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EspañolSUPPORTING CHARACTERS IN A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS
(Redirected from Gustav Sebald)
This is a list of supporting characters in the children's book series ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'' by Lemony Snicket.
'Fiona' first appears when Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire enter the ''Queequeg'' in ''The Grim Grotto''. She goes with them into the Gorgonian Grotto to find the sugar bowl. When all four of them come back empty-handed, they find the ''Queequeg'' deserted. Count Olaf captures the submarine with his own, the ''Carmelita'', and takes the Baudelaires and Fiona to the brig to be tortured by the Hook-Handed Man, who turns out to be Fiona's long-lost brother Fernald. Despite her newfound affection for Klaus, Fiona decides to join Count Olaf's troupe, as she believes she needs to stay with Fernald because he is the only family she has left. As her last act of kindness, she lets the Baudelaires escape Olaf's treachery.
Her stepfather is Captain Widdershins. Her and her brother Fernald's last name is not given, but it is stated that it differs from their stepfather. She usually wears triangular glasses, leading to Esmé Squalor calling her "Triangle-Eyes". She is the engineer of her stepfather's submarine, the ''Queequeg''.
Fiona and Fernald do not appear in ''The Penultimate Peril'', but Count Olaf says that the two stole the ''Carmelita''. In The End, it was revealed that she returned to the good side of V.F.D. with her brother, but they were both sucked into the giant question-mark vessel (dubbed by Kit Snicket as The Great Unknown) previously seen in The Grim Grotto.
Captain Widdershins continually tells Fiona that her mother died in a 'manatee accident', though Fiona stated that she wasn't so sure it was an accident. Later, in ''The End'', an unrelated character named Miranda Caliban claimed her husband Thursday had been eaten by a manatee to cover up for the fact that he was working undercover for V.F.D. It is unknown whether these two incidents are related.
Fiona kisses Klaus in ''The Grim Grotto'', suggesting some romantic involvement. Klaus appears to return her feelings; in ''The Penultimate Peril'', Snicket mentions that "Fiona broke Klaus' heart." This is repeated multiple times in ''The End'', and Kit Snicket tells Klaus before her disappearence that, quote: "Fiona was so desperate to reach you, Klaus," and "She wanted you to forgive her as well."
Fiona is stated to be "a bit older than Violet." Violet turns 15 in ''The Grim Grotto'', so Fiona is probably 16 and would have turned 17 before the end of the series.
'Charles' worked at the Lucky Smells Lumbermill in 'The Miserable Mill' for quite some time. He was supposedly an assistant of Sir, but he did not support Sir's idea to have the Baudelairs work at the lumbermill. Charles thought it better to have a library in the Lumbermill, so he made one, but there were only three books, one about how eyes work (this book saved the Baudelairs) and others about the lumbermill.
Charles later appeared in 'The Penultimate Peril', with Sir. He continued to support the Baudelairs, even in court. Charles might have died in the fire, but even if he did not, he was never heard of again in the series.
'Phil' also worked at the Lucky Smells Lumbermill in ''The Miserable Mill''. Phil was one of the friendlier mill workers, and helped the Baudelaires adjust to their new home. During the Baudelaires' stay at the lumbermill, Phil was injured by a mill machine, operated by Klaus, who was hypnotized at the time. On the bright side, Phil is an eternally optimistic character who is not upset about the accident, by saying things such as "at least no one would ask whether I'm right legged or left legged".
In The Grim Grotto, Phil worked as a cook at a submarine manned by Captain Widdershins (who calls him Cookie) and his stepdaughter, Fiona. Klaus believes that Phil is still being effected by the stamping machine accident, but Phil claimes it to be a shark bite. He, along with Captain Widdershins, abandons the Baudelaires and Fiona during the middle of the novel for unknown reasons, (or had been captured), and does not appear in The Penultimate Peril or in The End. It is suspected that Phil may have left his work at Lucky Smells Lumbermill due to a lack of sufficient pay; in The Miserable Mill he states that he has read law books and learned that being paid with coupons is illegal. Strangely, Kit never mentions him with Captain Widdershins in The End.
'Justice Strauss' is a high court judge who lives next to Count Olaf's house. The Baudelaires take a liking to her as soon as they meet in The Bad Beginning, and she soon lets them use her library to learn how to cook puttanesca sauce. Her library also comes in handy in the foiling of Count Olaf's plot to get the Baudelaire fortune. At the mock wedding that Count Olaf sets up, she plays the judge and almost marries Violet to the Count (Violet prevents this). At the end of the book, Justice offers to look after the Baudelaires, but this is not possible due to legal obligations on the part of Mr. Poe.
It is not clear whether Justice is a member of V.F.D. or not. It is possible, due to the fact that she has a large library, and one of the V.F.D. official disguises is a "Judge Disguise." However, her behaviour in ''The Penultimate Peril'' indicates that she had no prior involvement with the organization.
Justice Strauss reappears in ''The Penultimate Peril''. She has been researching the Baudelaire case and attempts to bring Count Olaf to justice. Unfortunately, her two fellow High Court judges turn out to be Olaf's associates, the man with a beard but no hair and the woman with hair but no beard. Olaf kidnaps Justice Strauss and threatens to harm her unless the Baudelaires open the Vernacularly Fastened Door leading to the laundry room of the Hotel Denouement. She also mentions that when she was about Esmé Squalor's age, she had been a horse thief for years before realizing it was the wrong thing to do.
Klaus opens the door, but the sugar bowl Olaf is looking for is not inside, and Olaf ascends to the roof to escape after setting fire to the hotel. Justice Strauss attempts to prevent the escape of Count Olaf, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny, but Sunny bites her hand so that she lets go of the boat they are escaping in. It is not known if she survives the hotel fire; regardless, Snicket states that the children never see her again.
In the film, she is portrayed by Catherine O'Hara.
Bruce first appears in The Reptile Room as the man who takes away the reptiles from Uncle Monty's house at the end of the book. He then reapperars at the beggining of The Slippery Slope as the uncle of Carmelita Spats. Bruce joins Count Olaf along with Carmelita and the rest of the Snow Scout group.
Bruce constantly says the Snow Scout Alphabet Pledge, which is to say that Snow Scouts are "accomadating, basic, calm, darling, emblematic, frisky, grinning, human, innocent, jumping, kept, limited, meek, nap-loving, official, pretty, quarentined, recent, scheduled, tidy, understandable, victorious, wholesome, xylophone, young, and zippered, every morning, every afternoon, every night, and all day long."
It is said that Bruce wrote the pledge. Klaus constantly asked "How could a person be xylophone?" and got the answer "Bruce couldn't think of a better word".
It is possible that Bruce was, in fact, a member of V.F.D. In The Penultimate Peril, after Dewey's death, someone said "Go back to bed, Bruce". It is unknown whether this was the Bruce framilier in the earlier books.
'Gregor Anwhistle', the brother of Ike Anwhistle, was the founder of Anwhistle Aquatics, a secret wing of V.F.D., which investigated the effect of the Medusoid Mycelium as a toxin and its possible use as a weapon against Count Olaf's side of V.F.D. One of Gregor's parents might be a cousin of the Baudelaire parents, as Josephine is described as being the Baudelaire children's "second cousin's sister-in-law".
'Dr. Isaac "Ike" Anwhistle' is the late husband of Josephine Anwhistle, mentioned in ''The Wide Window'' and ''The Slippery Slope''. He had a brother named Gregor Anwhistle, and was a member of V.F.D. He died due to only waiting 45 minutes before going into Lake Lachrymose (the lake is infested with man-eating leeches as swimmers must wait one hour after eating before going into the lake or they could be eaten by the leeches). Ike was not only Aunt Josephine's husband, but her best friend and partner in grammar, as well as the only person Aunt Josephine knew who could whistle with crackers in his mouth; his speciality was Beethoven's Fourth Quartet. According to Josephine, being able to whistle with crackers inside one's mouth was a family trait, so the Baudelaire orphans' mother could do this as well. Her specialty was Mozart's Fourteenth Symphony. In '', the Duchess of Winnipeg writes to someone called K, saying it is impossible to keep these two letters (about the planned marriage of Lemony and Beatrice and the marriage of Esmé Squalor and Jerome Squalor) together, and for reasons that she does not need to explain, it is impossible for her to write to Mr. Snicket, and asked this K to get these letters to a safe place-perhaps with 'Ike' (perhaps Ike Anwhistle) or the dairy farm K told her about.
In ''The Ersatz Elevator'', Violet mentions that her friend 'Ben' gave her blueprints of an elevator for her birthday, which were destroyed in the fire that burned down the Baudelaire Mansion.
'Tony "Mommy" Eggmonteror' is the author of ''The Mamba du Mal: A Snake That Will Never Kill Me''. Tony "Mommy" Eggmonteror is an anagram of Montgomery Montgomery. The only part of the book that is known is:
"''The Mamba du Mal is one of the deadliest snakes in the hemisphere, noted for its strangulatory grip, used in conjunction with its deadly venom, giving all of its victims a tenebrous hue, which is ghastly to behold.''"
"''More pleasant to contemplate, however, are the snake's excellent communication skills. Certain specimens of the Mamba du Mal have been trained to recite certain phrases in an encoded form of English so they might be employed as guardians of crucial headquarters. A mamba du mal hissing the phrase "Summer is" for instance, is communicating a coded version of the phrase "Enemies are nearby." The hissed phrase "over and gone" translates to "probably in disguise," and the mamba has been known to hiss the word "dying" as a code for "Beware of arson." The only other creature with communication skills sufficient to convey these messages is the common grass cricket.''"
The book was published by Venom Feels Delightful Press.
''(See also List of VFDs)''.
'C.M. Kornbluth', named after the science fiction writer Cyril M. Kornbluth, was the former chief engineer at V.F.D.. He tended to be very excitable, and good inventions caused him to clap, dance with glee or hand out pistachio nuts at random. He is presumed dead in the fire of V.F.D. headquarters. He possibly had a son or daughter who was in the Snow Scouts, because when Esmé Squalor talked about the fortunes she would get from the Snow Scouts, she mentioned the Kornbluth fortune.
'Larry the Waiter' is a waiter in The Anxious Clown restaurant in ''The Wide Window''. He waits on the Baudulaires, Mr. Poe, and Count Olaf (disguised as Captain Sham). Larry uses the coded phrase "I didn't realize this was a sad occasion."
A similar waiter is mentioned in The Unauthorized Autobiography in a taped conversation between Mr. Poe and his sister Eleanora in The Anxious Clown.
'Edgar and Albert' are Mr. Poe's two sons. They are only mentioned in The Bad Beginning when the Baudelaires stay with Mr. Poe following their parents' death. Their names are allusions to Edgar Allan Poe, though they may also be derived from Edgar Albert Guest (who is mentioned in The Grim Grotto)
'Polly Poe' is Mr. Poe's wife. She is only mentioned in The Bad Beginning when the Baudelaires stay with Mr. Poe and at the theater for Count Olaf's performance of The Marvelous Marriage.
'Mr. and Mrs. Quagmire' were The Quagmire Triplets parents. They died in a fire similar to the fire that burned the Baudelaire Mansion. Before her death, Mrs. Quagmire helped Quigley escape through a passageway that lead to Dr. Montgomery Montgomery's house (which was later burned also). They were on the volunteer side of V.F.D. and owned the famous Quagmire sapphires.
'Gustav Sebald' (usually known as 'Dr. Sebald') is a fictional film director and former assistant to Uncle Monty in Lemony Snicket's book series, ''A Series of Unfortunate Events''. Sebald directed ''Zombies in the Snow'' (mentioned in the second novel in the series, ''The Reptile Room''). His name is probably derived from W. G. Sebald. Sebald is on the volunteers' side of V.F.D. and uses his role as a director to send secret messages to volunteers through his films using the Sebald Code. He invented the Sebald code, which is named after him. Gustav may also be the grandfather of the Snicket siblings, as it is also revealed by Ishmael that the only way to unlock the wooden box the Duchess of Winnipeg's ring was put in was a code Kit learned from her grandfather. The heiress to his estate is Sally Sebald.
'Sally Sebald' is mentioned in '' when she sends a letter to Lemony Snicket in Sebald Code. She claims to be the "Executrix of the Sebald Estate" in the letter.
She is Gustav Sebald's sister, and the heir to his estate.
The 'Duchess of Winnipeg', also known as "R.", is a rich socialite at whose masked ball Lemony Snicket met Beatrice. Her house was later burnt down, but she survived. In '', a letter suggests that somebody is impersonating her in communications with Lemony Snicket. She is first mentioned in . She possibly had a son or daughter in the Snow Scouts, as when Esmé Squalor was talking about all the fortunes she'd get, she mentioned the Winnipeg fortune.
In The End, it is revealed that the Winnipeg family possessed a ring marked with an R that was passed down from one Duchess of Winnipeg from generation to generation. When the current Duchess of Winnipeg's mother died in the fire that destroyed her house, the current Duchess of Winnipeg inherited the ring and, when she joined V.F.D., she gave it to Lemony Snicket. Lemony had offered the ring to his lover, Beatrice, but she later returned it back to him through mail for reasons unknown, so Lemony gave the ring to Kit Snicket, who gave it to the Baudelaire father, Betrand, who gave it to the Baudelaire mother, Beatrice, when they married. Beatrice kept the ring in a wooden box which could only be opened with a wooden key that was kept in a wooden box which could only be opened by a code the grandfather of the Snicket siblings taught Kit. The wooden box was burned to ashes when the Baudelaire mansion was destroyed and Captain Windershins found it in the wreckage only to lose it in a storm at sea, and the ring eventually was washed to the shores of the island where the Baudelaires were stranded on in Book the Thirteenth. Ishmael found the ring and gave it to the Baudelaire children, who gave it to their adopted daughter, Beatrice, who, as revealed in ''The Beatrice Letters'', exchanged it to shepherds for a yak ride to the cave her uncle often resided in. '' also emphasizes a ring of some sort, probably referring to the Duchess's ring.
In ''The Beatrice Letters'', it is revealed that the Duchess was classmates and good friends with Beatrice (the elder), and she has played cards with Lemony Snicket before, and defeated him, winning quite a bit of his pen collection. It is also revealed that the death of the current Duchess of Winnipeg's mother caused Geraldine Julienne to become the new fashion editor. In '', the Duchess of Winnipeg writes several letters to Lemony, in one mentioning that she gave her annual lecture at the Orion University one night and had lost possession of many of her belongings, including her beloved snacks, furniture, tables, chairs, drapes, grand staircase, houseplant, cloth napkins (which are embroidered with the crest of Winnipeg), the wigs she used to disguise herself like someone Lemony disguised himself as, cigar box, childhood bed, and every book in her private library, seemingly because of a fire most likely committed by arson. Her letter also heavily impies that the time she wrote it was after the events of A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Duchess of Winnipeg also writes to someone called K, saying it is impossible to keep these two letters (about the planned marriage of Lemony and Beatrice and the marriage of Esmé Squalor and Jerome Squalor) together, and for reasons that she does not need to explain, it is impossible for her to write to Mr. Snicket, and asked this K to get these letters to a safe place-perhaps with Ike (perhaps Ike Anwhistle) or the dairy farm K told her about.
In ''The Grim Grotto'' Klaus finds an example of the Verse Flunctuation Declaration in the poem My Last Duchess by Robert Browning being changed to My Last Wife by Obert Browning which the code is Duchess R but the children don't get further information on her.
The character is possibly named after the editor of the Lemony Snicket books at Harper Collins, Susan Rich, who is from Winnipeg.[1]
In the A Series of Unfortunate Events book ''The Austere Academy'', Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire attend Prufrock Preparatory School, which employs teachers and other staff.
'Mr. Remora' is a teacher at Prufrock Preparatory School, teaching Violet Baudelaire. He loves bananas and is constantly seen eating one, smearing banana pulp on his mustache. In his class, students are forced to listen to tiresome and extremely short stories he dictates, after which he gives examinations on various objective aspects of the stories. He thinks that the Baudelaires are good students, and when Vice Principal Nero orders their expulsion, he suggests that Carmelita Spats be expelled instead; he also argues that skipping gym class to study is good time management. Lemony Snicket also reveals that Mr. Remora later retired from his teaching job because he choked on a banana.
Whether retired or not, Mr. Remora reappears in ''The Penultimate Peril'' with his fellow teachers, having been invited to a cocktail party at the Hotel Denouement, and makes a brief reference to running from the law (possibly a reference to Mrs. Bass's bank robbery). Hal also tries to communicate with him using a V.F.D. coded phrase; however, Remora fails to understand, meaning that he is probably not part of V.F.D. It is unknown whether he survives the fire at the hotel.
'Mrs. Bass' is Klaus Baudelaire's teacher in ''The Austere Academy''. She is obsessed with measuring in metric and all of her lessons are on measuring certain items. Like Mr. Remora, she thinks that the Baudelaires are good students, and dislikes Carmelita Spats.
She reappears in ''The Penultimate Peril'', having been invited to a cocktail party at Hotel Denouement, wearing a thin black mask and a small white wig as a disguise; it is implied, as foreshadowed in ''The Austere Academy'' and '', that she has robbed a bank, having in her possession several bags of money marked with the name of Mulctuary Money Management. (For this reason, Mr. Poe is apparently pursuing her throughout the book.) She makes no attempt to conceal her crime from her co-teachers, Vice Principal Nero and Mr. Remora, and they in turn do not judge her, seeming to look on her robbery as an everyday occurrence. She also reveals that her invitation to the cocktail party asked her to bring all her valuables, and since she did not earn enough as a teacher to have valuables she was forced to turn to a life of crime. Despite her defence of the Baudelaires in ''The Austere Academy'', when their own identities are revealed at the Hotel Denouement, she is quick to accuse them of bank robbery. It is unknown whether she survives the fire which destroys the hotel.
'Miss K. ' was the teacher who, according to , replaced Mr. Remora after he choked on a banana and decided to retire. According to Nero, she "was not interested in telling short stories while eating." It was said that she read books instead (She was planning on reading The History of Lucky Smells Lumbermill, Charlotte's Web, and A Series of Unfortunate Events to the kids). Nero told Miss K. that he was going to fire her. At this Miss K. kidnapped two children. According to Nero, "their faces were very serious, as if they were embarking on an important mission of some kind".
'Miss Tench' was the former gym teacher at Prufrock Prep., but fell from a third-floor window shortly before the arrival of the Baudelaires. Although it is not stated whether she died from her fall or was merely heavily injured, she was nonetheless replaced by Coach Genghis.
Main articles: Count Olaf
Count Olaf disguises himself as a physical education teacher, 'Coach Genghis'. The Baudelaires immediately recognize him as Count Olaf in disguise, but pretend not to know him at first.
Olaf, under the excuse that orphans have stronger legs, makes them paint a circle in luminous paint, and then perform "Special Orphan Running Exercises" (S.O.R.E.), laps around the luminous circle at night, for nine days. Olaf's plan was to make them so tired that they could not get their work done and get kicked out of school, allowing him to become their new guardian and then claim their fortune their parents left behind.
The White-Faced Women, associates of Count Olaf, disguise themselves as 'cafeteria workers' in ''The Austere Academy''. They help kidnap Isadora and Duncan Quagmire.
There is a mysterious librarian character — referred to in '' — who wears an unusual assortment of clothes and asks a question from the book ''Ramona Quimby, Age 8'', seemingly as a way to identify other V.F.D. members.
1. Harper Collins Canada News, April 23, 2002, http://whoswhohp.tripod.com/lemony/articles/hccn04232002.html
This is a list of supporting characters in the children's book series ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'' by Lemony Snicket.
Major Characters
Fiona
Fiona
'Fiona' first appears when Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire enter the ''Queequeg'' in ''The Grim Grotto''. She goes with them into the Gorgonian Grotto to find the sugar bowl. When all four of them come back empty-handed, they find the ''Queequeg'' deserted. Count Olaf captures the submarine with his own, the ''Carmelita'', and takes the Baudelaires and Fiona to the brig to be tortured by the Hook-Handed Man, who turns out to be Fiona's long-lost brother Fernald. Despite her newfound affection for Klaus, Fiona decides to join Count Olaf's troupe, as she believes she needs to stay with Fernald because he is the only family she has left. As her last act of kindness, she lets the Baudelaires escape Olaf's treachery.
Her stepfather is Captain Widdershins. Her and her brother Fernald's last name is not given, but it is stated that it differs from their stepfather. She usually wears triangular glasses, leading to Esmé Squalor calling her "Triangle-Eyes". She is the engineer of her stepfather's submarine, the ''Queequeg''.
Fiona and Fernald do not appear in ''The Penultimate Peril'', but Count Olaf says that the two stole the ''Carmelita''. In The End, it was revealed that she returned to the good side of V.F.D. with her brother, but they were both sucked into the giant question-mark vessel (dubbed by Kit Snicket as The Great Unknown) previously seen in The Grim Grotto.
Captain Widdershins continually tells Fiona that her mother died in a 'manatee accident', though Fiona stated that she wasn't so sure it was an accident. Later, in ''The End'', an unrelated character named Miranda Caliban claimed her husband Thursday had been eaten by a manatee to cover up for the fact that he was working undercover for V.F.D. It is unknown whether these two incidents are related.
Fiona kisses Klaus in ''The Grim Grotto'', suggesting some romantic involvement. Klaus appears to return her feelings; in ''The Penultimate Peril'', Snicket mentions that "Fiona broke Klaus' heart." This is repeated multiple times in ''The End'', and Kit Snicket tells Klaus before her disappearence that, quote: "Fiona was so desperate to reach you, Klaus," and "She wanted you to forgive her as well."
Fiona is stated to be "a bit older than Violet." Violet turns 15 in ''The Grim Grotto'', so Fiona is probably 16 and would have turned 17 before the end of the series.
Charles
'Charles' worked at the Lucky Smells Lumbermill in 'The Miserable Mill' for quite some time. He was supposedly an assistant of Sir, but he did not support Sir's idea to have the Baudelairs work at the lumbermill. Charles thought it better to have a library in the Lumbermill, so he made one, but there were only three books, one about how eyes work (this book saved the Baudelairs) and others about the lumbermill.
Charles later appeared in 'The Penultimate Peril', with Sir. He continued to support the Baudelairs, even in court. Charles might have died in the fire, but even if he did not, he was never heard of again in the series.
Phil
'Phil' also worked at the Lucky Smells Lumbermill in ''The Miserable Mill''. Phil was one of the friendlier mill workers, and helped the Baudelaires adjust to their new home. During the Baudelaires' stay at the lumbermill, Phil was injured by a mill machine, operated by Klaus, who was hypnotized at the time. On the bright side, Phil is an eternally optimistic character who is not upset about the accident, by saying things such as "at least no one would ask whether I'm right legged or left legged".
In The Grim Grotto, Phil worked as a cook at a submarine manned by Captain Widdershins (who calls him Cookie) and his stepdaughter, Fiona. Klaus believes that Phil is still being effected by the stamping machine accident, but Phil claimes it to be a shark bite. He, along with Captain Widdershins, abandons the Baudelaires and Fiona during the middle of the novel for unknown reasons, (or had been captured), and does not appear in The Penultimate Peril or in The End. It is suspected that Phil may have left his work at Lucky Smells Lumbermill due to a lack of sufficient pay; in The Miserable Mill he states that he has read law books and learned that being paid with coupons is illegal. Strangely, Kit never mentions him with Captain Widdershins in The End.
Justice Strauss
Justice Strauss
'Justice Strauss' is a high court judge who lives next to Count Olaf's house. The Baudelaires take a liking to her as soon as they meet in The Bad Beginning, and she soon lets them use her library to learn how to cook puttanesca sauce. Her library also comes in handy in the foiling of Count Olaf's plot to get the Baudelaire fortune. At the mock wedding that Count Olaf sets up, she plays the judge and almost marries Violet to the Count (Violet prevents this). At the end of the book, Justice offers to look after the Baudelaires, but this is not possible due to legal obligations on the part of Mr. Poe.
It is not clear whether Justice is a member of V.F.D. or not. It is possible, due to the fact that she has a large library, and one of the V.F.D. official disguises is a "Judge Disguise." However, her behaviour in ''The Penultimate Peril'' indicates that she had no prior involvement with the organization.
Justice Strauss reappears in ''The Penultimate Peril''. She has been researching the Baudelaire case and attempts to bring Count Olaf to justice. Unfortunately, her two fellow High Court judges turn out to be Olaf's associates, the man with a beard but no hair and the woman with hair but no beard. Olaf kidnaps Justice Strauss and threatens to harm her unless the Baudelaires open the Vernacularly Fastened Door leading to the laundry room of the Hotel Denouement. She also mentions that when she was about Esmé Squalor's age, she had been a horse thief for years before realizing it was the wrong thing to do.
Klaus opens the door, but the sugar bowl Olaf is looking for is not inside, and Olaf ascends to the roof to escape after setting fire to the hotel. Justice Strauss attempts to prevent the escape of Count Olaf, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny, but Sunny bites her hand so that she lets go of the boat they are escaping in. It is not known if she survives the hotel fire; regardless, Snicket states that the children never see her again.
In the film, she is portrayed by Catherine O'Hara.
Bruce
Bruce first appears in The Reptile Room as the man who takes away the reptiles from Uncle Monty's house at the end of the book. He then reapperars at the beggining of The Slippery Slope as the uncle of Carmelita Spats. Bruce joins Count Olaf along with Carmelita and the rest of the Snow Scout group.
Bruce constantly says the Snow Scout Alphabet Pledge, which is to say that Snow Scouts are "accomadating, basic, calm, darling, emblematic, frisky, grinning, human, innocent, jumping, kept, limited, meek, nap-loving, official, pretty, quarentined, recent, scheduled, tidy, understandable, victorious, wholesome, xylophone, young, and zippered, every morning, every afternoon, every night, and all day long."
It is said that Bruce wrote the pledge. Klaus constantly asked "How could a person be xylophone?" and got the answer "Bruce couldn't think of a better word".
It is possible that Bruce was, in fact, a member of V.F.D. In The Penultimate Peril, after Dewey's death, someone said "Go back to bed, Bruce". It is unknown whether this was the Bruce framilier in the earlier books.
Minor Characters
Gregor Anwhistle
'Gregor Anwhistle', the brother of Ike Anwhistle, was the founder of Anwhistle Aquatics, a secret wing of V.F.D., which investigated the effect of the Medusoid Mycelium as a toxin and its possible use as a weapon against Count Olaf's side of V.F.D. One of Gregor's parents might be a cousin of the Baudelaire parents, as Josephine is described as being the Baudelaire children's "second cousin's sister-in-law".
Ike Anwhistle
'Dr. Isaac "Ike" Anwhistle' is the late husband of Josephine Anwhistle, mentioned in ''The Wide Window'' and ''The Slippery Slope''. He had a brother named Gregor Anwhistle, and was a member of V.F.D. He died due to only waiting 45 minutes before going into Lake Lachrymose (the lake is infested with man-eating leeches as swimmers must wait one hour after eating before going into the lake or they could be eaten by the leeches). Ike was not only Aunt Josephine's husband, but her best friend and partner in grammar, as well as the only person Aunt Josephine knew who could whistle with crackers in his mouth; his speciality was Beethoven's Fourth Quartet. According to Josephine, being able to whistle with crackers inside one's mouth was a family trait, so the Baudelaire orphans' mother could do this as well. Her specialty was Mozart's Fourteenth Symphony. In '', the Duchess of Winnipeg writes to someone called K, saying it is impossible to keep these two letters (about the planned marriage of Lemony and Beatrice and the marriage of Esmé Squalor and Jerome Squalor) together, and for reasons that she does not need to explain, it is impossible for her to write to Mr. Snicket, and asked this K to get these letters to a safe place-perhaps with 'Ike' (perhaps Ike Anwhistle) or the dairy farm K told her about.
Ben
In ''The Ersatz Elevator'', Violet mentions that her friend 'Ben' gave her blueprints of an elevator for her birthday, which were destroyed in the fire that burned down the Baudelaire Mansion.
Tony "Mommy" Eggmonteror
'Tony "Mommy" Eggmonteror' is the author of ''The Mamba du Mal: A Snake That Will Never Kill Me''. Tony "Mommy" Eggmonteror is an anagram of Montgomery Montgomery. The only part of the book that is known is:
"''The Mamba du Mal is one of the deadliest snakes in the hemisphere, noted for its strangulatory grip, used in conjunction with its deadly venom, giving all of its victims a tenebrous hue, which is ghastly to behold.''"
"''More pleasant to contemplate, however, are the snake's excellent communication skills. Certain specimens of the Mamba du Mal have been trained to recite certain phrases in an encoded form of English so they might be employed as guardians of crucial headquarters. A mamba du mal hissing the phrase "Summer is" for instance, is communicating a coded version of the phrase "Enemies are nearby." The hissed phrase "over and gone" translates to "probably in disguise," and the mamba has been known to hiss the word "dying" as a code for "Beware of arson." The only other creature with communication skills sufficient to convey these messages is the common grass cricket.''"
The book was published by Venom Feels Delightful Press.
''(See also List of VFDs)''.
C.M. Kornbluth
'C.M. Kornbluth', named after the science fiction writer Cyril M. Kornbluth, was the former chief engineer at V.F.D.. He tended to be very excitable, and good inventions caused him to clap, dance with glee or hand out pistachio nuts at random. He is presumed dead in the fire of V.F.D. headquarters. He possibly had a son or daughter who was in the Snow Scouts, because when Esmé Squalor talked about the fortunes she would get from the Snow Scouts, she mentioned the Kornbluth fortune.
Larry the Waiter
'Larry the Waiter' is a waiter in The Anxious Clown restaurant in ''The Wide Window''. He waits on the Baudulaires, Mr. Poe, and Count Olaf (disguised as Captain Sham). Larry uses the coded phrase "I didn't realize this was a sad occasion."
A similar waiter is mentioned in The Unauthorized Autobiography in a taped conversation between Mr. Poe and his sister Eleanora in The Anxious Clown.
Edgar and Albert Poe
'Edgar and Albert' are Mr. Poe's two sons. They are only mentioned in The Bad Beginning when the Baudelaires stay with Mr. Poe following their parents' death. Their names are allusions to Edgar Allan Poe, though they may also be derived from Edgar Albert Guest (who is mentioned in The Grim Grotto)
Polly Poe
'Polly Poe' is Mr. Poe's wife. She is only mentioned in The Bad Beginning when the Baudelaires stay with Mr. Poe and at the theater for Count Olaf's performance of The Marvelous Marriage.
Mr. and Mrs. Quagmire
'Mr. and Mrs. Quagmire' were The Quagmire Triplets parents. They died in a fire similar to the fire that burned the Baudelaire Mansion. Before her death, Mrs. Quagmire helped Quigley escape through a passageway that lead to Dr. Montgomery Montgomery's house (which was later burned also). They were on the volunteer side of V.F.D. and owned the famous Quagmire sapphires.
Dr. Gustav Sebald
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'Gustav Sebald' (usually known as 'Dr. Sebald') is a fictional film director and former assistant to Uncle Monty in Lemony Snicket's book series, ''A Series of Unfortunate Events''. Sebald directed ''Zombies in the Snow'' (mentioned in the second novel in the series, ''The Reptile Room''). His name is probably derived from W. G. Sebald. Sebald is on the volunteers' side of V.F.D. and uses his role as a director to send secret messages to volunteers through his films using the Sebald Code. He invented the Sebald code, which is named after him. Gustav may also be the grandfather of the Snicket siblings, as it is also revealed by Ishmael that the only way to unlock the wooden box the Duchess of Winnipeg's ring was put in was a code Kit learned from her grandfather. The heiress to his estate is Sally Sebald.
Sally Sebald
'Sally Sebald' is mentioned in '' when she sends a letter to Lemony Snicket in Sebald Code. She claims to be the "Executrix of the Sebald Estate" in the letter.
She is Gustav Sebald's sister, and the heir to his estate.
Duchess of Winnipeg
The 'Duchess of Winnipeg', also known as "R.", is a rich socialite at whose masked ball Lemony Snicket met Beatrice. Her house was later burnt down, but she survived. In '', a letter suggests that somebody is impersonating her in communications with Lemony Snicket. She is first mentioned in . She possibly had a son or daughter in the Snow Scouts, as when Esmé Squalor was talking about all the fortunes she'd get, she mentioned the Winnipeg fortune.
In The End, it is revealed that the Winnipeg family possessed a ring marked with an R that was passed down from one Duchess of Winnipeg from generation to generation. When the current Duchess of Winnipeg's mother died in the fire that destroyed her house, the current Duchess of Winnipeg inherited the ring and, when she joined V.F.D., she gave it to Lemony Snicket. Lemony had offered the ring to his lover, Beatrice, but she later returned it back to him through mail for reasons unknown, so Lemony gave the ring to Kit Snicket, who gave it to the Baudelaire father, Betrand, who gave it to the Baudelaire mother, Beatrice, when they married. Beatrice kept the ring in a wooden box which could only be opened with a wooden key that was kept in a wooden box which could only be opened by a code the grandfather of the Snicket siblings taught Kit. The wooden box was burned to ashes when the Baudelaire mansion was destroyed and Captain Windershins found it in the wreckage only to lose it in a storm at sea, and the ring eventually was washed to the shores of the island where the Baudelaires were stranded on in Book the Thirteenth. Ishmael found the ring and gave it to the Baudelaire children, who gave it to their adopted daughter, Beatrice, who, as revealed in ''The Beatrice Letters'', exchanged it to shepherds for a yak ride to the cave her uncle often resided in. '' also emphasizes a ring of some sort, probably referring to the Duchess's ring.
In ''The Beatrice Letters'', it is revealed that the Duchess was classmates and good friends with Beatrice (the elder), and she has played cards with Lemony Snicket before, and defeated him, winning quite a bit of his pen collection. It is also revealed that the death of the current Duchess of Winnipeg's mother caused Geraldine Julienne to become the new fashion editor. In '', the Duchess of Winnipeg writes several letters to Lemony, in one mentioning that she gave her annual lecture at the Orion University one night and had lost possession of many of her belongings, including her beloved snacks, furniture, tables, chairs, drapes, grand staircase, houseplant, cloth napkins (which are embroidered with the crest of Winnipeg), the wigs she used to disguise herself like someone Lemony disguised himself as, cigar box, childhood bed, and every book in her private library, seemingly because of a fire most likely committed by arson. Her letter also heavily impies that the time she wrote it was after the events of A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Duchess of Winnipeg also writes to someone called K, saying it is impossible to keep these two letters (about the planned marriage of Lemony and Beatrice and the marriage of Esmé Squalor and Jerome Squalor) together, and for reasons that she does not need to explain, it is impossible for her to write to Mr. Snicket, and asked this K to get these letters to a safe place-perhaps with Ike (perhaps Ike Anwhistle) or the dairy farm K told her about.
In ''The Grim Grotto'' Klaus finds an example of the Verse Flunctuation Declaration in the poem My Last Duchess by Robert Browning being changed to My Last Wife by Obert Browning which the code is Duchess R but the children don't get further information on her.
The character is possibly named after the editor of the Lemony Snicket books at Harper Collins, Susan Rich, who is from Winnipeg.[1]
Prufrock Prep staff
In the A Series of Unfortunate Events book ''The Austere Academy'', Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire attend Prufrock Preparatory School, which employs teachers and other staff.
Vice Principal Nero
Mr. Remora
Mr. Remora
'Mr. Remora' is a teacher at Prufrock Preparatory School, teaching Violet Baudelaire. He loves bananas and is constantly seen eating one, smearing banana pulp on his mustache. In his class, students are forced to listen to tiresome and extremely short stories he dictates, after which he gives examinations on various objective aspects of the stories. He thinks that the Baudelaires are good students, and when Vice Principal Nero orders their expulsion, he suggests that Carmelita Spats be expelled instead; he also argues that skipping gym class to study is good time management. Lemony Snicket also reveals that Mr. Remora later retired from his teaching job because he choked on a banana.
Whether retired or not, Mr. Remora reappears in ''The Penultimate Peril'' with his fellow teachers, having been invited to a cocktail party at the Hotel Denouement, and makes a brief reference to running from the law (possibly a reference to Mrs. Bass's bank robbery). Hal also tries to communicate with him using a V.F.D. coded phrase; however, Remora fails to understand, meaning that he is probably not part of V.F.D. It is unknown whether he survives the fire at the hotel.
Mrs. Bass
'Mrs. Bass' is Klaus Baudelaire's teacher in ''The Austere Academy''. She is obsessed with measuring in metric and all of her lessons are on measuring certain items. Like Mr. Remora, she thinks that the Baudelaires are good students, and dislikes Carmelita Spats.
She reappears in ''The Penultimate Peril'', having been invited to a cocktail party at Hotel Denouement, wearing a thin black mask and a small white wig as a disguise; it is implied, as foreshadowed in ''The Austere Academy'' and '', that she has robbed a bank, having in her possession several bags of money marked with the name of Mulctuary Money Management. (For this reason, Mr. Poe is apparently pursuing her throughout the book.) She makes no attempt to conceal her crime from her co-teachers, Vice Principal Nero and Mr. Remora, and they in turn do not judge her, seeming to look on her robbery as an everyday occurrence. She also reveals that her invitation to the cocktail party asked her to bring all her valuables, and since she did not earn enough as a teacher to have valuables she was forced to turn to a life of crime. Despite her defence of the Baudelaires in ''The Austere Academy'', when their own identities are revealed at the Hotel Denouement, she is quick to accuse them of bank robbery. It is unknown whether she survives the fire which destroys the hotel.
Miss K.
'Miss K. ' was the teacher who, according to , replaced Mr. Remora after he choked on a banana and decided to retire. According to Nero, she "was not interested in telling short stories while eating." It was said that she read books instead (She was planning on reading The History of Lucky Smells Lumbermill, Charlotte's Web, and A Series of Unfortunate Events to the kids). Nero told Miss K. that he was going to fire her. At this Miss K. kidnapped two children. According to Nero, "their faces were very serious, as if they were embarking on an important mission of some kind".
Miss Tench
'Miss Tench' was the former gym teacher at Prufrock Prep., but fell from a third-floor window shortly before the arrival of the Baudelaires. Although it is not stated whether she died from her fall or was merely heavily injured, she was nonetheless replaced by Coach Genghis.
Count Olaf (as Coach Genghis)
Main articles: Count Olaf
Count Olaf disguises himself as a physical education teacher, 'Coach Genghis'. The Baudelaires immediately recognize him as Count Olaf in disguise, but pretend not to know him at first.
Olaf, under the excuse that orphans have stronger legs, makes them paint a circle in luminous paint, and then perform "Special Orphan Running Exercises" (S.O.R.E.), laps around the luminous circle at night, for nine days. Olaf's plan was to make them so tired that they could not get their work done and get kicked out of school, allowing him to become their new guardian and then claim their fortune their parents left behind.
Cafeteria workers
The White-Faced Women, associates of Count Olaf, disguise themselves as 'cafeteria workers' in ''The Austere Academy''. They help kidnap Isadora and Duncan Quagmire.
Librarian
There is a mysterious librarian character — referred to in '' — who wears an unusual assortment of clothes and asks a question from the book ''Ramona Quimby, Age 8'', seemingly as a way to identify other V.F.D. members.
Sunny Baudelaire (as a secretary)
References
1. Harper Collins Canada News, April 23, 2002, http://whoswhohp.tripod.com/lemony/articles/hccn04232002.html
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