I. The Pictures. By the way, if any of you have a scanner, and wish to scan in any of these pics so I can include them up here, I would be ever so grateful if you would email them to me. I don't have a scanner, so if you can get me a copy of these pictures, I'd be ever so grateful to you.
- On the cover of each book, there is a picture, and bordering the picture, is something that has to do with each book. Observe:
- The Bad Beginning- Eyes
- The Reptile Room - Squiggly Lines, like Snakes
- The Wide Window- Waves
- The Miserable Mill - Hypnotic Spirals
- The Austere Academy- Ruler Tape
- The Ersatz Elevator- Fish
- The Vile Village- Feathers
- The Hostile Hospital- Cardiogram Display
- The Carnivorous Carnival - Ticket Stubs (thanks to Rufetta for this info)
- The Slippery Slope - Snow Gnats
- The Grim Grotto- Seaweed on the border
- At the beginning of every book, there is an Ex Libris (Latin for "From the Library of") and in this Ex Libris, there are two pictures involved. The first, the top picture, is generally a picture of the Baudelaires. The Second picture is always Olaf in whatever disguise he will be wearing in the book.
- The Bad Beginning - A Picture of Olaf as himself.
- The Reptile Room - A Picture of Olaf as Stephano
- The Wide Window - A picture of Olaf as Captain Sham
- The Miserable Mill - A Picture of Olaf as Shirley T. Sinoit-Pecer
- The Austere Academy - A Picture of Olaf as Coach Genghis
- The Ersatz Elevator - A picture of Olaf as Gunther (and quite "In" looking)
- The Vile Village - A picture of Olaf as Auguste Dupin
- The Hostile Hospital - A picture of Olaf as a Loudspeaker, through which he spoke as Mattathias
- The Carniverous Carnival - The bottom picture is Olaf as himself, but the top is the Bauds, disguised as freaks.
- The Slippery Slope - The bottom picture is Olaf as himself, the top is the Bauds disguised as Snow Scouts.
- The Grim Grotto- The Bauds in their deep sea diving outfits.
- After the Ex Libris, there is the opening picture, which is always either the first scene of the book, or the location where they live.
- The Bad Beginning - The fire dept rushing to put out the Baudelaire fire.
- The Reptile Room - Uncle Monty's House
- The Wide Window - The Bauds on Damocles Dock (note the sword and everything) waiting for the Fickle Ferry
- The Miserable Mill - The Bauds and Mr. Poe on board the train running through the Finite Forest on the way to Paltryville
- The Austere Academy - Carmelita Spats in front of the Memento Mori sign
- The Ersatz Elevator - The Bauds standing at the corner of Dark Avenue, and looking toward their new residence.
- The Vile Village - The Bauds heading towards the dustcloud that is the Village of Fowl Devotees
- The Hostile Hospital - The Last Chance General Store
- The Carniverous Carnival - Olaf's car, and Madame Lulu's sign, featuring the VFD Eye, as well as the license plate reading "I H8 ORFNS"
- The Slippery Slope - Violet and Klaus inside the runaway wagon
- The Grim Grotto- the Bauds on a runaway toboggan
- Finally, at the end of each book, there is another picture which describes some aspect of the next book.
- The Bad Beginning - Note the snake in the lower left corner, wrapped around the pole.
- The Reptile Room - The man in the back, facing away from the picture has the "Lachrymose Leeches" on his shirt
- The Wide Window - Mr. Poe watches Olaf and the LOTLLNAMNAW escape underneath a sign that is a giant pair of glasses
- The Miserable Mill - Mr. Tu- Mr. Gyf- Mr. Huf- *sighs* Sir watches Olafand the Bald Man with the Big nose escape while a group of children boarda school bus in the background.
- The Austere Academy - The car has a bumper sticker of a fish (a red herring?)on the back of it.
- The Ersatz Elevator - That's a big old crow on the left side of the picture, isn't it?
- The Vile Village - The Daily Punctilio down in the corner says "LAST CHANCE" on it.
- The Hostile Hospital - There is a flyer that reads "Madame Li-" but we can't read the rest, as well as a crystal ball, and a mask.
- The Carniverous Carnival - See that magazine down in the corner - SnowScout Handbook.
- The Slippery Slope - the mushrooms
- The Grim Grotto- The hat in the corner- H. Denoument
- Three of these types are found elsewhere on this site (click the links respectively)
- When driving to the Auschwitz and Berceneau concentration camps you pass a hill called Silver Mountain. There is a monastery at the top of it and a quick ask Jeeves search has revealed its proper name Bielany Monastery. These (Cameldolite- if that means anything to you (thanks Jeeves)) monks are not a very cheery bunch and when they wake up in the morning rather than a polite good morning or how are you today greet each other with (and this is the bit that caught my attention) Memento Mori. Also, The buildings at Prufrock Prep are gravestone shaped and in Krakow there is a small piece of surviving ghetto wall. The tops of the walls are also gravestone shaped. (Thanks to Lisa/Lana for that information and the pic)
- There is also an eerie coincidence in the spelling of certain names, which Orangey Snicket brough to my attention. Attend:
Take a look at the following names:- Lemony Snicket (Author)
- Brett Helquist (Illustrator)
- Alison Donalty (Cover Design)
- Meredith Heuer (Photographer)
- HarperCollins (Publishers)
There's 13 letters in each name! Hmmm... Coincidence? - There's a library mentioned in every book, and this library helps them in some way.
- The Bad Beginning - Justice Strauss' Library, where they learned about matrimonial laws
- Reptile Room - Uncle Monty's Library, where they learned about the Mamba Du mal
- Wide Window - Aunt Josephine's library, where they learned the grammer rules to decode the note
- The Miserable Mill - Charles's pathetic library, where they learned about hypnosis
- The Austere Academy - The school library, where they learned how to kill the fungi, and where the Quags researched VFD.
- The Ersatz Elevator - Esme's "In" Library, in which they found the catalog of items for the "IN" Auction.
- The Vile Village - Hector's Secret Library, where they learned about the laws of the village, and about mob psychology
- The Hostile Hospital - The LIbrary of Records, in which we found the Snicket File
- The Carniverous Carnival - Olivia's Secret Library, where they got the map to the Valley of the Four Drafts
- The Slippery Slope - Burned out VFD Library, where they found the clues to Verbal Fridge Dialogue and the Last Safe Place
- The Grim Grotto- Fiona's Library, which helped them figure out how to save Sunny.
- Other interesting things found in text are as follows:
- "He found himself reading the same sentence over and over. He found himself reading the same sentence over and over. He found himself reading the same sentence over and over." (BB p 94)
- " We all know , of course, that we should never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever ever fiddle around with electric devices. Never."
Incidentally, it was pointed out to me, but by whom I don't remember that there are thirteen lines of thirteen repititions of ever on that page. Reflecting the thirteen chapters in thirteen books. - "[Esme] swept her arm forward and pushed the Baudelaire orphans into the darkness of the elevator shaft. *two pages of nothing but black*" (EE p 181-184)
- In the Carniverous Carnival, pgs 101, 103, and 219 give you a deja vu experience.