This month is going to be all about some very unfortunate events. Told in 13 books with 13 chapters each, ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ by Lemony Snicket is the story of the three Baudelaire children - Violet, Klaus and Sunny, the well meaning but utterly useless banker Mr. Poe, and the evil Count Olaf who is after the orphans’ vast fortune. Last week I talked about the first book of this tridecalogy; today’s blog is about the next four books, the alliterative The Reptile Room, The Wide Window, The Miserable Mill and The Austere Academy. Books 2 through 5 see the children live amid snakes, on top of a hill, inside a mill, and in an ominous school with its sinister motto, ‘Memento Mori’.
For me the best part about the books is that even though the theme is essentially the same, the people are always so varied, the places are always so new, it is exciting to see who and what is coming up next! We meet an aunt who is as obsessed with correct grammar as she is afraid of everything from phones to ovens, from doorknobs to realtors. We meet a mill owner who pays in useless coupons and serves chewing gum for lunch. We meet a Vice-Principal who considers himself a violin maestro and performs for six hours daily and forces the entire school to attend … Of course there are the wildly, ahem, successful disguises of Count Olaf, from an assistant herpetologist to a turbaned Coach - that fool none of the children and all of the adults. Oh and the fifth book also adds two new characters, the ‘triplets’ Duncan and Isadora Quagmire, who play quite an important role. We also go through some very fascinating places, from Lousy Lane to Lake Lachrymose to Lucky Smells Lumbermill to Prufrock Preparatory School!
With each book, the situations get quite frantic. I remember being surprised by the actions of Olaf in the first book - but dangling a baby from a tower was about the worst thing he did there. Now he actually commits murder, which was quite a shock. Then again, there are those situations that are so ridiculously dangerous; it almost adds a touch of the comical. An infant who can barely crawl and speaks gibberish is hired as an administrative assistant, and at one point, has to create staple pins out of big metal blocks just so she can keep her job. Sure there is a threat; but how over-the-top!
As mentioned in my previous blog, Lemony Snicket continues to tell this story to us - as opposed to us reading a story. Some of his best comments in his storytelling are when he refers to universally accepted dos and don’ts and completely trashes them. He recounts the story of the boy who cried wolf - and tells us that the moral of the story is that we shouldn’t live anywhere near wolves, and certainly not that we shouldn’t tell lies, because sometimes it is imperative for our safety that we do tell some lies.
One of the funniest parts of the book continues to be the introductory dedication to Beatrice. “For Beatrice - My love for you shall live forever. You, however, did not.” “For Beatrice - You will always be in my heart, In my mind, And in your grave.” Priceless!
These books make for very easy reading (it’s taking me about two hours per book) and I look forward to seeing what happens next - egged on, by no small means, by each book’s final letter from Lemony Snicket to his publisher, with clues pointing to the next story!
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