Houses in A Series of Unfortunate Events
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Many houses appear in the fictional children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.
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[edit] 667 Dark Avenue
| A Series of Unfortunate Events place | |
| 667 Dark Avenue | |
|---|---|
| First Visit | The Ersatz Elevator |
| Location | The City |
| Size | 66 floors (possibly 67) |
| Type | Apartment building |
667 Dark Avenue is a fictional apartment building in the city where A Series of Unfortunate Events often takes place. In The Ersatz Elevator, the Baudelaire orphans stay at the building's penthouse apartment, home of their guardians Esmé and Jerome Squalor.
667 Dark Avenue has 66 floors, with one apartment on each floor. There is one set of elevator doors on every floor, except on the 66th floor, where there is a second set. Despite this, elevator use is not said to be in style (or just "in"), and everyone uses the stairs instead. This reflects the obsession with current trends that permeates the building. When nautical theming comes into fashion, the entire lobby was 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 that leading to the former site of the Baudelaire Mansion, which burned down in The Bad Beginning. Another side effect of elevator disuse is that, due to flawed acoustic design, conversations from inside the apartments can easily be overheard from the stairwell. It should also be noted that a hidden floor above the penthouse can be accessed through the extra pair of doors on the penthouse as revealed in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
[edit] Penthouse
The apartment on the top floor boasts many kitchens, living rooms, dining rooms, breakfast rooms, snack rooms, sitting rooms, standing rooms, halls, ballrooms, bathrooms, and even rooms that seem to serve no purpose at all. Its assets also include 71 bedrooms, 849 windows, and 612 clocks. There is also one large library, which consists of the catalogs for all of the "In Auctions" and other fashion-conscious books like Boots Were In in 1812. There are so many rooms in the penthouse that one might leave one's bedroom to brush one's teeth and not find one's way back for an hour.
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 to the secret floor. It is neither mentioned further or elsewhere.
[edit] Notes
- The building's address 667 is similar to 666, the Number of the Beast, and, at at the beginning of the novel, it is 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 a reference to Orwell's 1984, which was written in 1948.
- The number 667 returns later in the series, being a pivotal page of the metafictional A Series of Unfortunate Events.
- The Last two digits - like the digits in the number of Violet's Hospital room - add up to the number 13, a pivotal number throughout the series.
- There is a secret floor above the penthouse as revealed in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
[edit] The Baudelaire Mansion
| A Series of Unfortunate Events place | |
 |
|
| Baudelaire Mansion | |
|---|---|
| First Visit | The Bad Beginning |
| Location | The City |
| Owned by: | Formerly Mr. and Mrs. Baudelaire (now deceased) |
| Type | Mansion |
The Baudelaire Mansion is the former home of the Baudelaire family. The house was burned down in presumed arson. The movie implies that this was due to 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 mysterious tunnel to 667 Dark Avenue, the home of Jerome Squalor and formerly Esme Squalor. The purpose of this passageway was to direct members of 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 never, ever, sell it. For the same reason, Jacques Snicket urged Jerome Squalor not to marry Esme.
In the film, the Baudelaire Mansion is situated in 28 Prospero Place, Boston, Maryland.
[edit] The Passageway
There is a passageway to the Baudelaire mansion from 667 Dark avenue. However, Snicket never answers why the passageway was there and what is was for. It is however, hinted in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography that it is there as a link between 667 Dark Avenue and the Baudelaire Mansion because 667 Dark Avenue is, in fact, the (or one of the) headquarters of VFD. A post-script at the bottom of a letter (possibly between Jacques Snicket and Jerome) quotes, "the code to the safe is the same as the number of our heaquarters on Dark Avenue". The only building we hear about on Dark Avenue (aside from Cafe Samonella) is number 667. Other letters and newspaper articles put together the story of Esme Squalor, who married Jerome to gain access to the Penthouse apartment, even though Jacques Snicket begged Jerome to reconsider, also asking him never to sell it.
| A Series of Unfortunate Events place | |
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| Aunt Josephine's House | |
|---|---|
| First Visit | The Wide Window |
| Location | Cliff on the shore of Lake Lachrymose |
| Owned by: | Formerly Aunt Josephine, now destroyed |
| Type | House |
[edit] Aunt Josephine's House
The home of Josephine Anwhistle is featured in The Wide Window, the third novel of the A Series of Unfortunate Events series by Lemony Snicket. The structure is built off the edge of a cliff, being held up by a series of stilts and struts. The home of Josephine Anwhistle is a somewhat small home. The main feature of the house is the wide window, the scene of a faked suicide, which provides a view of Lake Lachrymose. There is also a library that contains books only on grammar. Josephine Anwhistle considers grammar the greatest joy in life. The house has only two bed rooms. 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 also mentions 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 here. Plus in the Grim Grotto, Captin Widdershins said he and the crew of the Queequeg, saved books that were from the house that were being destroyed in Lake Lachrymose.
[edit] Count Olaf's House
| A Series of Unfortunate Events place | |
 |
|
| Count Olaf's House | |
|---|---|
| First Visit | The Bad Beginning |
| Location | The City |
| Size | A medium-sized, two story-ish, with a detached tower |
| Owned by: | Count Olaf |
| Type | House |
Count Olaf's House is a fictional 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 aforementioned 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 in 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 Vile Village mentions that the Quagmires were 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 neighbor Justice Strauss.
[edit] Justice Strauss' house
| A Series of Unfortunate Events place | |
| Justice Strauss' House | |
|---|---|
| First Visit | The Bad Beginning |
| Location | The City |
| Owned by: | Justice Strauss |
| Type | House |
Justice Strauss' house is next door to Count Olaf's house. The house is very clean and inviting, especially in comparison to Count Olaf's. Her home has a garden where the Baudelaire children gardened with her during their stay with Count Olaf. The house also a library with books on a variety of topics, including law, which helped Kalus foil Count Olaf's marital scheme in The Bad Beginning.
[edit] Uncle Monty's House
| A Series of Unfortunate Events place | |
 |
|
| Uncle Monty's House | |
|---|---|
| First Visit | The Reptile Room |
| Location | Lousy Lane |
| Owned by: | Formerly Uncle Monty (now deceased) |
| Type | House |
"Uncle Monty's House", in Lemony Snicket'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.
(a.k.a. Daniel Handler)
Illustrated by Brett Helquist
