| The Wide Window | |
 First edition cover |
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| 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) | Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
| Publication date | February 2000 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 214 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-06-440768-3 |
| Preceded by | The Reptile Room |
| Followed by | The Miserable Mill |
The Wide Window is a children's novel and the third novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. Lemony Snicket is a Pseudonym used by author Daniel Handler in his book series A Series of Unfortunate Events, as well as a character in that Daniel Handler (born February 28 1970 is an American writer, Screenwriter and Accordionist He is best known for his work under the Pen name Brett Helquist is an American Illustrator best known for his work in the children's books A Series of Unfortunate Events. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States A Series of Unfortunate Events is a children's Book series of thirteen novels written by Daniel Handler under the Pseudonym of Fantasy literature is Fantasy in written form Historically speaking the majority of fantasy works have been literature Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of Literature or Information &ndash the activity of making information available for public view HarperCollins is a Publishing company owned by News Corporation. 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) is a Book bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with Cloth Paperback, softback, or softcover describe and refer to a Book by the nature of its binding. The Reptile Room is a children's Novel and the second of A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The Miserable Mill is the fourth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story A Series of Unfortunate Events is a children's Book series of thirteen novels written by Daniel Handler under the Pseudonym of Lemony Snicket is a Pseudonym used by author Daniel Handler in his book series A Series of Unfortunate Events, as well as a character in that In The Wide Window, the Baudelaire orphans are sent to live with their third guardian, a distant relative, Mrs. Anwhistle, otherwise known as Aunt Josephine, who lives on a house overlooking a lake.
Contents |
Plot summary
The book begins with the three Baudelaire children, Violet, Klaus and Sunny riding the Fickle Ferry across Lake Lachrymose to Damocles Dock, where a taxi awaits them to take them to their new home. Violet Baudelaire is one of the main characters in the popular children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket Klaus Baudelaire is one of the main characters in the popular children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket Sunny Baudelaire is one of the main characters from Lemony Snicket 's series of books A Series of Unfortunate Events. (Mr. Poe has merely given the children a bag of peppermints, to which they are allergic, and sent them on their way. )
The taxi pulls up a steep hill to a house which sits just off the side of the cliff, held there by spidery, metal-looking stilts. They meet their new guardian, Aunt Josephine Anwhistle. In the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire live with various guardians following Although she is a kind old woman, she is frightened by many things. Ever since her husband, Ike, died in Lake Lachrymose after being eaten by the Lachrymose Leeches, she has developed many irrational fears about the lake and her own possessions. She won't touch the phone, the radiator, the refrigerator, the oven, or even the doorknobs. She also has a terrible fear of realtors. Aunt Josephine loves grammar and possesses an enormous library on the subject in her home. Grammar is the field of Linguistics that covers the Rules governing the use of any given natural language. The room containing her library has an enormous window (for which The Wide Window is named), which overlooks the lake.
After the Baudelaires tell Aunt Josephine Hurricane Herman is coming, the children and their new guardian head down to town to obtain food and other household supplies. There they come across "Captain Sham," Count Olaf in disguise. Count Olaf is the primary villain of the children's Book series A Series of Unfortunate Events (by Lemony Snicket) He tells them that he is the owner of a boat rental company and lost his leg after it was eaten by the Lachrymose Leeches. The children warn Aunt Josephine, but they cannot prove "Sham" is Olaf in disguise, since he has a wooden leg where the ankle bearing his tattoo of an eye should be. For other uses of these initials see VFD. VFD is a fictional Secret organization within the book series A Series Furthermore, Aunt Josephine finds Captain Sham charming, and won't listen to the Baudelaires. Later that night, the children are awakened by a loud crash, and they rush to the library to find the window broken and their aunt's suicide note.
The three siblings are shocked because the note says that the children's new guardian will be Captain Sham. Klaus becomes suspicious because it is filled with spelling and grammatical errors, not something Aunt Josephine would have done. They reason that Count Olaf is behind it and call Mr. Poe using the telephone. Mr. Poe arrives, but they cannot prove their suspicions, as the note is written in Josephine's hand writing. While Mr. Poe and Olaf are discussing matters at The Anxious Clown, the children purposefully start an allergic reaction with the peppermints Mr. Many Businesses appear in the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. Poe had given them, and escape back to the house. By this time, Hurricane Herman is already arriving on Lake Lachrymose. At the house, Klaus discovers that all the spelling and grammar mistakes in the note form an encoded message, the words "Curdled Cave", presumably a cave somewhere on the shore of Lake Lachrymose. As the children search frantically for a map of the lake, one of the stilts that supports Aunt Josephine's house in place is struck by lightning, and the house begins to slide down the cliff. After narrowly escaping with their lives, the Baudelaires watch as Aunt Josephine's house crumbles and falls into Lake Lachrymose.
The Baudelaires hurry down to the docks to steal a boat from Captain Sham's rental company, but the rental company is being guarded by Count Olaf's henchman who looks like neither a man nor a woman. Sunny outsmarts it, and the children manage to sail across Lake Lachrymose to Curdled Cave, where they find Aunt Josephine hiding. Aunt Josephine claims that Olaf forced her to write the note, but rather than actually committing suicide, she threw a chair through the window and went into hiding, leaving only the coded suicide note behind.
The Baudelaires convince her to join them, but as they're sailing back across the lake, Lachrymose Leeches attack. The children are puzzled, since they haven't consumed any food within the last hour (The leeches are blind and attack only if they smell food) but Aunt Josephine admits to having eaten a banana shortly before the Baudelaires arrived. The leeches ram their boat and devour it as it fills up with water. Violet successfully invents a signal for help, and Captain Sham rescues them in another boat. Josephine pleads with Olaf to spare her life, offering to give him the Baudelaires and disguising herself far away, but Olaf throws Aunt Josephine into the water, where she is supposedly devoured by the leeches, and takes the children with him back to Damocles Dock.
Back at the docks, Mr. Poe is about to hand the children over to Sham when Sunny bites into Sham's fake wooden leg, breaking it off. Olaf claims that his leg has miraculously regenerated, but Mr. Poe has already seen the tattoo of an eye on Olaf's ankle. Having been once more unmasked, Olaf flees with his associate before the children and Mr. Poe are able to chase after them.
Cultural references and Literary allusions
- In Brett Helquist's self-portrait, he is blindfolded and being forced to walk the plank. Brett Helquist is an American Illustrator best known for his work in the children's books A Series of Unfortunate Events. A Self-portrait is a representation of an artist drawn painted photographed or sculpted by the artist "Walk the plank" redirects here For other uses see Walk the Plank.
- The name Damocles Dock, which presumably alludes to the legendary Greek figure Damocles who had a sword dangling over his head. Note in the picture in the front of the book it shows the three Baudelaire standing on Damocles dock. In the archway at the entrance to the dock is a sword dangling over their head.
- In the previous book of the series, the endnote references the Kafka Cafe, a reference to the Austrian-Hungarian author, Franz Kafka. One of Kafka's short stories, "Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk," features Josephine, the only mouse that can sing. Josephine the Singer or the Mouse Folk ( Josephine die Sängerin oder Das Volk der Mäuse) is the last Short story written by Franz Kafka. The Baudelaire's guardian Aunt Josephine was mousey in that she was afraid of everything (timid as a mouse). Also in the short story, Josephine's music sounds like whistling if heard from the wrong angle, which may be a reference to Aunt Josephine's late husband's ability to whistle with crackers in his mouth. Josephine's last name was Anwhistle making her husband Ike Anwhistle (say the name out loud).
Foreshadowing
- In the ending picture, there is an ophthalmologist's sign decorated with two eyes, foreshadowing The Miserable Mill. The Miserable Mill is the fourth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.
- Ivan Lachrymose: Lake Explorer is a book mentioned in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography that supposedly is used to hide crucial documents between pages 302 and 303. Lemony Snicket The Unauthorized Autobiography was first released on May 1, 2002.
- Also, the Baudelaires, Mr. Poe, and Captain Sham dine at The Anxious Clown, and according to Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography, they receive a coded message. Many Businesses appear in the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.
- At the end of the book, Lemony Snicket claims that by the time the Baudelaires had to attend a certain preparatory school, two fisherman found what appeared to be the remains of a shredded life jacket. This is an obvious reference to The Austere Academy, and, by the time they attended Prufrock Prep. The Austere Academy is the fifth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. , they found Aunt Josephine's eaten life jacket, leaving little doubt that she was eaten by the leeches.
Special Editions
Disappearance!
A Series of Unfortunate Events No. 3: The Wide Window or, Disappearance![1] is a paperback re-release of The Wide Window, designed to mimic Victorian penny dreadfuls. It was released on September 4, 2007[2]. Events 476 - Romulus Augustus, last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, is deposed when Odoacer proclaims himself Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. The book includes seven new illustrations, and the third part of a serial supplement entitled The Cornucopian Cavalcade, which features a 13-part comic by Michael Kupperman entitled The Spoily Brats, an advice column written by Lemony Snicket, and, as in The Bad Beginning or, Orphans! and The Reptile Room or, Murder!, (the final) part of a story by Stephen Leacock entitled Q: A Psychic Pstory of the Psupernatural[3]. Michael Kupperman, also known by the pseudonym P Revess, is an American Cartoonist and Illustrator. The Bad Beginning is a Novel by Daniel Handler, written under his pen name Lemony Snicket, and the first of thirteen books in the A Series of The Reptile Room is a children's Novel and the second of A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. Stephen Butler Leacock PhD, FRSC ( 30 December 1869 &ndash 28 March 1944) was a Canadian writer and Captain Sham is a fake person and Sham means fake or fraud
Cover images
 US cover |
 UK cover |
 US paperback |
Translations
- Russian: "Огромное окно", Azbuka, 2003, ISBN 5-352-00431-7
- Spanish: "El ventanal", Montena, 2004, ISBN 0-307-20937-7
References
- ^ Amazon.com: A Series of Unfortunate Events #3: The Wide Window: Or, Disappearance! (A Series of Unfortunate Events): Books: Lemony Snicket,Brett Helquist,Michael Kupperman
- ^ A Series of Unfortunate Events #3: The Wide Window, By Lemony Snicket , Illustrated by Brett Helquist: HarperCollins Children's Books
- ^ Now for the Unfortunate Paperbacks... - 4/9/2007 - Publishers Weekly
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