaudelaireSunny Baudelaire is one of the protagonists of Lemony Snicket's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events. Sunny is the youngest of the three Baudelaire orphans, and is described as an infant through much of the series...
(for a short time only, one of the main protagonists of the series) - Two Cafeteria Workers (later found to be the White-Faced Women in disguise)
- Coach GenghisCount OlafCount Olaf is the primary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. In the series, Olaf is an actor and is known to have committed many crimes as a member of the fire-starting side of V.F.D. prior to the events of the first book in...
(Count Olaf in disguise) - There is also a mysterious librarian character - referred to in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized AutobiographyLemony Snicket: The Unauthorized AutobiographyLemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography was first released on May 1, 2002. The book's content relates to the author Lemony Snicket and his series of books, A Series of Unfortunate Events...
- who wears an unusual assortment of clothes and asks "Have you been good to your mother?" a question from the book Ramona Quimby, Age 8Ramona Quimby, Age 8Ramona Quimby, Age 8 is a juvenile fiction novel written by Beverly Cleary. It is the sixth installment in the Ramona Quimby series. It was illustrated by Alan Tiegreen and was first published in 1981. The current edition was illustrated by Tracy Dockray. It is a 1982 Newbery Honor award winner...
, seemingly as a way to identify other V.F.D.V.F.D.V.F.D. is a secret organization within the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The purposes of the organization are never made clear, although the name of the organization is connected to various interpretations of the word "fire." V.F.D...
members.
Valorous Farms Dairy
Valorous Farms Dairy is the birthplace of Lemony SnicketLemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler . Snicket is the author of several children's books, serving as the narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events and appearing as a character within the series. Because of this, the name Lemony Snicket may refer to both a fictional...
. Commonly mistaken by others to be a cattle farm, it is in fact a dairy farm and the place to which several of Snicket's letters (titled "Dear Dairy" in an effort to conceal information from potential enemies, who would mistake it for a misspelling of "Dear Diary
Diary
A diary is a record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. A personal diary may include a person's experiences, and/or thoughts or feelings, including comment on current events outside the writer's direct experience. Someone...
") are addressed. At least one arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
attempt has been made against it by someone disguised as a cow.
The initials of its name suggest that it has some association with V.F.D.
V.F.D.
V.F.D. is a secret organization within the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The purposes of the organization are never made clear, although the name of the organization is connected to various interpretations of the word "fire." V.F.D...
, and some evidence, such as the letters Snicket sends there, points to them as, at the least, unwitting allies.
It is suggested in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography was first released on May 1, 2002. The book's content relates to the author Lemony Snicket and his series of books, A Series of Unfortunate Events...
that one of Count Olaf
Count Olaf
Count Olaf is the primary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. In the series, Olaf is an actor and is known to have committed many crimes as a member of the fire-starting side of V.F.D. prior to the events of the first book in...
's associates hides here disguised as a cow for a period of time while trying to figure out what happened to Dr. Montgomery's reptile collection.
This building is supposedly burnt down, according to a letter from Brett Helquist
Brett Helquist
Brett L. Helquist is an American illustrator best known for his work in the children's books A Series of Unfortunate Events. As such, his illustrations for that series have appeared in multiple media, including the books, the audiobook covers, the calendars, and so on.- Background :According to...
to Lemony Snicket, in which he encloses a picture suspiciously similar to that of the Baudelaire home in The Bad Beginning
The Bad Beginning
The Bad Beginning is the first of thirteen novels in American author Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was later released in paperback under the name The Bad Beginning; or, Orphans! The novel tells the story of three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who are orphaned...
.
Vineyard of Fragrant Grapes
The Vineyard of Fragrant Grapes (whose name is often intentionally misspelled Vineyard of Fragrant Drapes) is a vineyardVineyard
A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice...
mentioned in Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler . Snicket is the author of several children's books, serving as the narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events and appearing as a character within the series. Because of this, the name Lemony Snicket may refer to both a fictional...
's autobiography
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography was first released on May 1, 2002. The book's content relates to the author Lemony Snicket and his series of books, A Series of Unfortunate Events...
. It is where Snicket and Beatrice
Beatrice (A Series of Unfortunate Events)
Beatrice Baudelaire is a fictional character in the novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. She is the mother of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, the wife of Bertrand Baudelaire, the unrequited romance of Lemony Snicket, and a member of V.F.D.-Love life:Lemony Snicket was...
were to be married. It is also where Jerome Squalor and Esmé
Esmé Squalor
Esmé Gigi Geniveve Squalor is the secondary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. She is Count Olaf's girlfriend. Prior to the events of the series she was a professional stage actress and member of V.F.D. Esmé is distinguished...
are married.
Snicket's autobiography includes two letters, addressed to Snicket and Squalor, informing both of their wedding arrangements. While the structure of both letters are similar, Snicket's letter contains a message written in the Sebald Code, warning him to avoid the vineyard under the pretense of an anticipated arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
attack.
The vineyard is also briefly mentioned in The Carnivorous Carnival as a weekend vacation location for the Baudelaire family prior to Sunny's birth.
Royal Gardens
The Royal Gardens stood in the main city, but were taken down, with an enormous pile of dirt in its place in The Bad BeginningThe Bad Beginning
The Bad Beginning is the first of thirteen novels in American author Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was later released in paperback under the name The Bad Beginning; or, Orphans! The novel tells the story of three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who are orphaned...
when a banker, Arthur Poe
Arthur Poe
Arthur Poe is a fictional character in the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. Poe is a banker in charge of the Baudelaire and Quagmire fortunes and the Baudelaire orphans' guardianship...
, drives the Baudelaires to their new house, where Count Olaf lives.
Count Olaf's house
Count Olaf's House is a fictionFiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
al place in the series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler . Snicket is the author of several children's books, serving as the narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events and appearing as a character within the series. Because of this, the name Lemony Snicket may refer to both a fictional...
. The house first appears in The Bad Beginning
The Bad Beginning
The Bad Beginning is the first of thirteen novels in American author Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was later released in paperback under the name The Bad Beginning; or, Orphans! The novel tells the story of three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who are orphaned...
.
The exterior of the house looks very unclean. The bricks are all stained with soot and grime. The entire building sags to the side. Only two small windows are visible from the front. Above the windows, a dirty tower tilts slightly to the left. On the front door, which needs repainting, an image of an eye is carved.
The interior is similar to the exterior, in that the entire house is unkempt and filthy. The house includes a main hallway, a kitchen, a dining room, two bedrooms, and a room in the tower. Every room that has been described in the book is dirty, dimly lit, and unpleasant to be in.
The Baudelaire children mention in The Bad Beginning that they feel that many eyes are watching them, and notes of Lemony Snicket from the rare edition of The Bad Beginning mention that Count Olaf's house has hidden secret peepholes, cameras, and microscopic lenses.
The Vile Village
The Vile Village
The Vile Village is the seventh novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. After escaping Olaf once again, the Baudelaire orphans are taken into the care of a whole village, only to find lots of rules and chores, evil seniors, and Count Olaf and his evil girlfriend...
mentions that the Quagmires are hidden in the tower room for a short while before being hastily moved again.
No one seems to want to even go near the house, or at least not Violet
Violet Baudelaire
Violet Baudelaire is one of the main characters in the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket and appears in all thirteen books. She is the oldest of the Baudelaire orphans at 14 years old, and often helps her 12-year-old brother Klaus and her baby sister Sunny...
, Klaus
Klaus Baudelaire
Klaus Baudelaire is one of the main characters in the children's book series, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket who appears in all thirteen novels. Klaus is the middle child of the Baudelaire orphans; he has an older sister named Violet and a younger sister named Sunny...
, and Sunny Baudelaire
Sunny Baudelaire
Sunny Baudelaire is one of the protagonists of Lemony Snicket's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events. Sunny is the youngest of the three Baudelaire orphans, and is described as an infant through much of the series...
, and the next door neighbour Justice Strauss.
Justice Strauss's house
Justice Strauss's house is next door to Count Olaf's house. The house is very clean and inviting, especially in comparison to Count OlafCount Olaf
Count Olaf is the primary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. In the series, Olaf is an actor and is known to have committed many crimes as a member of the fire-starting side of V.F.D. prior to the events of the first book in...
's. Her home has a garden where the Baudelaire children garden with her during their stay with Count Olaf. The house also has a library with books on a variety of topics, including law, which helps Klaus foil Count Olaf's marital scheme in The Bad Beginning
The Bad Beginning
The Bad Beginning is the first of thirteen novels in American author Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was later released in paperback under the name The Bad Beginning; or, Orphans! The novel tells the story of three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who are orphaned...
.
Uncle Monty's house
Uncle Monty's House, in Lemony SnicketLemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler . Snicket is the author of several children's books, serving as the narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events and appearing as a character within the series. Because of this, the name Lemony Snicket may refer to both a fictional...
's book series, A Series of Unfortunate Events
A Series of Unfortunate Events
A Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of children's novels by Lemony Snicket which follows the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire after their parents' death in an arsonous house fire...
, refers to the home of the Baudelaire orphans' late father's cousin's wife's brother, herpetologist
Herpetology
Herpetology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians and reptiles...
Montgomery Montgomery. The house features a strong snake motif, with sculptures, paintings and (in the large front yard) topiaries
Topiary
Topiary is the horticultural practice of training live perennial plants, by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees, shrubs and subshrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes, perhaps geometric or fanciful; and the term also refers to plants which have been shaped in this way. It can be...
of serpents. The home includes at least five bedrooms, a kitchen, a foyer
Foyer
A foyer or lobby is a large, vast room or complex of rooms adjacent to the auditorium...
, a living room and a large glass conservatory, used to house Montgomery's reptile collection; the second book in the series, The Reptile Room
The Reptile Room
The Reptile Room is a children's novel and the second of A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. It was later released in paperback under the title The Reptile Room; or, Murder! Having just escaped from the greedy and evil Count Olaf in the first book, the Baudelaire children are now...
, takes its name from this room. At the end of this room there is a library, which is well guarded by the snakes. There are probably more rooms, as the home is rather large. It has many stories, as shown in the illustration.
In The Slippery Slope
The Slippery Slope
The Slippery Slope is the tenth installment in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Daniel Handler under the pseudonym of Lemony Snicket.-Plot Summary:...
, it is revealed that the house is connected by a mysterious tunnel to the Quagmire Mansion. The purpose of this tunnel is as yet unknown. It is also mentioned that the house has been burned down.
It was mentioned (by Quigley Quagmire in The Slippery Slope and by Lemony Snicket in The Unauthorized Autobiography
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography was first released on May 1, 2002. The book's content relates to the author Lemony Snicket and his series of books, A Series of Unfortunate Events...
) that books concerning V.F.D.
V.F.D.
V.F.D. is a secret organization within the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The purposes of the organization are never made clear, although the name of the organization is connected to various interpretations of the word "fire." V.F.D...
were hidden in Dr. Montgomery's library.
Aunt Josephine's house
The home of Josephine Anwhistle is featured in The Wide WindowThe Wide Window
The Wide Window is a children's novel and the third novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. It was later released in paperback under the name The Wide Window; or, Disappearance! In The Wide Window, the Baudelaire orphans are sent to live with their third...
, the third novel in A Series of Unfortunate Events. The structure is built on the edge of a cliff, being held up by a series of stilts
Stilts
Stilts are poles, posts or pillars used to allow a person or structure to stand at a distance above the ground. Walking stilts are poles equipped with steps for the feet to stand on, or straps to attach them to the legs, for the purpose of walking while elevated above a normal height...
and struts. It is of somewhat small size. The main feature of the house is a wide window, which provides a view of Lake Lachrymose and is the site where Aunt Josephine fakes her suicide later in the book. There is also a library that contains books only on grammar. Josephine Anwhistle considers grammar to be the greatest joy in life. The house has only two bedrooms. It also has a dining room, a kitchen, and a living room. Although the building has electricity, gas, central heating, and a telephone line, none of these are used due to Josephine's many phobias.
The house was later blown right off the cliff during Hurricane Herman.
It is mentioned in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography that the second half of a V.F.D. meeting manuscript is hidden in Ivan Lachrymose: Lake Explorer, under someone's bed. In The Wide Window, when the Baudelaire orphans are looking for an atlas under a bed in Aunt Josephine's house, one of the books under there is Ivan Lachrymose: Lake Explorer. This suggests that the manuscript is indeed hidden there. Also, in The Grim Grotto, Captain Widdershins said he and the crew of the Queequeg saved books from the house that were being destroyed in Lake Lachrymose.
667 Dark Avenue
667 Dark Avenue is a fictional apartment building in the city. In The Ersatz ElevatorThe Ersatz Elevator
The Ersatz Elevator is the sixth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Daniel Handler under the pseudonym of Lemony Snicket. The Baudelaires are sent to live with the wealthy Esmé and Jerome Squalor.-Plot summary:...
, the Baudelaire orphans stay at the building's penthouse apartment, home of their new guardians Esmé
Esmé Squalor
Esmé Gigi Geniveve Squalor is the secondary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. She is Count Olaf's girlfriend. Prior to the events of the series she was a professional stage actress and member of V.F.D. Esmé is distinguished...
and Jerome Squalor.
667 Dark Avenue has 66 floors, with one apartment on each floor. (The doorman at 667 only remembers the number of floors as either 48 or 84. 66 happens to be the average of the two numbers) There is one set of elevator doors on every floor, except on the 66th floor, where there is a second set of elevator doors. Despite this, elevator use is said to be not in style, and everyone uses the stairs instead. This reflects the obsession with current trends that permeates the building and its street. When nautical theming comes into fashion, the entire lobby is redecorated to reflect this.
Esmé Squalor may be the perpetrator of some of these trends, considering that elevator disuse helps to hide the use of the second set of elevator doors on the top floor that hide a shaft and underground passageway leading to the former site of the Baudelaire Mansion, which burned down before the events of The Bad Beginning
The Bad Beginning
The Bad Beginning is the first of thirteen novels in American author Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was later released in paperback under the name The Bad Beginning; or, Orphans! The novel tells the story of three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who are orphaned...
. Another side effect of lift disuse is that, due to flawed acoustic design, conversations from inside the apartments can easily be overheard from the stairwell.
According to Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography was first released on May 1, 2002. The book's content relates to the author Lemony Snicket and his series of books, A Series of Unfortunate Events...
, there is another floor above the penthouse, but it is never explained how any one would be able to access it, leaving readers to speculate that there may once have been a genuine elevator in the ersatz elevator shaft, allowing for an easier journey from the secret passage.
The building's address 667 is similar to 666, the Number of the Beast
Number of the Beast
The Number of the Beast is a term in the Book of Revelation, of the New Testament, that is associated with the first Beast of Revelation chapter 13, the Beast of the sea. In most manuscripts of the New Testament and in English translations of the Bible, the number of the Beast is...
(whichever building is across the street will actually be 666 Dark Avenue), and, at the beginning of the novel, it is a literal dark avenue, with all the light blocked out by large trees. Later in the novel, light becomes fashionable again and the trees are chopped down.
- One character states that he can never remember whether there are 48 floors or 84 (the actual number, 66, is the average of these two numbers) - this is supposedly a reference to George Orwell's 1984Nineteen Eighty-FourNineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
, a novel written in 1948.