Those are indeed the illustrations from the Orphans! paperback, which is probably quite rare now. - Not that rae, actually, I got them online a couple of months ago, 4 pounds per book.
--Chapter Eleven--
I'd like to apologize for the quality of these images!
And, Of course, Handler as well as snicket plays sad songs on a accordion (although I cant vouch for its dustiness) I love this touch!
The Picture of Beatrice is ( I believe) the first in story reference to her?
And there is nothing to do with VFD in olafs papers?
--Chapter Twelve--
Justice Strauss’ character really is quite shallow as opposed to her appearance in TPP…
The character of the bride isn’t much of a character, if her only line is I do.
No matter how tired and/or tired you are, surely you would notice the lead actor of a play holding a walkie talkie during the plays climax?
--Chapter Thirteen--
A Certain island has rule that forbids anyone from removing its fruit - is this a coincidence or just something handler noticed when re-reading the first book?
Sunny totters on stage, which si technically walking. So much fro TVV First steps.
And so we move onto the world famous Wart faced man - who we never see again. Never mentioned. Never.. Anything. Was he forgotten, or just discarded due to not having any other story idas? He could have taken the place of Fernald in TEE, who si the only comrade to be disguised twice (I don’t include esme). Who knows!
The way handler ends each book in snicket narration, is always fantastic
And, of course, the song, scream and run away, is also amazing.
--Bad Begging Rare Edition --
The BBRE was released in 2003, alongside TSS. It comprises a copy of The Bad Beginning with a new cover, its own box, a special piece of Helquist art depicting the cast of The Marvelous Marriage, and a new chapter of "Author's Notes" for TBB, which add details, allusions, and plot notes to various lines from TBB. Scans can be found here ;
asoue.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=rog&thread=27681&page=5#707361And The Actual Notes ;
asoue.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=documents&action=display&thread=25174Pressing business to attend to - So the baudilare parents where going to do something, expect they, well, died.
the trolley has since collapsed, and its remains were recycled into the foundation of a hotel. - Which cant be Hotel Denoument, at least, unless Kit was lying in 12.2 (Book 12, Chapter 2. Thinking of referring to chapters like that, as it should save time)
so as to not leave an unsightly ring on the wood. The first mention of unsightly rings.
Mr. Poe took off his top hat carefully. Is this an unused subplot, or is lemony’s research just wrong. We know that another mr poe had adoption paper’s hidden underneath his top hat, and not ours, so I assume lemony believed that poe was our poe, until he learned otherwise?
Also, I have reason to believe that the O that appears on the official fire department insignia stands instead for a person’s name. - O, we know, is short for olaf, so do we have an Olaf Fire Department? I believe Olaf has his own fire department that either starts fires for him / deals with the putting out of fires / or doesn’t even put fires out at all. The delaying of putting out fires seems the most likely, as mr poe said, the Fire department arrives to late to save the bauds parents.
If violet does pick up the same stone again, it ends up in the bottom of the Hotel Denouement pond. Quite symbolic, that a tone at the start ot the story, end up at the story’s denouement.
Baudelaires had received a visitor who had no manners whatsoever - Most likely olaf, which has led many people to say he started the fire, but, I believe it was someone (and I will get to that in time) and not olaf.
The Royal Gardens - Supposed arson, arson being denied, unsightly rings, wow. Lots to get into here! So the Royal Gardens were set on fire by someone with bad manners. (Presumably Olaf, but im thinking it sounds more like something the Sinister Duo would do) The question is - why? What could you find in a garden? Flowers? Ill continue with this when we reach justice Strauss, but the other interesting part is Jacques’’ claims that it was arson, and widdershins says in TGG that Jacques PROVED the fire was arson, so we know he hasn’t just made a mistake. But why is Geraldine refusing the notion? Because Esme asked her probably! And, ill just add in that the OFD might have ahd a hand in it as well.
Oh, and the bench ends up in Hotel Denouement TPP, and Klaus (I think) even notes on the ring.
the stuffed head of a lion - A Volunteer Feline Detective, and trained by either Beatrice of Bertrand. Olaf would wan it dead, as it could smell he smoke….
Also, my sister has proposed that some of these eyes hid secret peepholes, cameras, or microscopic lenses, as in the Baudelaire home. - I’m gonna assume this is a standard VFD Thing?
I have not been able to find this refrigerator, to my great dismay - The same refrigerator from TSS, and illustrations in TE! I ope it is anyway….
More Royal Gardens - So, a poisonous plant was stolen? What other references to plants do we have in this book? Mr Poes children’s room smells like some sort of ghastly flower, and he has the perfect hiding space under his top hat! No, im joking with that last bit.
Two people did, of course - And, I don’t know who those people are!
the Fountain of Victorious Finance - Oh, Handler, why must you tease us so! We know from ATWQ that a tunnel is being made from this fountain to a museum, and that in TBB a recent survivor of a fire is hiding in this fountain. But, it could be anyone, from any fire. Im going to guess…. Moxie. And I know this really far-fetched, but I belvie Moxie to be the quagmires mother. So, in the quagmire, she somehow managed to get into one of these VFD tunnel things, and is now waiting inside the fountain, until she knows its safe.
The purpose for these longs was not discovered for quite some time, when I interviewed the former students at Prufrock Preparatory School concerning their orphaned classmates. - Many people take this to believe The quagmires, and there is also much confusion as to when they were interviewed, but, to me, the answer is simple. Olaf Killed the Prufock preps parents via fire, and then they became orphans, and began working in the submarine. As for why the Baudelaire’s chopped the logs, I think the logs could have been sued to burn down anything olaf had in mind, but the logs were kept waiting till The Prufprock prep fires, because Olaf was to busy trying to get the Baudelaire fortune!
Tomorrow afternoon, the semiretired amateur geologist has promised to put me in touch with current members of the F.F.P. so I can determine if there is any truth to the rumour that Violet Baudelaire came into contact with them on her way to Briny Beach for the third time. - I take this to mean, quite simply, that after The Beatrice sank, The Bauds were picked up by The FFP, and dropped of at Briny Beach.
Thanks to Dante for this ;
“Dreary, Dreary” – the audio song associated with TMM, a dirge for Beatrice.
“The Butcher Boy” – sung by the Baudelaire parents to Sunny, as per THH.
“Vide le Cercueil, Vide Mon Cœur” – French. “Empty the Coffin, Empty My Heart.” Incidentally, the truck that appears on the final pages of the U.A. is there “to carry a coffin.”
“Place Daturas on My Grave” – there is shortly after this a BBRE note indicating that daturas are a kind of flower whose Victorian symbolism is “I dream of thee.” Some forms of datura are poisonous…
“La Belle Dame Sans Merci” – poem by Keats. “The beautiful lady without pity.” It describes a mysterious, otherworldly woman who entrances a knight before vanishing.
“Dry Bones” – apparently the “Leg bone connected to the knee bone” (and so on) song, also known as Dem Bones or Dem Dry Bones. Presumably used here as yet another reference to Beatrice’s death.
“Bizarre Love Triangle” – a 1986 single. Presumably refers to the Lemony-Beatrice-Bertrand love triangle, although it’s not especially bizarre.
“Dans des Terrains Cendreux” – French. “In ashy lands.” Self-explanatory, but it’s also a quotation from a poem by Baudelaire, which we’ll see shortly.
“I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” – country music song. Chosen for obvious reasons.
“Lately I’ve Become Even More Lonely, So I’m Crying Harder Than Usual” (unfinished) – just a joke on the last one.
And Also this ;
The Victorian art of flower arranging is a coded system in which each flower in an arrangement conveys a certain message. Below are some flowers and their Victorian symbolism:
Aster: Cheerfulness in old age
Chrystantemum: truthful Datura: “I dream of thee”
Peppermint: cordialty, warmth of feeling
Fennel: worthy of praise
Nasturtium: heroism, patriotism
None of these are flowers believed to have been used that evening.
Please see also my notes to pages 6, 18 and 62.”
The fact that datura is on that list scotches my new theory that the poisonous plant is datura, but it’s probably best that the poisonous plant would be fictional. The notes to 6, 18 and 62 are as follows: 6 refers to the Baudelaire dinner table and to Mr. Poe’s top hat, 18 refers to Doldrum Drive, Fickle Fountain, and the Royal Gardens fire, and 62 refers to the Fountain of Victorious Finance; please reread them. Linking all these together, the implication would seem to be that the flowers the white-faced women were arranging are the poisonous plant -
But, of coruse, what where they going to sue the plant for?
And, thanks to Dante one more time ;
LA BÉATRICE
Dans des terrains cendreux, calcinés, sans verdure,
Comme je me plagnais un jour à la nature,
Et que de ma pensée, en vaguant au hazard,
J’aiguisais lentement sur mon cœur poignard,
Je vis en plein midi descender sur ma tête
Un nuage funèbre et gros d’une tempête,
Qui portait un troupeau de démons vicieux,
Semblables à des nains cruels et curieux…
-C. Baudelaire ”
The first eight lines of a real poem by real poet Charles Baudelaire. Since only the first eight lines are quoted, it’s unclear whether we should take the entire poem to be of significance… but given the content of the remainder of the poem, I cannot withhold the rest from you. Here is a translation of the poem:
One day as I was making complaint to nature
In a burnt, ash-gray land without vegetation, (This is simialr to the remains of VFD Headqauters in TSS)
And as I wandered aimlessly, slowly whetting
Upon my heart the dagger of my thought,
I saw in broad daylight descending on my head
A leaden cloud, pregnant with a tempest,
That carried a herd of vicious demons
Who resembled curious, cruel dwarfs.
They began to look at me coldly,
And I heard them laugh and whisper to each other,
Exchanging many a sign and many a wink
Like passers-by who discuss a fool they admire:
— "Let us look leisurely at this caricature,
This shade of Hamlet who imitates his posture
With indecisive look, hair streaming in the wind.
Is it not a pity to see this bon vivant,
This tramp, this queer fish (The Salomn in the Stricken stream?), this actor without a job (Olaf),
Because he knows how to play skillfully his role,
Wish to interest in the song of his woes
The eagles(VFD), the crickets(Coded), the brooks, and the flowers(See above),
And even to us, authors of that hackneyed drivel,
Bellow the recital of his public tirades?"
I could have (my pride as high as mountains
Dominates the clouds and the cries of the demons)
Simply turned away my sovereign head
If I had not seen in that obscene troop
A crime which did not make the sun reel in its course!
The queen of my heart with the peerless gaze
Laughing with them at my somber distress
And giving them at times a lewd caress.
Right! I'm of for some tea!