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Post by R. on Sept 13, 2020 10:22:44 GMT -5
I was just wondering how much money she actually has. Is she really as wealthy as she claims? Does money have a different value in this world? How much would the Baudelaire fortune have to be for someone as wealthy as her to want it? My personal belief is that she isn’t quite a millionaire, but is getting close. The Baudelaire fortune is roughly the same as hers.
Share your thoughts.
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Post by Dante on Sept 13, 2020 15:32:22 GMT -5
It's worth remembering that Jerome had already bought the extremely desirable location of 667 Dark Avenue's penthouse apartment before he met Esmé, purely because a friend asked him to, which suggests that Jerome himself is also extremely wealthy; so perhaps her large fortune is merged with his. Considering her career, and the circles in which she moves, I can well imagine that she probably is extremely independently wealthy; but at the same time, an actor like her wouldn't find it so hard to con her way through such a life, especially once she had Jerome's wealth. In other words - I think you can read it however you want. It doesn't seem like the specific amount of money she has really matters to her; it's more the fact of having lots, and in particular, getting it from the Baudelaires.
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Post by Uncle Algernon on Sept 13, 2020 19:36:04 GMT -5
That can't be literally how it works, but I often get the impression that the economic dynamics of the Averse treat Enormous Fortunes as discrete units. They change hands wholesale, rather than representing amounts of money that can be split, shared, or taken from. This is especially obvious with the Quagmire Fortune, which apparently consists of a bunch of sapphires, not exactly a practical currency for small-scale purchases.
Iin terms of how such things might work out in practice, I would guess that in the City, either you possess a Fortune or you do not. When you possess a Fortune, people will give you unlimited credit to buy whatever you like. The possessors of Enormous Fortunes, who tend to also be V.F.D. members, villains, or both, then presumably con their way out of actually paying anybody if they can.
Either way, the precise figure of Esmé's net worth is besides the point. She owns the Squalor Fortune, and quite possibly a second Fortune as well. Owning three Fortunes would increase her status considerably.
(Something needs to be said, if it has not been said already, about how in a world of Unfortunate events, characters spend their time trying to acquire fortunes. Etymologically "the Baudelaire Fortune" is no more or less than "the fate of the Baudelaires", so there's an argument to be made that Olaf did in fact have control of the Baudelaire Fortune for most of the books, which did him no good at all, because despite all the talk of the Fortune being enormous, the Baudelaires are in fact erribly unfortunate. And isn't it also terribly interesting that one of the people who inadvertently help Olaf find out where he might get the Baudelaire Fortune is Lulu, the Fortune-Teller?)
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Post by Dante on Sept 14, 2020 3:07:04 GMT -5
(Something needs to be said, if it has not been said already, about how in a world of Un fortunate events, characters spend their time trying to acquire fortunes. Etymologically "the Baudelaire Fortune" is no more or less than "the fate of the Baudelaires", so there's an argument to be made that Olaf did in fact have control of the Baudelaire Fortune for most of the books, which did him no good at all, because despite all the talk of the Fortune being enormous, the Baudelaires are in fact erribly unfortunate. And isn't it also terribly interesting that one of the people who inadvertently help Olaf find out where he might get the Baudelaire Fortune is Lulu, the Fortune-Teller?) Fascinating symbolic reading, Uncle Algernon. I'm sure it's also occurred to you that Mr. Poe, guardian of the Baudelaire fortune, is also the one who determines where the Baudelaires go; and so Count Olaf is trying to wrest the Baudelaire fortune from him in both senses. And of course, in The End, the Baudelaires give up on the very idea of having a fortune and submit to an undetermined and unknown fate. |
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Post by Hermes on Sept 14, 2020 9:20:19 GMT -5
I never really thought the Esme was especially rich: a a financial adviser she is no doubt well-paid, but not in such a way that she could be said to have a fortune; and her acting, given that as far as we know it was with Olaf, would not be very lucrative. I would presume that it was Jerome who was he really wealthy person.
I don't suppose that the Quagmire fortune consisted entirely of sapphires, though they were its most notable part. They must have paid for their education somehow, for instance. And Esme as their financial adviser - well, it doesn't make sense anyway, for various reasons, but it makes even less sense if the fortune was nothing but sapphires; what would she do with them? I take it she was in charge of the part of the fortune which consisted of money. This would also explain why she didn't just grab the fortune, without any kidnapping involved; she was in a position to take the money, but not the sapphires, which were the most valuable part.
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Post by Uncle Algernon on Sept 14, 2020 13:16:11 GMT -5
They must have paid for their education somehow, for instance. they? It's far from certain that Asoueland has mandatory tuition fees like the U.S.A. and the U.K., though it's of course not impossible. The word "tuition" appears nowhere in the text of TAA, even though one might assume the question of how the Baudelaires' education is being paid for to come up if Prufrock were a paying school. If Prufrock has tuition feeds, then either the Baudelaires somehow got a scholarship despite being well-known as heirs to an Enormous Fortune (somewhat unlikely), Nero himself was paying it out of his own pocket as their nominal guardian (unlikely considering his general avarice), or the tuition was being paid out of the Baudelaire vault by Mr Poe. That latter option is unlikely for yet a third reason, which is that it would constitute an unexplored loophole to the "until Violet comes of age" clause of the Baudelaire Parents' will. As Olaf finds out in TBB, the money cannot be the subject of withdrawals even if they're (nominally) intended to help care for the children. It would surprise me if schools were any different, and if they were, you'd assume Olaf would try to leverage that fact. |
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Post by FileneNGottlin on Sept 14, 2020 13:55:11 GMT -5
My impression of the Quagmire sapphires was that they were a large collection of heirlooms that could be sold for money/were gathering wealth(similar to investing in gold), and the fact that the family owned these jewels showed that they had a great sum of money independent of them.
Esmé is rich, presumably. The Baudelaire fortune isn’t her end goal—it’s to see Olaf get the fortune and the Baudelaires suffer—so it’s not a good indicator of her actual wealth. I’d say that she was upper-middle class or lower-upperclass originally(she presumably bankrolled many of Olaf’s plays), but that majority of her money and possessions comes from marrying Jerome.
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Post by Dante on Sept 14, 2020 15:51:27 GMT -5
If Prufrock has tuition feeds, then either the Baudelaires somehow got a scholarship despite being well-known as heirs to an Enormous Fortune (somewhat unlikely), Nero himself was paying it out of his own pocket as their nominal guardian (unlikely considering his general avarice), or the tuition was being paid out of the Baudelaire vault by Mr Poe. That latter option is unlikely for yet a third reason, which is that it would constitute an unexplored loophole to the "until Violet comes of age" clause of the Baudelaire Parents' will. As Olaf finds out in TBB, the money cannot be the subject of withdrawals even if they're (nominally) intended to help care for the children. It would surprise me if schools were any different, and if they were, you'd assume Olaf would try to leverage that fact. At the same time, I do wonder whose money Mr. Poe used to buy all of those bags of candy and pairs of earrings he turns up with at the end of TAA. My impression of the Quagmire sapphires was that they were a large collection of heirlooms that could be sold for money/were gathering wealth(similar to investing in gold), and the fact that the family owned these jewels showed that they had a great sum of money independent of them. This seems plausible, yes, though one might more simply say that the Quagmire Sapphires are the treasures of the Quagmire family and would, if sold, easily constitute the vaster part of their wealth. |
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Post by Hermes on Sept 14, 2020 16:51:26 GMT -5
If Prufrock has tuition feeds, then either the Baudelaires somehow got a scholarship despite being well-known as heirs to an Enormous Fortune (somewhat unlikely), Nero himself was paying it out of his own pocket as their nominal guardian (unlikely considering his general avarice), or the tuition was being paid out of the Baudelaire vault by Mr Poe. That latter option is unlikely for yet a third reason, which is that it would constitute an unexplored loophole to the "until Violet comes of age" clause of the Baudelaire Parents' will. As Olaf finds out in TBB, the money cannot be the subject of withdrawals even if they're (nominally) intended to help care for the children. It would surprise me if schools were any different, and if they were, you'd assume Olaf would try to leverage that fact. At the same time, I do wonder whose money Mr. Poe used to buy all of those bags of candy and pairs of earrings he turns up with at the end of TAA. Good point: I take it Mr Poe is prepared to make payments from the funds himself, just not to allow guardians access to them. Or perhaps the bank is advancing the money, on the basis that it will be repaid when Violet comes of age? (In which case, you will say, the Quagmires' bank could do that even if the fortune consists entirely of sapphires. Well, yes, in principle, but would anyone really be proceeding on the basis that the sapphires must be sold off if the Q's are to have any money at all?) Certainly PP does not look like a state institution, nor, given the number of wealthy students there (the Spatses also have a fortune) like a charitable one. I guess Olaf could set up shop as a schoolmaster and get Mr Poe to make payments to him under cover of school fees, but of course he would not get actual control of the fortune that way, which is what he is aiming at. |
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