Mr. and Mrs. Baudelaire
Encyclopedia
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
. The Baudelaire children, Violet
, Klaus
, and Sunny
, are the protagonists of the series.
, Daniel Handler
(Lemony Snicket) said:
Snicket named the Baudelaires after French
macabre poet Charles Baudelaire
. The French
surname Baudelaire (ˌ in English), historically also recorded as Badelaire and Bazelaire, refers to a short sword or knife used as a heraldic
blazon
: Thomas Nugent, in his Pocket-Dictionary of the French and English Languages (1808), translated baudelaire as a "short, broad, and curved sword" used in heraldry; Thomas Dudley Fosbroke
, in his Encyclopædia of Antiquities (1825), described the baudelaire as a "little portative knife" used as a medieval English blazon; W. T. Cosgrave described it as a "short and broad backsword, being towards the point like a Turkish scymitar
". The French word baudelaire comes from Medieval Latin
bādelārius, bādelāris, or bādārellus, meaning a "kind of short sword" (ensis brevis species).
Despite the apparently Romantic
origin of "Baudelaire", Snicket stated in February 2007 that "the Baudelaires are Jewish
! I guess we would not know for sure but we would strongly suspect it," citing their "manner" as an indicator. Snicket elaborated: "I think there is something naturally Jewish about unending misery. […] I'm Jewish so, by default, the characters I create are Jewish, I think."
in the novel
series A Series of Unfortunate Events
by Lemony Snicket
. He is the father of Violet
, Klaus
, and Sunny Baudelaire
, the husband of Beatrice Baudelaire, and a member of V.F.D.. Throughout the series, the children remember anecdotes about their father, such as him cooking or at a dinner party.
As a child Bertrand was friends with Beatrice (his future wife). When Beatrice arrived early to her first day of V.F.D. training, Lemony Snicket
complimented her for her punctuality, which embarrassed her because she was with Bertrand, the future Duchess of Winnipeg, and "others".
As a member of V.F.D., Bertrand is known to have helped in the training of the volunteer feline detectives (Mortmain Mountain lions). Bertrand was also good friends with Dewey Denouement, and Dewey mentioned that the two liked to recite an American humorist poem of the nineteenth century composed by John Godfrey Saxe
together.
Count Olaf implicates Bertrand as a co-conspirator in the murder of his own parents. At the outset of the series, Bertrand perished when the Baudelaire Mansion was destroyed in a fire.
In The Penultimate Peril
, Kit recalls seeing the Baudelaires' mother at an opera called La Forza del Destino
, and that she was wearing "a red shawl with long feathers along the edges". The elder Baudelaires also recall that when their mother was pregnant with Sunny, she would always spend most of her time lounging in the Baudelaire library, and ask their father to fetch lemonade and pumpernickel toast, or moving the pillows underneath her around, so she would always feel comfortable. Their father would also play some of their mother's favorite pieces on the phonograph, and sometimes she would try to stand up and dance along to the piece and make silly faces at the elder Baudelaires while they were watching from the doorway. They also tell Kit about staying at the Hotel Preludio.
Violet's siblings are Klaus Baudelaire, age twelve, turning thirteen in "The Vile Village", and Sunny Baudelaire, described as an infant throughout the series. Violet and her siblings adopt Kit Snicket's baby daughter after Kit dies in child birth, whom they name Beatrice Baudelaire, after their own mother.Her sister,Sunny almost died until wasabi saved her in "The Grim Grotto" as they find her birthday cake.
.
in Lemony Snicket
's A Series of Unfortunate Events
. She is the daughter of Kit Snicket, who dies after giving birth, and possibly Dewey Denouncement, making Lemony Snicket's niece yet another orphan. Baby Beatrice is adopted by the Baudelaire orphans, hence the use of the surname Baudelaire. At age one, "she looks very much like her mother," according to Chapter Fourteen.
The younger Beatrice was named per tradition, which was to name the baby after a deceased friend or loved one http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/820540/jewish/Why-dont-we-name-children-after-living-parents.htm. This was why Violet Baudelaire was almost named Lemony- after her mother's thought-to-be deceased ex-fiancee. The final connection in hearing the baby utter her own name links together the clues that Lemony Snicket
was always in love with the Baudelaire orphans' mother, whom he dedicates every book to.
The last word of the last volume, Chapter Fourteen, is "Beatrice," uttered by baby Beatrice herself.
In the Beatrice Letters, which is set ten years later than the main series, the second Beatrice Baudelaire is now a 10-year-old girl in search of her uncle, Lemony Snicket
, and the Baudelaire orphans, who have apparently disappeared. The young girl writes Lemony Snicket
a series of letters asking him to answer her questions about the Baudelaire orphans. "I must have at least twelve," she writes. (And there are twelve books before The End.)
Beatrice writes one letter on a typewriter in her uncle's empty small, dusty office, on the thirteenth floor of one of the nine dreariest buildings in the city. The office overlooks an empty lot where green sprouts are emerging from the remnants of a burned building. A map on the wall contains pinned up notes marking locations where Lemony Snicket
might be found. Another of Beatrice's letters is written from a cave where Lemony Snicket
has been hiding. She remarks that it is "a miserable place – drafty, bat-infested, and decorated with hideous wallpaper."
Another letter is written sometime later in the year, while the second Beatrice is sitting in her business letter writing class in the secretarial school that isn't really a secretarial school. The implication is that Beatrice has found her way to the VFD training school that her mother and uncle also once attended. However, Lemony Snicket
still does not want to see his niece and is actively running away from her.
In her fourth letter, Beatrice mentions that she has shadowed Lemony Snicket
from the library, to the park, as he strolled along the edge of a nearby pond, and made a mad dash for the bus. By the time she caught a rickshaw, followed him back to his dreary office building and "managed to pick the lock on the front door," he had already made his way up several flights and she could hear him wheezing from the climb. She knocks on his office door but he refuses to answer her.
A fifth letter is written an undetermined amount of time later, after the second Beatrice has set up her own office on the fourteenth floor of the Rhetorical Building, Lemony Snicket's
dreary office building. From this office she writes yet another letter to her elusive uncle. She drops it into a small metal tube, drills a hole through the floor, and drops the metal tube through the hole onto Lemony Snicket's
desk in the office below. She begs him again to meet her and answer her questions and vows not to rest until she has found the Baudelaire orphans. "I owe my life to them," she writes.
The sixth letter is a notecard inscribed "Beatrice Baudelaire, Baticeer Extraordinaire." But Beatrice has apologized about "embarrassing him in front of his friends". This could mean that Beatrice the first wrote the letter. She sends the card in the care of a waiter to Lemony Snicket
as he is drinking a root beer float. If he doesn't want to meet her, she writes, he needs only to rip up the card and she'll go away and never approach him again. The notecard in the book is intact, which implies that Lemony Snicket
has finally met with his niece.
Lemony Snicket
explains that, in referencing the older Beatrice, "Because I loved her so much ... it never occurred to me that there could be more than one Beatrice Baudelaire." He decides to join his niece's letters together with those written by and about the first Beatrice, in hope of making a coherent whole of the story. "Strange as it may seem," he writes to his editor in the final letter, "I still hope for the best, even though the best, like an interesting piece of mail, so rarely arrives, and even when it does it can be lost so easily."
implies that this was carried out by Count Olaf
using a massive refracting lens. The Baudelaire parents are said to have died in the blaze leaving Violet, Klaus, and Sunny orphaned.
The house is connected by a tunnel to 667 Dark Avenue, the home of Jerome Squalor and formerly Esmé Squalor
. The purpose of this passageway was possibly to direct members of the secret organization V.F.D.
to safe places before the schism. This passage is likely the reason Jerome Squalor was urged by Jacques Snicket to buy the penthouse of 667 Dark Avenue and to never ever sell it. For the same reason, Jacques Snicket urged Jerome Squalor not to marry Esmé.
In Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
, in an excerpt from The History of Lucky Smells Lumbermill, written by Sir, and mentioned in The Miserable Mill
as one of the few books in the Lucky Smells Lumbermill library, it is revealed that Lucky Smells Lumbermill supplied many buildings in its construction – including the Baudelaire, Snicket and Quagmire mansions – with its special "emerald lumber".
In the film, the Baudelaire Mansion is situated in 28 Prospero Place, Boston
, Massachusetts
.
It is unknown if the Baudelaires ever did inherit the fortune.
. While it has not been explicitly stated whether the fire was accidental or the result of arson
, Snicket has several times hinted that someone else was at the Baudelaire mansion when the fire started. In letter correspondence between Mr. Snicket and the Vineyard of Fragrant Grapes the Sebald code is applied in The Unauthorized Autobiography and says something like, "Hello, if you are still alive watch out" and then something roughly indicating, "If you get married here, the count will burn you and your wife". The count is supposedly Count Olaf. This is a probable explanation as to who burned down the mansion, but has not been confirmed. In The Wide Window
when Mr. Poe is listing the things Olaf is wanted for, he says, "The Lake Lachrymose Police Department will be happy to capture a known criminal wanted for fraud, murder, and the endangerment of children," and Count Olaf adds, "and arson." This implies that Count Olaf has been responsible for at least one fire. However, he cryptically implies that it wasn't him when, after the Baudelaires accuse him of murdering their parents, he asks "Is that what you think?". Sunny replies with "We know it."
Other characters, such as Duncan, Isadora and Quigley Quagmire have lost parents in similar fires, and members of V.F.D. are logical suspects.
In the movie version of the first three books, during the time when Olaf is forcing Violet to marry him, Klaus finds a giant magnifying glass which focuses the light. He finds that it is a clear shot to the house, indicating that Olaf used this glass as a method of arson.
Quigley indicated that he was the survivor of a fire and not Mr. or Mrs. Baudelaire. Lemony Snicket has said, at different times, that Beatrice and Bertrand are both dead.
It is possible that the fire mentioned in the hospital records was actually the Quagmire fire, and that the survivor referred to was, in fact, Quigley. However, it might have referred to Lemony Snicket himself, as he matched the description of the man whose face was unseen, and he is still alive but at large.
In The Carnivorous Carnival, when the Hook-Handed Man
says that one of the parents is alive, Lemony Snicket says that the statement is not true. However, this could be taken several ways: i.e. it could be that they are both dead, or that they are both alive. But Lemony Snicket also indicates that Beatrice Baudelaire had died, especially in his dedications in the beginnings in each book. He also explicitly states at the end of the tenth book that Bertrand Baudelaire 'will never rise again'.
also opens up more possibilities about the Baudelaire parents' past. Kit Snicket tells the children about a night that she attended an opera
(La forza del destino
) with their parents and handed them a box of poison
darts
before being seen by Esmé Squalor
. Later in the book Count Olaf
reveals that his parents were killed by poison darts and that he has good reason to hate the Baudelaires (obviously indicating that the Baudelaire parents were the ones who murdered his parents). This would explain Olaf's grudge against the family, his motive for burning down the Baudelaire mansion (as many believe he did), and possibly also why he became a villain in the first place. None of this is ever confirmed in the book, however.
One of the 13 Shocking Secrets You'll Wish You Never Knew About Lemony Snicket states that Lemony helped Beatrice to commit a serious crime before her death, which can possibly be the murder of Olaf's parents. Another reveals that Snicket is wanted for arson. However, in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
, he mentions that he knows of other people starting fires, although he himself did not. There is a possibility that he is only reported to committed arson, and actually was framed.
In The End, Count Olaf
, a known arsonist, refuses to confirm or deny the charge that he was responsible for the death of the Baudelaire parents and tells the Baudelaires that they know nothing.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
families created by American author 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...
for his novel 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...
. 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...
, are the protagonists of the series.
Concept and creation
In a 2010 video interview with The IndependentThe Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, 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:...
(Lemony Snicket) said:
It may interest people to know that my sister…was always very good with kind of mechanical devices, where I was kind of hopeless and more of a reader, kind of like Klaus. And then I always think Sunny reminds me of all babies, because really all babies do is speak unintelligibly and eat things.
Snicket named the Baudelaires after French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
macabre poet Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
. The French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
surname Baudelaire (ˌ in English), historically also recorded as Badelaire and Bazelaire, refers to a short sword or knife used as a heraldic
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
blazon
Blazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image...
: Thomas Nugent, in his Pocket-Dictionary of the French and English Languages (1808), translated baudelaire as a "short, broad, and curved sword" used in heraldry; Thomas Dudley Fosbroke
Thomas Dudley Fosbroke
Rev. Thomas Dudley Fosbroke , English antiquary, was born in London.He was educated at St Paul's School and Pembroke College, Oxford, graduating MA in 1792. In that year he was ordained and became curate of Horsley, Gloucestershire, where he remained till 1810...
, in his Encyclopædia of Antiquities (1825), described the baudelaire as a "little portative knife" used as a medieval English blazon; W. T. Cosgrave described it as a "short and broad backsword, being towards the point like a Turkish scymitar
Kilij
A kilij is a type of saber used by the Turks throughout history starting from late Hsiung-nu period to Avar Empire and Göktürk Khaganate, Uyghur Khaganate, Seljuk Empire, Timurid Empire, Mamluk Empire, Ottoman Empire, and later Turkic Khanates of Central Asia...
". The French word baudelaire comes from Medieval Latin
Medieval Latin
Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors,...
bādelārius, bādelāris, or bādārellus, meaning a "kind of short sword" (ensis brevis species).
Despite the apparently Romantic
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
origin of "Baudelaire", Snicket stated in February 2007 that "the Baudelaires are Jewish
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
! I guess we would not know for sure but we would strongly suspect it," citing their "manner" as an indicator. Snicket elaborated: "I think there is something naturally Jewish about unending misery. […] I'm Jewish so, by default, the characters I create are Jewish, I think."
Bertrand Baudelaire
Bertrand Baudelaire is a characterCharacter (arts)
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in the novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
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...
. He is the father of 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...
, the husband of Beatrice Baudelaire, and a member of V.F.D.. Throughout the series, the children remember anecdotes about their father, such as him cooking or at a dinner party.
As a child Bertrand was friends with Beatrice (his future wife). When Beatrice arrived early to her first day of V.F.D. training, 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...
complimented her for her punctuality, which embarrassed her because she was with Bertrand, the future Duchess of Winnipeg, and "others".
As a member of V.F.D., Bertrand is known to have helped in the training of the volunteer feline detectives (Mortmain Mountain lions). Bertrand was also good friends with Dewey Denouement, and Dewey mentioned that the two liked to recite an American humorist poem of the nineteenth century composed by John Godfrey Saxe
John Godfrey Saxe
John Godfrey Saxe I was an American poet perhaps best known for his re-telling of the Indian parable "The Blindmen and the Elephant", which introduced the story to a Western audience.-Biography:...
together.
Count Olaf implicates Bertrand as a co-conspirator in the murder of his own parents. At the outset of the series, Bertrand perished when the Baudelaire Mansion was destroyed in a fire.
Beatrice Baudelaire
The mother of the Baudelaire Orphans. It is unknown if she, or her husband Bertrand are descended from the Snicket family at all. If she is descended from the Snicket Family, it may explain why she and Lemony met when they were children. Lemony was in love with her.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...
, Kit recalls seeing the Baudelaires' mother at an opera called La Forza del Destino
La forza del destino
La forza del destino is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino , by Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, with a scene adapted from Friedrich Schiller's Wallensteins Lager. It was first performed...
, and that she was wearing "a red shawl with long feathers along the edges". The elder Baudelaires also recall that when their mother was pregnant with Sunny, she would always spend most of her time lounging in the Baudelaire library, and ask their father to fetch lemonade and pumpernickel toast, or moving the pillows underneath her around, so she would always feel comfortable. Their father would also play some of their mother's favorite pieces on the phonograph, and sometimes she would try to stand up and dance along to the piece and make silly faces at the elder Baudelaires while they were watching from the doorway. They also tell Kit about staying at the Hotel Preludio.
Violet Baudelaire
Violet Baudelaire is the first child. She is best known for her exceptional inventing skills. She is fourteen at the beginning of the series and turns fifteen in The Grim Grotto.Violet's siblings are Klaus Baudelaire, age twelve, turning thirteen in "The Vile Village", and Sunny Baudelaire, described as an infant throughout the series. Violet and her siblings adopt Kit Snicket's baby daughter after Kit dies in child birth, whom they name Beatrice Baudelaire, after their own mother.Her sister,Sunny almost died until wasabi saved her in "The Grim Grotto" as they find her birthday cake.
Klaus Baudelaire
Klaus Baudelaire is Bertrand and Beatrice Baudelaire's second child. He is an avid reader and a good researcher. He is identified by his prominent glasses. Early in the series, it is said that he and Sunny Baudelaire did not enjoy each other's company, but by the middle of The Bad Beginning both he and Sunny could not be torn apart. He is twelve at the beginning of the series and turns thirteen in The Vile Village, on June 12..
Sunny Baudelaire
Sunny is the youngest of the Baudelaire siblings (before Beatrice Baudelaire was adopted). She is very fond of biting things and has unusually large teeth for her age. In The Carnivorous Carnival, it shows that she develops interest and talent in cooking. She speaks unintelligibly most of the time and only her older siblings can understand her, though towards the end of the series her speech becomes easier to understand.Beatrice Baudelaire (the Baudelaires' adoptive sister)
Beatrice Baudelaire is a fictional characterFictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
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 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...
. She is the daughter of Kit Snicket, who dies after giving birth, and possibly Dewey Denouncement, making Lemony Snicket's niece yet another orphan. Baby Beatrice is adopted by the Baudelaire orphans, hence the use of the surname Baudelaire. At age one, "she looks very much like her mother," according to Chapter Fourteen.
The younger Beatrice was named per tradition, which was to name the baby after a deceased friend or loved one http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/820540/jewish/Why-dont-we-name-children-after-living-parents.htm. This was why Violet Baudelaire was almost named Lemony- after her mother's thought-to-be deceased ex-fiancee. The final connection in hearing the baby utter her own name links together the clues 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...
was always in love with the Baudelaire orphans' mother, whom he dedicates every book to.
The last word of the last volume, Chapter Fourteen, is "Beatrice," uttered by baby Beatrice herself.
In the Beatrice Letters, which is set ten years later than the main series, the second Beatrice Baudelaire is now a 10-year-old girl in search of her uncle, 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...
, and the Baudelaire orphans, who have apparently disappeared. The young girl writes 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...
a series of letters asking him to answer her questions about the Baudelaire orphans. "I must have at least twelve," she writes. (And there are twelve books before The End.)
Beatrice writes one letter on a typewriter in her uncle's empty small, dusty office, on the thirteenth floor of one of the nine dreariest buildings in the city. The office overlooks an empty lot where green sprouts are emerging from the remnants of a burned building. A map on the wall contains pinned up notes marking locations where 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...
might be found. Another of Beatrice's letters is written from a cave where 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...
has been hiding. She remarks that it is "a miserable place – drafty, bat-infested, and decorated with hideous wallpaper."
Another letter is written sometime later in the year, while the second Beatrice is sitting in her business letter writing class in the secretarial school that isn't really a secretarial school. The implication is that Beatrice has found her way to the VFD training school that her mother and uncle also once attended. However, 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...
still does not want to see his niece and is actively running away from her.
In her fourth letter, Beatrice mentions that she has shadowed 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...
from the library, to the park, as he strolled along the edge of a nearby pond, and made a mad dash for the bus. By the time she caught a rickshaw, followed him back to his dreary office building and "managed to pick the lock on the front door," he had already made his way up several flights and she could hear him wheezing from the climb. She knocks on his office door but he refuses to answer her.
A fifth letter is written an undetermined amount of time later, after the second Beatrice has set up her own office on the fourteenth floor of the Rhetorical Building, Lemony Snicket's
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...
dreary office building. From this office she writes yet another letter to her elusive uncle. She drops it into a small metal tube, drills a hole through the floor, and drops the metal tube through the hole onto Lemony Snicket's
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...
desk in the office below. She begs him again to meet her and answer her questions and vows not to rest until she has found the Baudelaire orphans. "I owe my life to them," she writes.
The sixth letter is a notecard inscribed "Beatrice Baudelaire, Baticeer Extraordinaire." But Beatrice has apologized about "embarrassing him in front of his friends". This could mean that Beatrice the first wrote the letter. She sends the card in the care of a waiter to 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...
as he is drinking a root beer float. If he doesn't want to meet her, she writes, he needs only to rip up the card and she'll go away and never approach him again. The notecard in the book is intact, which implies 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...
has finally met with his niece.
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...
explains that, in referencing the older Beatrice, "Because I loved her so much ... it never occurred to me that there could be more than one Beatrice Baudelaire." He decides to join his niece's letters together with those written by and about the first Beatrice, in hope of making a coherent whole of the story. "Strange as it may seem," he writes to his editor in the final letter, "I still hope for the best, even though the best, like an interesting piece of mail, so rarely arrives, and even when it does it can be lost so easily."
Extended family
Relationships are listed in relationship to the Baudelaire children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny. Relationships formed by adopting Beatrice are not listed here, but would include all members of the extended Snicket family and all relatives of Dewey Denouement. For further possibilities, see Snicket family#Family tree.- 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...
, either the Baudelaires' third cousin four times removed or (more plausibly) their fourth cousin three times removed. Therefore:- Count Olaf's father (Oliver), either the Baudelaires' second cousin five times removed or their third cousin four times removed. It may be implied that he was murdered by Bertrand Baudelaire, Beatrice Baudelaire, and Lemony Snicket.
- Count Olaf's mother(Olivia) , either the Baudelaires' second cousin five times removed or their third cousin four times removed. It may be implied that she was murdered by Bertrand Baudelaire, Beatrice Baudelaire, and Lemony Snicket.
- Montgomery (Monty) Montgomery, the Baudelaire's first cousin-in-law once removed (or more specifically, Bertrand's cousin's wife's brother). Therefore:
- Bertrand's unnamed cousin, the Baudelaires' first cousin once removed.
- Montgomery's unnamed sister, the Baudelaires' first cousin-in-law once removed.
- Josephine Anwhistle, the Baudelaires' second cousin-in-law (or more specifically, second cousin's sister-in-law). This implies that Josephine has a sibling (and does not refer to Ike's sibling, Gregor). Therefore:
- Isaac "Ike" Anwhistle, the Baudelaires' second cousin's sister's-in-law husband.
- Gregor Anwhistle, the Baudelaires' second cousin's sister's-in-law brother-in-law.
- unnamed second cousin
- Josephine's unnamed sibling, the Baudelaires' second cousin-in-law.
- Mrs. Anwhistle, the Baudelaires' second cousin's sister's-in-law mother-in-law (or more specifically, Ike and Gregor's mother). She is described as having only one eyebrow and one ear.
- Elwyn, the Baudelaires' uncle (whether he is maternal or paternal is not specified). He raised pigsDomestic pigThe domestic pig is a domesticated animal that traces its ancestry to the wild boar, and is considered a subspecies of the wild boar or a distinct species in its own right. It is likely the wild boar was domesticated as early as 13,000 BC in the Tigris River basin...
, in a reference to 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...
(whose first name was Elwyn) and his book 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...
. - Mr. Fagin, the Baudelaires' nineteenth cousin (his name is presumably a reference to Mr. FaginFaginFagin is a fictional character who appears as an antagonist of the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist, referred to in the preface of the novel as a "receiver of stolen goods", but referred to more frequently within the actual story as the "merry old gentleman" or simply the "Jew".-Character:Born...
in Oliver TwistOliver TwistOliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens, published by Richard Bentley in 1838. The story is about an orphan Oliver Twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker. He escapes and travels to...
). He refused to become the Baudelaires' legal guardianLegal guardianA legal guardian is a person who has the legal authority to care for the personal and property interests of another person, called a ward. Usually, a person has the status of guardian because the ward is incapable of caring for his or her own interests due to infancy, incapacity, or disability...
for fear of Count Olaf.
Baudelaire mansion
The Baudelaire mansion, the former home of the Baudelaire family, was burned down in an apparent arson. The movie based on the seriesLemony 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...
implies that this was carried out 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...
using a massive refracting lens. The Baudelaire parents are said to have died in the blaze leaving Violet, Klaus, and Sunny orphaned.
The house is connected by a tunnel to 667 Dark Avenue, the home of Jerome Squalor and formerly 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...
. The purpose of this passageway was possibly to direct members of the secret organization 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...
to safe places before the schism. This passage is likely the reason Jerome Squalor was urged by Jacques Snicket to buy the penthouse of 667 Dark Avenue and to never ever sell it. For the same reason, Jacques Snicket urged Jerome Squalor not to marry Esmé.
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...
, in an excerpt from The History of Lucky Smells Lumbermill, written by Sir, and mentioned 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...
as one of the few books in the Lucky Smells Lumbermill library, it is revealed that Lucky Smells Lumbermill supplied many buildings in its construction – including the Baudelaire, Snicket and Quagmire mansions – with its special "emerald lumber".
In the film, the Baudelaire Mansion is situated in 28 Prospero Place, Boston
Boston
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...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
.
Baudelaire fortune
The Baudelaire parents left an enormous fortune behind when they perished in the fire that destroyed the Baudelaire orphan's life. The orphans were to inherit the money when Violet came of age. When Count Olaf became the orphan's guardian, he concocted a plot to steal the fortune by marrying Violet. His plan was foiled by the Baudlaires, and throughout the series he continued to hatch plans to steal the fortune with the help of his theatre troupe and disguises. None of his schemes ever succeeded, and he never got ahold of the fortune, as he died on the island in The End because of the Medusoid Mycelium.It is unknown if the Baudelaires ever did inherit the fortune.
The fire
The fire which killed Mr. and Mrs. Baudelaire was the starting point for the first book of the series, 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...
. While it has not been explicitly stated whether the fire was accidental or the result of 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...
, Snicket has several times hinted that someone else was at the Baudelaire mansion when the fire started. In letter correspondence between Mr. Snicket and the Vineyard of Fragrant Grapes the Sebald code is applied in The Unauthorized Autobiography and says something like, "Hello, if you are still alive watch out" and then something roughly indicating, "If you get married here, the count will burn you and your wife". The count is supposedly Count Olaf. This is a probable explanation as to who burned down the mansion, but has not been confirmed. 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...
when Mr. Poe is listing the things Olaf is wanted for, he says, "The Lake Lachrymose Police Department will be happy to capture a known criminal wanted for fraud, murder, and the endangerment of children," and Count Olaf adds, "and arson." This implies that Count Olaf has been responsible for at least one fire. However, he cryptically implies that it wasn't him when, after the Baudelaires accuse him of murdering their parents, he asks "Is that what you think?". Sunny replies with "We know it."
Other characters, such as Duncan, Isadora and Quigley Quagmire have lost parents in similar fires, and members of V.F.D. are logical suspects.
In the movie version of the first three books, during the time when Olaf is forcing Violet to marry him, Klaus finds a giant magnifying glass which focuses the light. He finds that it is a clear shot to the house, indicating that Olaf used this glass as a method of arson.
Quigley indicated that he was the survivor of a fire and not Mr. or Mrs. Baudelaire. Lemony Snicket has said, at different times, that Beatrice and Bertrand are both dead.
It is possible that the fire mentioned in the hospital records was actually the Quagmire fire, and that the survivor referred to was, in fact, Quigley. However, it might have referred to Lemony Snicket himself, as he matched the description of the man whose face was unseen, and he is still alive but at large.
In The Carnivorous Carnival, when the Hook-Handed Man
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...
says that one of the parents is alive, Lemony Snicket says that the statement is not true. However, this could be taken several ways: i.e. it could be that they are both dead, or that they are both alive. But Lemony Snicket also indicates that Beatrice Baudelaire had died, especially in his dedications in the beginnings in each book. He also explicitly states at the end of the tenth book that Bertrand Baudelaire 'will never rise again'.
Poison darts
The Penultimate PerilThe 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...
also opens up more possibilities about the Baudelaire parents' past. Kit Snicket tells the children about a night that she attended an opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
(La forza del destino
La forza del destino
La forza del destino is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino , by Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, with a scene adapted from Friedrich Schiller's Wallensteins Lager. It was first performed...
) with their parents and handed them a box of poison
Poison
In the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....
darts
Darts
Darts is a form of throwing game where darts are thrown at a circular target fixed to a wall. Though various boards and games have been used in the past, the term "darts" usually now refers to a standardised game involving a specific board design and set of rules...
before being seen by 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...
. Later in the book 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...
reveals that his parents were killed by poison darts and that he has good reason to hate the Baudelaires (obviously indicating that the Baudelaire parents were the ones who murdered his parents). This would explain Olaf's grudge against the family, his motive for burning down the Baudelaire mansion (as many believe he did), and possibly also why he became a villain in the first place. None of this is ever confirmed in the book, however.
One of the 13 Shocking Secrets You'll Wish You Never Knew About Lemony Snicket states that Lemony helped Beatrice to commit a serious crime before her death, which can possibly be the murder of Olaf's parents. Another reveals that Snicket is wanted for arson. However, 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...
, he mentions that he knows of other people starting fires, although he himself did not. There is a possibility that he is only reported to committed arson, and actually was framed.
In The End, 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...
, a known arsonist, refuses to confirm or deny the charge that he was responsible for the death of the Baudelaire parents and tells the Baudelaires that they know nothing.
See also
- 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...
- 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...
- 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...
- Beatrice Baudelaire
- Snicket family
- Quagmire family
- Snicket family