I finally finished this series, and I have to say that I am a huge fan. I wasn't sure that I was going to be one in the middle of the series. Lemony Snicket (aka Daniel Handler) likes to keep his cards very close to his chest. I look forward to reading The Beatrice Letters, it's sequel.
I don't think I can say much without giving away pieces of the plot, but the series has a lot of inspired character names. Some of the names are jokes (there are siblings named Isadora and Duncan, get it?), but most of them are literary references. Esme Squalor, for instance, is widely assumed to be a reference to the poem by J.D. Salinger: "For Esme - With Love and Squalor." Here are most of the inspired names from this series:
Lemony
Snicket
Violet
Klaus
Sunny
Baudelaire
Olaf
Arthur
Poe
Polly
Edgar
Albert
Strauss
Monty
Montgomery
Josephine
Anwhistle
Isaac
Gregor
Charles
Phil
Sir
Georgiana
Orwell
Nero
Carmelita
Isadora
Duncan
Quagmire
Remora
Bass
Esme
Jerome
Squalor
Hector
Lesko
Morrow
Jacques
Hal
Babs
Hugo
Colette
Kevin
Olivia
Quigley
Fiona
Widdershins
Fernand
Kit
Geraldine
Julienne
Frank
Earnest
Dewey
Denouement
Eleanora
Friday
Caliban
Ishmael
Miranda
Thursday
Alonso
Ariel
Jonah
Sadie
Bellamy
Bligh
Brewster
Byam
Calypso
Erewhon
Ferdinand
Fletcher
Finn
Kurtz
Larsen
Marlow
Nordoff
Omeros
Pitcairn
Robinson
Sherman
Willa
Elwyn
Fagin
Bertrand
Beatrice
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:A_Series_of_Unfortunate_Events_characters
Image Credit:
Illustration by Brett Helquist
Pitcairn was the name of a small working-class town in the Pittsburgh area where I grew up. Funny.
ReplyDeleteGeraldine and Ferdinand are some of my favorite names!