Was Beatrice a Snicket? The Mom?

[Dante]

Just a couple of notes:

The first is that the naming tradition isn't necessarily after a family member who had died - just anyone, apparently, if they were sufficiently important to the parents.

Secondly, your point about the peppermint allergies almost seems more like an argument that Beatrice was already a Baudelaire, but because TWW only mentions that the Baudelaire allergies are famously fast-acting, not that they are exclusively to peppermints, then it's quite possible that the peppermint allergy was inherited from their mother and the fast-acting nature of the reactions from their father. (I don't know if that makes medical sense, but medical sense doesn't necessarily apply to the series, and in any case the "Baudelaire allergies" may simply refer to the children and not the family more broadly.) As for Klaus finding out about his allergies, he and Violet could both have accidentally had some peppermints one day and discovered their inherited allergy at the same time.

Thirdly, "B are a Snicket" is ungrammatical and cannot be a correct interpretation of the anagram; "bear a Snicket," as you note, is something which was already obviously going to happen from the early chapters of TPP, so it's not really a secret, and as such I consider this reading to be possibly correct but a red herring for the true "Beatrice sank" arrangement. As for the question of why "Beatrice sank" would be a secret when it's all over the poster, you have to consider that the book was almost certainly not written with the inclusion of this poster in mind (or the punch-out letters, for that matter); the production of the book makes the anagram easier than it was probably meant to be.

[gliquey]

I agree with everything Dante said, but to add to the conversation:

I believe allergies are usually inherited but this does not give us much information: it is plausible that either Baudelaire parent or both had the allergy to peppermints. From my very limited understanding of biology, I think allergies can either be caused by dominant or recessive alleles, although if it's recessive then both parents would need to at least be carriers. In either case, it would be possible for Violet to have the allergy and for Klaus to not have it. But this is besides the point: as Dante says, what makes medical sense may be irrelevant, and this is a world in which dozens of doctors come to see someone being decapitated and consider that to be a valid medical procedure, so I don't think the fact that the Baudelaire parents allowed Klaus to consume a peppermint after they knew about Violet's allergy tells us anything. I also think "the Baudelaire allergies" is a phrase used to describe the children, at least primarily, so I doubt Beatrice's allergy hints at anything important.

I have never found any anagram other than "BEATRICE SANK" to be convincing - "A BRAE SNICKET" and "BEAR A SNICKET" are not ridiculous, but I don't imagine either of them were intended (coming up with two or even three 12-letter messages that are anagrams of each other would be no easy feat), and I find the plethora of other suggestions very unlikely. I also think that for the average reader, especially considering the books are marketed at children, finding the anagram "BEATRICE SANK" is hard enough with the illustration serving as a clue, so were it completely unrelated that would make it too obscure even by Handler's standards.

Sept 25, 2016 3:09:59 GMT -5 Dante said:

The first is that the naming tradition isn't necessarily after a family member who had died - just anyone, apparently, if they were sufficiently important to the parents.

For instance, Sunny could be named after S. Theodora Markson (from All the Wrong Questions), who was Bertrand's chaperone. (Although this idea was probably not intended by Handler per his answer to "What does the S. stand for?" in our interview with him.)

[Hermes]

Well, I think that the letter to the editor suggests very strongly that there is more than one anagram; that CASKET IN BRAE, like BEATRICE SANK, is supported by the picture; and that it's hard to see why he would be making so much of the word 'brae' unless he wanted to use it in an anagram or a code of some kind. As for whether the average reader could decipher it, I think he does leave some clues too deep for the average reader, as is shown by the fact that people are still wondering what the S stands for, though DH assures us that the answer is there.

As for Beatrice's maiden name, I think the strongest clue is 'because I loved her so much, I never thought there could be more than one Beatrice Baudelaire' - which suggests she was Beatrice Baudelaire when he loved her. The allergies are confirming evidence, if anything. Either Bertrand was a distant cousin (though there's a clue he was adopted), or he took his wife's name, perhaps because they inherited property from her parents, or because she was the last of her family.

[Dante]

There is, in fact, an alternative anagram-related explanation for TBL and The End's emphasis on the word "brae": As a red herring term to confuse those attempting to decipher the anagram.

[Hermes]

Well, yes, OK. He did that with Beatrices, I suppose.

Or alternatively it may be part of the 'mystery of life' aspect, intended to suggest that there are some secret messages that we cannot decipher. (LS to BB #5 strongly suggests that 'brae-man' is an anagram, with the questions 'What is a baticeer?', 'What is a brae-man?' and 'What is an anagram?' in swift succession. But it is not an anagram of anything we have ever been able to find.