"The End": Cover on New York Times Book Review

[cwm3]

ladypoe said:

[glow=red,2,300]The clouds do look like they are coming from a fire, the Queequeg looks like it's on fire if you look closely[/glow]

where's the queequeg meant to be in this picture?

good to see the full-size cover. i wonder if'll we'll get the same/similar one over here.

[Songbird]

[glow=red,2,300]The brass thing behind the Bauds. [/glow]

[Dante]

I don't think so, the Queequeg was depicted on the U.K. cover of TGG, and it looks more of a silvery colour - and Helquist is probably going to keep his art consistent, particularly since the Baudelaires are wearing the right clothes now as well. Their costumes in both the illustrations and the narrative throughout the past few books have been very inconsistent, as has been noted multiple times on 667. It's probably the next most inconsistent illustration next to the V.F.D. tattoo.

As for the tattoo, every pre-schism volunteer and a number of post-schism volunteers (hard to say, as the date of the schism has apparently shifted backwards) have one of those; Lemony's stated directly that he has one, and we know Jacques has one. Olaf's simply the most likely candidate here because the trousers match his and because he was last seen with the Baudelaires.

I guess the clouds could be from a fire, but every time Helquist draws a scene with a lot of sky, the clouds have that piled-up look, so I wouldn't bet on it. I'd also expect them to be much darker if they were from a fire, and more wispy, as in TPP.

[Sora]

I only just saw this thread, and I haven't looked through every page. Sorry if things have already been spoken on.

1. The artwork on the faces of the Baudelaires is not quite the way I think Helquist draws. The drawing actually reminds me of the spoof cover in a 2005 Mad Magazine.

2. If it is real however, those legs look rather symbolic of Olaf being incapacitated in come way. I don't think the extremety of death, but maybe unconciousness.

3. The Quagmires in the smoke is very peculiar. Do they meet their doom, or come in to aid.

4. I'm rather disapointed in the cover to tell the truth. It really didn't have that great finality I was hoping for.

[lauren]

In the clearer version, Klaus looks more annoyed rather than scared or sad like his sisters, so I think we can assume that Olaf is not dead in that picture.
But anyways, my take on the front cover is that the wreckage in the background is their ship, and the scene is of them after their ship (unsurprisingly) crashed and sunk and now they're all alone, trapped on some island with Olaf. If it is the ship's wreckage then I wonder what they must have crashed with... The Queequeg? The FFP?

[Dante]

Since they're apparently alone, I'd guess that a storm was responsible - TPP, on p117, described an island in the midst of a troubled sea as a metaphor for the end of the Baudelaires' story. If they'd been sunk by or collided with a submarine or ship, I'd expect that to have been farther out to sea, whereas the raging winds of a storm are more likely to blow people coincidentally to their destination. Or it could have been some combination of several factors. The cover's just a snapshot, and it rarely tells us enough to make completely accurate conclusions on what's going on in the scene it portrays. The cover doesn't even show the island, we're just assuming that they're there because of the shallow water, the most obvious solution for which would be that they're on a shore.

[Antenora]

The color of the clouds looks a bit like smoke, or rather smog or pollution, but then again this is how Helquist usually draws clouds. Also, I don't think the Quagmires are in there, and we've never seen a meaningful shape like that in an ASoUE cloud illustration.

I got the impression they were near the island for the same reason--the water's fairly shallow, and Olaf might be lying on a beach with his legs in the water.

[Dante]

I think I should note that this cover is now displayed on the Books page (and elsewhere) of LemonySnicket.com.

[Wizz]

jacktripper said:

The border looks like waves to me. (Not the red things the other thing)

Yeah and can i just point out something? This is the sencond time you have double posted, once in The Harry Potter board, and now in here, and still no ones seems to have noticed. Read the rules before you post.

[Dante]

Oh, he did. Sorry, I didn't notice, his second post looked like a response to the first and I was in a bit of a hurry to read through the comments so I must have thought he was two people rather than one. Fixed, and I'll PM him.

[Gigi]

ffwf said:

I think I should note that this cover is now displayed on the Books page (and elsewhere) of LemonySnicket.com.

Elsewhere, except at Amazon. (not surprised)

[Dante]

dgrune said:

ffwf said:

I think I should note that this cover is now displayed on the Books page (and elsewhere) of LemonySnicket.com.

Elsewhere, except at Amazon. (not surprised)

Ha! So very true. There's not actually any button for B13, though, so if you select one of the other books to look at them, you'd have to Refresh the page to look at the B13 stuff again. I guess they'll probably add a picture below or something, or just not bother and leave it as being slightly inconvenient. And, B13 has the usual information links up beneath it, but the "More about this book" link just takes you to the page on the Shocking Secrets. ...And the "Pre-order the book" links below take you to a page which says "We'd love you to buy this book, and we hope you find this page convenient in locating a place of purchase." What have they done with the real Snicket crew?

Still, it's nice to see them update. Maybe someday they'll put the box sets in order, take away the blanked-out name of TPP on the GLooms picture, and add the correct synopsis for TPP. We live in hope, I'm sure.

[Deleted]

So now we know it's definately official.

[Dante]

hatramroany said:

So now we know it's definately official.

I'm certainly proceeding on the conclusion that that is true, yes, although it might be best to say, if one's paranoid like me, "So now we have no reason to expect them to change it given the precedents set from information releases about past books."

But yeah, I think it could only get more official by Daniel Handler appearing on TV and swearing on his honour that all these details are true and may he be struck down by lightning if they're not. ...Or something like that.

[cwm3]

i don't think i like 'the end' as the real title. it screws up the series' titles, and what happened to the mystery of finding out?

on another topic, would be pretty neat if the lemonysnicket.com website accidentally put up the first chapter of B13 early