Sir (A Series of Unfortunate Events)

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A Series of Unfortunate Events character
Sir
Gender Male
Hair color Unknown
Age Adult (No further details)
Film actor None
1st appearance The Miserable Mill

Sir is a fictional character from the book series, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. He appears in The Miserable Mill, the fourth novel, and The Penultimate Peril, the twelfth novel.

Sir is the owner of the Lucky Smells Lumbermill, located in Paltryville. His real name is not known, although it has been described as hard to pronounce. Mr. Poe has attempted to pronounce the first syllable of the name, using a radically different syllable every time .(Wuz, Qui, Sho, Gek, etc.) Equally obscure is Sir's appearance. Sir's entire head is hidden by the thick smoke of his ever-burning cigar. He shows little or no concern for either the Baudelaire orphans or his employees, whom he pays in coupons and provides with an unsatisfying meal of chewing gum. His partner, Charles, mentions that he has had a terrible childhood.

He later appears in The Penultimate Peril. On the cover of that book, a man can be seen with smoke in front of his face. It was speculated that this might be Sir, although this is probably false because the man is smoking a pipe rather than a cigar, and because his face is visible (Lemony Snicket having stated that neither the Baudelaires, the reader, or himself, would ever see Sir's face). Also, the ending picture of the Miserable Mill has him looking vastly different from the man on the 12th book's cover. It is thought that he is on the fire-starting side of the V.F.D. schism, if any, possibly hinted at by the fact that he enjoys the smell of hot wood.

Is this Sir's face?
Enlarge
Is this Sir's face?

Some have speculated that the 12th book implies that Sir used to know Lemony Snicket. The first example is that Sir constantly mistakes the word "concierge" with the word "concertina", another term used to describe an accordion, an instrument that we know to be played by Lemony Snicket. Also, Sir has a bathrobe with the initials L.S. on it, which could mean either that it is a custom-made bathrobe from Lucky Smells Lumbermill (as the narrative suggests) or it is a bathrobe he borrowed from Lemony Snicket and never returned. It is unknown whether he died in the Hotel Denouement fire.

He appears to be similar to the character Mr Sir from Louis Sachar's novel Holes, due their similar names and personality traits. As Louis Sachar's initials are also 'L.S', this could be yet another explanation for the bathrobe incident - that he knew Sachar, borrowed his bathrobe without returning it, and was subsequently written into Holes as a Villain.


Preceded by:
Aunt Josephine (The Wide Window)
Guardian of Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire Succeeded by:
Vice Principal Nero (The Austere Academy)
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