The End: Official Information and Speculation

[Dante]

Book the Thirteenth: The End







Dear Reader,

You are presumably looking at the back of this book, or the end of the end. The end of the end is the best place to begin the end, because if you read the end from the beginning of the beginning of the end to the end of the end of the end, you will arrive at the end of the end of your rope.

This book is the last in A Series of Unfortunate Events, and even if you braved the previous twelve volumes, you probably can't stand such unpleasantries as a fearsome storm, a suspicious beverage, a herd of wild sheep, an enormous bird cage, and a truly haunting secret about the Baudelaire parents.

It has been my solemn occupation to complete the history of the Baudelaire orphans, and at last I am finished. You likely have some other occupation, so if I were you I would drop this book at once, so the end does not finish you.

With all due respect,

Lemony Snicket

Title: The End
Release Date (United States): 12:01 am, Friday 13th October
Release Date (United Kingdom): 3:00 pm, Friday 13th October
Page Count: 368 (?) (originally given as 384)
HarperCollins Edition
Spine colour (HarperCollins): Sandy Brown
Spine colour (Egmont): Foliage Green
Border: Fruit
Print Run: 2.5 million

Timeline:
(Note: All dates have some margin of error, as the date we discover something is not necessarily the same day as its release.)

(Second Note: Only AuthorTrackers containing new information about B13 will be mentioned in this timeline; for full transcripts and dates, see here.)

September 18th (2005): The opportunity for Sunny to state a person's name in Book the Thirteenth is auctioned off on eBay.
January 13th (2006): Release date implied by AuthorTracker to be October 13th.
February 9th: Teaser cover and teaser synopsis (no spoilers) released.
February 21st: A further AuthorTracker message alludes to B13.
March 3rd: New B13 teaser cover released (recoloured as TBB).
March 16th: AuthorTracker confirms B13's title as The End and its release date as October 13th; Thirteen Shocking Secrets About Lemony Snicket is released.
March 17th: A HarperCollins press release announces that Lemony Snicket has completed Book the Thirteenth. (Original link.)
April 1st: An April Fool's Day AuthorTracker alludes to an apparently non-existent statement by Snicket, and gives out false information on B13.
April 6th: A teaser cover with the spine apparently differently-coloured is discovered, but the change may be due to image quality.
May 14th: The apparent cover is published in an advert in the New York Times Book Review.
May 15th: AuthorTracker provides a picture of the cover, reinforcing earlier confirmation of the title.
May 16th: Barnes & Noble posts a full picture of the cover.
May 17th: The cover is included on the Books page (and elsewhere) on LemonySnicket.com.
June 7th: Discovered a document from HarperCollins Canada with information on pages 21-24 (Antenora's made screenshots here) about upcoming aSoUE books. Page 21 discusses the marketing and publicity.
June 9th: A page about the upcoming CD containing all the aSoUE audiosongs, The Tragic Treasury, reveals the title of B13's audiosong: Shipwrecked.
July 11th: Images of the box art of The Complete Wreck are released; Egmont's cover for The End is released.
July 20th: A new AuthorTracker reveals details about TBL with implications for Book the Thirteenth.
July 25th: HarperCollins releases the Dear Reader letter for Book the Thirteenth.
August 8th: LemonySnicket.com follows suit.
August 14th: A B&N article states that "The End promises to tie up all remaining threads in the story in an undoubtedly exciting manner," and Handler's behaviour reinforces The End yet further as the title of B13.
August 16th: Approximately the first five pages of The End are discovered and posted.
August 29th/30th: Several pages of LemonySnicket.com are revamped, the front page comparing the website to the island from B13, and the first Vile Video arrives.
August 30th: A HarperCollins The End newsletter reports similar developments, using a terrible storm as a metaphor for The End.
September 5th: The Beatrice Letters is released; a Book Blast e-mail's "Fun Facts" are "What You Must Know Before The End" (screenshot here).
September 18th: The End is added to Egmont (the U.K. publisher)'s website.
September 19th: The second Vile Video is released, and a HarperCollins newsletter implies that part of a secret code is concealed within it.
September 25th: Three online bookstores are discovered to use the following synopsis: "Lost at sea, the Baudelaire orphans, along with the evil Count Olaf, wash up on the shore of an island populated by an oddly placid group of inhabitants, and they try to decide whether or not they are truly safe."
September 26th: An interview with Snicket in the Chicago Tribune apparently reveals a short extract (pasted here) (specifically, a phrase definition) from The End; Lemony Snicket appears on British program Blue Peter (in which approximately 50 copies of the Egmont edition of The End are shown); an advertisement for the series is shown in the October edition of Nickelodeon Magazine (scans here).
29th September: UnfortunateEvents.com marks 13 days until The End with a countdown timer.
4th October: A Book Blast e-mail reveals that in The End the Baudelaires are plagued by numerous catastrophes, including "premature death" and reveals the name and some of the contents of the final Vile Video.
6th October: The last Vile Video is released, and the full code revealed.
8th October: The entire first chapter of The End is apparently given online, and photographic evidence of leaked copies of The End appears.
12th October: UnfortunateEvents.com posts a contest to win a signed set of the entire series.

Reported Handler statements:
20th October 2005: (link) "Book thirteen marks the return of a reptile previously gone missing."
11th April 2006: (Audio clip) (Thread) "I will tell you that the word Beatrice is the last word in the last volume in A Series of Unfortunate Events."
30th May 2006: (link) "The title is The End."
1st June 2006: (link) "The end of the story is ambiguous. I'm not sure if you could call it a happy ending or not--'happy' is a comparative term... I can't tell you too much about what happens in the book, but there are some strange occurrences. Seaweed is used as a wig--that may be the first time in the history of literature, although my research is lackadaisical. There is an enormous storm at sea, a herd of wild sheep, and a sledge is used in an inappropriate manner... Lemony Snicket is going to hang around after the series ends--he might get interested in other cases. "
5th June 2006: (link) "I have been informing people that I believe it’s the first incidence in literary history in which seaweed is used as a wig, so literary wig enthusiasts may take note of that."
8th June 2006: (link) "Seaweed is used as a weapon and a number of people die." (Note: A number of members feel that this interview does not sound genuine, so the information given should be treated with caution.)
15th June 2006: (link) Lemony Snicket (a.k.a. Daniel Handler, 36) says at least two characters will die in his 13th and final "A Series of Unfortunate Events" book, "The End." ... the book's editor, Susan Rich, promises that it delivers an "unhappily ever after" finish.
15th September 2006: "LS: [...] Is it not enough that a British publishing house known as Egmont is reportedly printing several copies of the 13th and final volume in A Series Of Unfortunate Events, entitled The End, in which the Baudelaires find themselves shipwrecked on a desert island containing a dystopic utopia and an hysterical history, where villainy slaughters and villains are slaughtered and where seaweed, for what is arguably the first time in literary history, is used as a wig?"
26th September 2006: "The last book is called The End. Book Thirteen is possibly the most dreadful; most of it takes place on a small island in the middle of the ocean, and the Baudelaires, they get their last choice for whom they want to be alone with."
3rd October 2006: "There's some death and birth and child rearing, and the possibility for enormous disaster, and the hope that enormous disaster can be averted." (Scan here, from drearydreary; type-up here, from Akbar.)

Speculate and theorise.

[jman]

Good on ya Dante. I've been starting to think about it. We'll probably see that island mentioned in TBB:RE, and TFF pirates mentioned in TBB:RE.

[Antenora]

Possible titles: The Last Loss, The Fearful Finale, The Final Fright, The Vicious Victory(a rumor that's been flying around for a while), The (various I-adjectives) Island, The (O-adjective) Ocean, The Vicious Vessel(as in pirate ship).

Plot: We'll meet the Female Finnish Pirates, travel to the island that won't let you take any of the fruit, and return to Briny Beach.

Web development: It would be great fun if they had another site like The Nameless Novel, but I doubt that somewhat. I think they'll just refrain from giving out information until very close to the release date, and then they'll probably update LS.com.

[jman]

Sounds pretty close.

[Sixteen]

I think the title will be "The Isolated Island".

[MikeT]

I hope they give us some sort of a web development.
TNN.com was SO fun then just getting the title on a silver platter.

[Antenora]

Possible negative island adjectives: Icky, imperfect, inadequate, immoral, injurious, infernal, inclement, inferior, infamous, insecure, inmical.

[Sixteen]

I don't think there will be a "Final" or "Last" in the title.
It would really seem like Handler ran out of ideas; with TBB and TPP, it's unlikely.

I would like another TNN.com .

As for answers, I don't think everything will be answered. Some, such as what is in the sugar bowl, will be. But stuff like the Masked Ball or other Beatrice-related backstorys won't.

[Dante]

By contrast, I would think that TBB and TPP would indicate that the last book would have a time-placement word in its title; otherwise, it would (ha ha) break the pattern. Embedded Edit: But I can appreciate the merits of other titles, too. A few feeble ideas I've had: The Isolated Island (returns to the pattern of TRR and TWW, unless it also applies to the people on the island and in the story); The Last Laugh (really more applies to the villains of the story).

I think that the main questions will be answered - Beatrice, sugar bowl, possibly the schism, probably Olaf's parents - but a lot of backstory will be left for us to write ourselves.

Web development: Either exactly like TheNamelessNovel.com, or completely different. Scraps of information occasionally washing up on the shore or Snicket delivering important clues or something. I don't really know.

Plot: I've removed a big muddled paragraph here, and now I'm going to put down a list of things which might or will be included instead.

SSHAMH (+ Kit);
F.F.P.;
Fernald & Fiona (+ the Carmelita?);
Island with a law against removing its fruit;
Prospero (+ Incredibly Deadly Viper);
Briny Beach (+ Lemony).

[champ103]

I think the plans for it's release date are October 13th 2006: Friday the 13th. Another rumor was 6/6/6, but that wouldn't give Handler time to write it and for it to be published.

[MikeT]

Do you think that Lemony will be referred to as "missing" for Book the Thirteenth?

[jman]

Maybe, but that would be kind of repetitive.

[MikeT]

^ Yeah, that's what I thought. Which leads me to believe that the Web development of Book the Thirteenth will have a somewhat different twist to it, and won't mimic the style that TheNamelessNovel alleged to. I.E. Snicket is missing, work out these clues theme.

[Antenora]

I'd like a site that gave us random clues "washed up on the shore".

As for the plot, I think the SSMAMH might crash into the sea , and we'll meet Hector and the Quagmires again, find out some mysterious information from them, and then lose sight of them again. Their fate may be unresolved even at the very end.

[eggman]

I still quite like the sound of The Fiery Finale, although everybody else seems to have given up on that name.