The Penultimate Peril
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
| Author | Lemony Snicket (pen name of Daniel Handler) |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Brett Helquist |
| Cover artist | Brett Helquist |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | A Series of Unfortunate Events |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
| Released | October 18, 2005 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 353 |
| ISBN | ISBN |
| Preceded by | The Grim Grotto |
| Followed by | The End |
The Penultimate Peril is the twelfth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
The book begins with the Baudelaires in Kit Snicket's taxi, the situation at the end of The Grim Grotto. A distraught and pregnant Kit drives them to the Hotel Denouement which is reflected in an enormous pond so isn't truly called the Hotel Denouement, then she leaves them with concierge uniforms and tells them to give her a signal that she can see in the sky if the meeting on Thursday is cancelled. She also says that Quigley Quagmire, of whom Violet is very fond, is out at sea saving his siblings. They are also to be wary of the managers of the Hotel, identical brothers Frank, a volunteer, and Ernest, a villain. The hotel is designed like a giant library, with rooms catalogued by the Dewey Decimal System. The Baudelaires are expected to serve and help the people of the Hotel, as a front so they can be flâneurs, and in particular learn whether the mysterious "J.S." is helping V.F.D. or its enemies.
Three bells ring simultaneously, and the three orphans are forced to separate, in order to carry out various errands. Violet goes up to the rooftop sunbathing salon, where she finds Esmé Squalor, who is wearing a lettuce leaf bikini and Carmelita Spats, who is wearing "a bright blue jacket, covered with shiny medals, which was unbuttoned to reveal a white shirt that proclaimed the name of a sports team in curly blue letters. Stapled to the back of her jacket is a long, blue cape, and on her feet are a pair of bright blue boots with spurs." She has a blue patch covering one of her eyes, and on her head is a blue triangular hat with a skull and crossbones printed on it (p. 82). She proclaims herself to be a “ballplaying cowboy superhero soldier pirate.” Carmelita is patrolling the rooftop pool in a large boat, complete with sails, which was given to her as a gift from Esmé and Olaf. Geraldine Julienne, the reporter for the Daily Punctilio who wrote that the Baudelaires killed Count Omar, -even though it was supposed to be Olaf -was also present on the rooftop sunbathing salon. Violet overhears about a cocktail party on Thursday and listens as Esmé begs Geraldine for information about a guest at the party named J.S. Before any information can be disclosed, however, Carmelita wants Violet to bring a harpoon gun, which she gets from Frank or Ernest. He asks her if she is who he thinks she is. Violet replies that she is a concierge and brings the gun to Carmelita.
Klaus goes to a room for people in the sawmill industry, where he finds Sir and Charles (from The Miserable Mill). He has to take them to the sauna, which is just down the hall. He props the door open to listen in, and overhears them talk about a party on Thursday, and someone with the initials of J.S. However, Frank or Ernest enters and he has Klaus hang a flypaper-like roll of sticky paper called birdpaper outside the window, in order to catch and trap any falling birds. He asks the same question of Klaus as Frank or Ernest asked of Violet and he gets the same response.
Sunny goes to a room for educational people, where she sees Vice Principal Nero, Mrs. Bass and Mr. Remora, all from The Austere Academy. Mrs. Bass has in the room several bags of money from Mr. Poe's bank. Sunny takes them to an Indian restaurant in the Hotel, run by Hal from The Hostile Hospital. When she is sent to fetch a napkin by Nero, she hides in the kitchen and listens to a conversation by Hal and Frank or Ernest, also about J.S., and then they see her. Frank or Ernest gives her a Vernacularly Fastened Door and has her put it on the lock of a laundry room. The laundry room has a vent through which something can fall and - if the lock is on the door - that something will be protected.
The Baudelaires get together after a long day and try to put together their stories, and wonder how the two managers can be in three places at once. Finally, Klaus deduces that a crow will bring the sugar bowl to the Hotel; it will be shot down by the harpoon gun, fall onto the flypaper, and the sugar bowl will fall into the laundry room vent. All of a sudden, they see a man descending form the ceiling of the Hotel. They think it is Ernest or Frank, but it turns out to be Dewey Denouement, the third brother, also explaining how three different identical men talked to the Baudelaires at the same time. He is helpful and tells them that there is a duplicate of the Hotel at the bottom of the pond, containing a catalogue of all the secrets of V.F.D, which he has spent his entire life collecting. Then Justice Strauss and Jerome Squalor, who both believe that they are the J.S. being contacted, arrive by taxi. Justice Strauss has been communicating with the High Court on helping the Baudelaires, and Jerome - who also felt bad about how he treated the orphans - has written a book on the matter called Odious Lusting After Finance, backronym of Olaf. The High Court justices are coming to put Count Olaf and the other evil people of V.F.D. on trial and so - on Thursday - all of the noble people will arrive to give evidence.
Re-entering the hotel, they encounter Count Olaf who says that the Hook-Handed Man and Fiona (of whom Klaus is very fond, due to their kiss in The Grim Grotto) stole the Carmelita (a submarine from The Grim Grotto named after Carmelita Spats). Esmé, Carmelita, and Hugo, Colette, and Kevin, the three carnival freaks who joined Olaf in The Carnivorous Carnival, all arrive. Olaf also hints that the Baudelaire's own parents were not noble, and that they had something to do with a box of poison darts (this makes the Baudalaires nervous, since Kit had mentioned earlier that she had once had to sneak past Esme to get a box of poisonous darts to their parents at a play). Dewey tells Olaf of the catalogue he has made, which prompts Esmé to comment that he must already know what is inside the sugar bowl, and why it is so important. Olaf takes the harpoon gun from Carmelita and threatens Dewey. The Baudelaires shield him and approach Olaf as he counts to ten, however he is interrupted by the coughing of Mr. Poe, who has come from his room to see what is happening. Count Olaf quickly shoves the gun into the Baudelaire's hands. The Baudelaires accidentally drop the gun to the ground. It discharges, and a harpoon hits Dewey, inflicting a fatal wound.
Dewey stumbles out of the hotel and the Baudelaires watch as he sinks into the pond. Justice Strauss's taxi driver - an enigmatic man smoking a cigarette - talks to them, but they cannot tell if he is a volunteer or a villain, and they realize they cannot leave the scene of the crime. As the entire hotel is wakened, the Baudelaires walk back into the hotel, and the taxi driver drives away. Lemony Snicket states, "I do know who the man was, and I do know where he went afterward, and I do know the name of the woman who was hiding in the trunk, and the type of musical instrument that was laid carefully in the back seat, and the ingredients of the sandwich tucked into the glove compartment and even the small item that sat on the passenger seat, still damp from its hiding place". Many of the guests have woken, and a scene of confusion follows. Justice Strauss breaks it up by saying that the accused must have a legal trial, and the Baudelaires are locked in one room, Count Olaf in another.
It is early Wednesday morning when the Baudelaires go to sleep, and they wake in the afternoon where they are returned to the lobby for the trial. Due to a literal reading of the phrase "justice is blind", everyone except the judges are blindfolded. The trial begins and Olaf gives a brief speech where he states his innocence. The Baudelaires, however, are beginning to question their own nobility and morality and so they answer that they are "comparatively innocent". When Justice Strauss stops commenting in sentences, the Baudelaires get suspicious and remove their blindfolds to discover that the other justices are the man with a beard but no hair, and the woman with hair but no beard, who have been working with Olaf. They, and Olaf, are fleeing with Justice Strauss gagged and the Baudelaires chase them to the elevator, telling everyone else to take off their blindfolds as they do so.
Realizing that they need to follow Olaf, both to stop him from getting away and because there are authorities at the door of the hotel, the Baudelaires go with him and Justice Strauss in the elevator. He goes first to the laundry room, believing the sugar bowl to be inside. Using three clues - a literary clue, a clue about the Baudelaire's health (their allergy to peppermints mentioned in The Wide Window), and a clue about his own family: interestingly enough that his parents were killed with poison darts, suggesting the involvement of the Baudelaire parents - they break inside. The sugar bowl is not inside, however. Angered, Olaf declares that he is going to the roof to get the specimen of Medusoid Mycelium which he will spread through the hotel, killing everyone. He will then escape in a boat which he will jump in off the roof. Violet, realizing his plan is foolish, agrees to help. Klaus is surprised that she would do this but Violet knows that they need a way out as well, and going with Olaf may be the only way. Then, Sunny abruptly suggests that they burn down the Hotel, and Olaf agrees.
As the elevator goes up, the Baudelaires use a trick their parents taught them and press all of the buttons so the elevator stops on every floor. This gives them and Justice Strauss an opportunity to warn all of the guests of the fire. However, they are still blindfolded from the trial and Olaf shouts that the fire warning is fake. The narrative does not reveal which guests believed the Baudelaires and which believed the Count, but hints that some of them died in the fire. It is also stated here that the Baudelaires will not see Esmé or Carmelita again.
On the roof, Klaus reveals that the sugar bowl fell into the pond and not into the laundry room. Here, Violet deduces that Sunny suggested they set the Hotel on fire as a signal so that noble people like Kit, Hector and the Quagmires would cancel the meeting. As Sunny says, "the last safe place is safe no more." Violet makes a chute for the boat to safely make it off the building, and they use the giant spatulas used for flipping sunbathers as oars. Justice Strauss attempts to stop the Baudelaires leaving on the boat, but Sunny bites her hand and makes her let go. The boat floats safely down to the ocean, and the Baudelaires are left "in the same boat" as Count Olaf. Flame engulfs the Hotel Denouement, and Justice Strauss is possibly killed in the all so deadly fire.
The boat carries Violet, Klaus, Sunny, and Olaf away from the burning hotel; setting the scene up for The End.
[edit] Trivia
- The book's title was not revealed until shortly before it was published. A website called The Nameless Novel, operated by the publishers of the series, revealed the title through a series of puzzles gradually disclosed between July and October 2005.
- The American cover has the same illustration as the British cover. This and The End are the only books in the series to use the same cover picture for both editions (although the British cover for The Vile Village had a redrawn version of the American cover).
- Two V.F.D. phrases are used: "The world is quiet here," (said by Sunny) and "I didn't realize this was a sad occasion (said by Hal and a hotel guest)."
- There is also a coded message on page 67. After Frank/Ernest says "Ring!" for the second time, the message can be discovered by reading every eleventh word (including the word after "Ring!"). The message consists of the phrase "I CAN'T TELL IF YOU ARE IN OR ENEMIES. PLEASE RESPOND".
The Baudelaires didn't get the message. Frank/Ernest then frown "as if they had given him the wrong answer."
- In the novel, it is mentioned that, "Richard Wright, an American novelist of the realist school, asks a famous unfathomable question... 'Who knows when some slight shock,' he asks, 'disturbing the delicate balance between social order and thirsty aspiration, shall send the skyscrapers in our cities toppling?' ... So when Mr. Wright asks his question, he might be wondering if a small event, such as a stone dropping into a pond, can cause ripples in the system of the world, and tremble the things that people want, until all this rippling and trembling brings down something enormous, such as a building.", referencing the novel, Native Son by the aforementioned author.
- In the book's audiotape, the song played is "Things Are Not What They Appear" by the Gothic Archies.
- The U.K. and U.S.A. version of the book 353 pages long and contains two "non-chapters" as well as the usual thirteen.
- John Godfrey Saxe also has the initials J.S.
[edit] Cover images
 US cover |
 UK cover |
[edit] Other Series
1.) The Bad Beginning 2.) The Reptile Room 3.) The Wide Window 4.) The Miserable Mill 5.) The Austere Academy 6.) The Ersatz Elevator 7.) The Vile Village 8.) The Hostile Hospital 9.) Carnivorous Carnival 10.) Slippery Slope 11.) The Grim Grotto 12.) The Penultimate Peril 13.) The End
