63. Who Could That be at This hour? by Lemony Snicket

A 13 year old Lemony Snicket  and his chaperone are commissioned to recover a statue of the Bombinating Beast and return it to its rightful owner. In true Snicket style, one is never sure who is who and who is the rightful owner. Quirky characters, weird setting and plot twists are reminiscent of the Series of Unfortunate Events. This book is the first of a four part prequel called " All the Wrong Questions" which will overlap the Baudelaire's story line.

26. The End by Lemony Snicket

ISBN -13: 978-0-06-441016-8 - HarperCollins, 2006

WARNING PLOT SPOILERS

If you read the Series of Unfortunate Events, like I have twice, you had many questions that you thought would be answered in The End. For the most part, they weren't. I will need to reread the Beatrice Letters & The Unauthorized Autobiography for some help.
What of the Quagmires? What of Captain Widdershins, Fiona and Fernald? What of the man with a beard and no hair and the woman with hair and no beard? Dewey Denouement? Ishmael and the islanders?
Did Bertrand and Beatrice Baudelaire assassinate Count Olaf's parents at the opera with blow darts? Who was J.S.? What is in the sugar bowl and were is it?
With the death of Count Olaf the evil doesn't stop. Too many of his associates are still at large.
The World is Quiet Here.

25. The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket

ISBN: 0064410153 - HarperCollins, 2005
Source: www.answers.com
Plot notes
- The water tower, seen in the picture before the first chapter and the picture after the last chapter, is also seen in the picture after the last chapter of Book the First, The Bad Beginning.
- It is suggested, towards the end of the book, that Dewey Denouement is the father of Kit Snicket's baby. It is unknown whether they were married, but it is established that he loved her. There are also several hints in the middle of the book supporting this.
- Justice Strauss's fate is unknown. She may have died, since she was left at the top of a burning building, but other characters have survived worse.
- Count Olaf's parents were killed by poison darts. It is hinted that the Baudelaires' parents may have been connected with the incident.
-The woman on the right of the cover has an eye like the V.F.D. insignia on the feather in her hat.
- Sunny's ability to speak has developed greatly since The Grim Grotto. In The Penultimate Peril, she says many complex sentences, such as "What else can we do?" and "The last safe place is safe no more."
- It was never revealed whether Mr. Poe was a volunteer or a villain.
- Esmé Squalor and Count Olaf break up.
- The first name of the Baudelaire's father is revealed as Bertrand.
- We still do not know what V.F.D. means, although Volunteer Fire Department remains the most likely option.

24. The Grim Grotto By Lemony Snicket

ISBN 0 06 441014 5 - HarperCollins, 2004
When the schism occurred in the VFD, members alligned themselves on either the side of good (putting out fires) or evil (setting fires). In the Grim Grotto we see that things are not quite that simple.
"People aren't either wicked or noble," the hook-handed man [Fernald] said. "They're like chef's salads, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict." He turned to the two elder Buadelaires and pointed at them with his hooks. "Look at yourselves, Baudelaires. Do you really think we are so different?...The only difference between us is the portraits on our uniforms". pp 223

On Fernald's uniform is a portait of poet Edward Guest, who's work Snicket calls over sentimental and mundane.
"You ought to be true for the sake of the folks who think you are true.
You never should stoop to a deed that your folks think you would not do.
If you are false to yourself, be the blemish but small,
you have injured your folks; you have been false to them all. "
by Edward Guest

The Baudelaires have a portrait of Moby-Dick author Herman Melville on their uniforms.
Captain Widdershins' submarine takes it's name from a Moby-Dick character. Queequeg, a harpooner who hails from a fictional southsea island, can be alternately savage and civilized.

23. The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket

ISBN 0 439 69837 5 - HarperCollins, 2003
With the release of Book the Thirteenth titled "The End" less than a week away, it is time to consider what will be revealed in the final chapter of the Series of Unfortunate Events.
It has been suggested that someone survived one of the VFD fires. The Baudelaires hope that it is one of their parents. Then they meet Quigley, the triplet believed to have perished when the Quagmire family home was razed. Is Quigley the one?
We know that Beatrice got a sugar bowl from Esme and that something of significant value is hidden in it but what? And who will find it first?
In The Slippery Slope, we first meet the man with a beard and no hair and the woman with hair and no beard who are so sinister that even Count Olaf cowers in their presence. Who are they?
I also wonder what caused the VFD schism.

22. Carnivorous Carnival by Lemony Snicket

ISBN 0 439 55488 8 - HarperCollins, 2002
The Baudelaires go under cover as freaks in Madame Lulu's Caligari Carnival. Violet and Klaus become the two headed Beverly and Eliot. I wonder if this is derived from Beverly and Elliot Mantle the identical twin doctors in the book & film Dead Ringers.
"The Mantle brothers, Elliot and Beverly (both brilliantly played by Jeremy Irons) have a thriving private practice in which they play fertility gods, working virtual miracles in enabling previously infertile women to conceive. Cronenberg has chosen their names carefully: the second definition of "mantle" in The American Heritage Dictionary, "Anything that covers, envelops or conceals", suggests the deep tensions that exist underneath the brothers' competent facade. As their first names (and an old drawing in the title sequence) indicate, the two respectively embody the masculine and feminine sides of the human personality, with Elliot being a socially adept Casanova who does the public presentations and writes the scholarly articles, while his retiring brother Beverly grinds out the difficult research and deals with the personal anxieties of their most problematic patients. They enjoy an apparently satisfying symbiotic relationship, in which they share both professional and sexual triumphs, posing as each other when convenient."
Source: http://www.davidcronenberg.de/psychoringers.html
I have not been able to determine the significance of the name Chabo the Wolf Baby that Sunny is disguised as.

21. The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket

ISBN 0060288914 - HarperCollins, 2001
This is a pivotal book in the Series of Unfortunate Events. For starters, it begins exactly when and where the previous volume, The Vile Village, leaves off. The subsequent books do the same and you are left with a "cliff hanger" at the end of each one.
Count Olaf is heard but not seen as the voice of "Mattathias" over the hospital's intercom. He appears in the final scene but not in disguise. In previous books he takes great pains to obscure his distinguishing features - single eyebrow, shiny eyes, tattoo of an eye on his ankle. From here on, he no longer takes on false identities.
Mr. Poe does not appear in The Hostile Hospital and the Baudelaires have no official guardian.

20. The Vile Village by Lemony Snicket

ISBN 0-439-38601-2 - HarperCollins, 2001

Building on the adage, "It takes a village to raise a child" the V.F.D. (Village of Fowl Devotees) adopt the Baudelaire orphans. Unfortunately, the villager's motivation is to have Violet, Klaus and Sunny do the village's chores while under the guidance of Hector the handyman.
We are introduced to Jacques Snicket, the author's brother, who swiftly meets his demise.
The good news is that Duncan & Isadora Quigley are rescued and whisked away to safety - we hope.
Sunny takes her first few steps in the closing scene of this Book the Seventh as the children cross the desolate plains to their next adventure.

19. The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket

In this Book the Sixth, the Baudelaire children move to 667 Dark avenue with guardians Esmé and Jerome Squalor. "Esmé's name is derived from the title of one of J.D. Salinger's Nine Stories, "For Esmé with Love and Squalor," and her husband takes his name from Salinger's full first name." Source:www.answers.com
The good news is that Ducan & Isadora Quigley are alive and well. The bad news is that Count Olaf moves them before the Baudelaires can help them escape.

18. The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket

ISBN 043936552X - HarperCollins, 2000

At Prufrock Academy, a private boarding school, the Baudelaire orphans meet: Vice Prinicpal Nero who plays the violin horribly; "rude, violent & filthy" student Carmelita Spats; two of the Quagmire triplets - Isadora & Duncan (at this point their brother Quigley is presumed dead).
Isadora Duncan was a Dancer / Choreographer born on 26 May 1877 in San Francisco, California.
"Duncan was a pioneer of 20th-century American dance. She is often credited with moving dance away from strict formal structures and toward more free-flowing forms of personal expression. She wore Grecian-style gowns, often performed barefoot, and startled audiences by employing such everyday human movements as skipping and running. Duncan is also remembered as an early feminist; among other things, she did not believe in marriage and bore two children out of wedlock by two different men. She was killed in a freak 1927 accident when her scarf became tangled in the rear axle of her automobile." Souce: www.answers.com

17. The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket

ISBN 0439272637 - HarperCollins, 2000

In this fourth volume in the Series of Unfortunate Events, Klaus and Violet change roles. Klaus has been hypnotized by Dr. Georgina Orwell and Violet has to read a book called Advanced Ocular Science to save him. She uses several interesting strategies to help her read this difficult text and a great reading lesson can be built around them. Klaus needs to create an invention to stop a log sawing machine. This experience helps the siblings to appreciate each other's talents and abilities.
Count Olaf is disguised as Shirley, Dr Orwell's receptionist. One of his evil henchmen, the bald man with the long nose, is disguised as Foreman Flacutono (an anagram for Count Olaf).

16. The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket

ISBN 0439272629 - HarperCollins, 2000

This third volume in The Series of Unfortunate Events begins with the Baudelaire children standing on Damocles Dock. Suspended above them, dangling dangerously, is a sword. The Sword of Damocles symbolizes "impending disaster". "This expression alludes to the legend of Damocles, a servile courtier to King Dionysius I of Syracuse. The king, weary of Damocles' obsequious flattery, invited him to a banquet and seated him under a sword hung by a single hair, so as to point out to him the precariousness of his position. The idiom was first recorded in 1747. The same story gave rise to the expression hang by a thread." Source: www.answers.com
This passage about stealing is a fine example of Snicket's "grown-up" humour.
"Stealing, of course, is a crime, and a very impolite thing to do. But like most impolite things, it is excusable under certain circumstances. Stealing is not excusable if, for instance, you are in a museum and you decide that a certain painting would look better in your house, and you simply grab the painting and take it there. But if you were very, very hungry, and had no way of obtaining money, it might be excusable to grab the painting, take it to your house, and eat it."pp 136- 137, The Wide Window.
This volume features Aunt Josephine, the Lachrymose Leeches and Captain Sham.

15. The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket

ISBN 043920648 - HarperCollins, 1999

One of the reasons for the popularity of the Series of Unfortunate Events is that Lemony Snicket includes humour for grown-ups. As with tv programs like the Simpsons, and the Flintstones before them, parents enjoy watching because the "get" the satire, parodies and allusions. Here's an example from page 126 of The Reptile Room. "Ackroid!" Sunny said, which probably meant something like "Roger!"
Children will not understand why this is amusing. Mystery buffs will know it is a reference to a classic whodunit. "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (published in 1926) is a detective novel by Agatha Christie. It features Hercule Poirot as the lead detective. It is one of Christie's most well-known and most controversial novels, its innovative twist ending having a significant impact on the genre." Source: www.answers.com
The Baudelaire orphans are happier than they have been since the death of their parents living with noted herpetologist Montgomery Montgomery,whom they call Uncle Monty. As they prepare for a trip to Peru, Uncle Monty's new assistant Stephano arrives. It doesn't take long before his true identity is discovered.
Book the Second features the Incredibly Deadly Viper, the hook-handed man and Lousy Lane.

14. The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

ISBN 049206472 - HarperCollins, 1999

A Series of Unfortunate Events will reach it's conclusion with the Friday October 13th, 2006 release of Book the Thirteenth simply titled The End. The fate of the Baudelaire Orphans - Violet, Klaus & Sunny will be revealed.
My plan is to re-read the series in order, finishing with Book the Twelfth -The Penultimate Peril on October 12th.
In The Bad Beginning, the Baudelaire children are met on Briny Beach by Mr Poe, banker and family friend, who has the unpleasant task of telling them that their parents have perished in a fire that has destroyed their mansion home and its contents. In accordance with their parents' wills, the children are to be raised by a relative. Mr Poe unwittingly delivers the trio into the clutches of the dastardly Count Olaf who has evil designs on the Baudelaire fortune. By using their skills (Violet is resourceful and invents helpful items, Klaus is a voracious reader & Sunny uses her four sharp teeth to bite things), Olaf is thwarted and Mr Poe finds another relative for them to live with.

9. The Beatrice Letters by Lemony Snicket

ISBN 10:0-06-058658-3 - HarperCollins,2006

Lemony Snicket dedicates each volume of his Series of Unfortunate Events to Beatrice.In The Bad Beginning: To Beatrice -- darling, dearest, dead. In The Ersatz Elevator: To Beatrice -- When we met, my life began. Soon afterward, yours ended. In The Penultimate Peril -- To Beatrice -- No one could extinguish my love, or your house.
As usual with Snicket's writing, things are not what they seem in The Beatrice Letters.
It is a beautifully crafted portfolio that includes a double sided wall poster, by series illustrator Brett Helquist, and a book of letters written to and from Beatrice. It offers many clues and some red herrings towards what the final book of the series - simply titled The End - will reveal about the VFD, Count Olaf and the Baudelaire family.