Baudelaire: Charles Baudelaire- a French poet of the nineteenth century. He was known for a collection entitled Flowers of Evil. The book resulted in charges pressed against him, which he lost. As a consequence, he was fined and forced to remove several poems, including physically cutting them out in some cases. He also translated the works of Poe.

Beatrice: Beatrice- the ideal woman of Dante's Divine Comedy. Also a poem by Charles Baudelaire (thanks to D. Stuart).

Poe: Edgar Alan Poe- American writer known for horror stories.

Sunny and Klaus- Klaus von Bulow was accused of poisoning his wife, Sunny some years ago. (Thanks to Bob Reed for verifying what I thought I remembered, and for proving that somebody actually reads this site.)

Violet- My suspicion is that the name Violet was selected because it sounds like "violent."

"...to never, under any circumstances, let the Virginian Wolfsnake near a typewriter.": Okay, so this one all you really have to do is think. But it's one of my favorites.

Dr. Lucafont: Yet another anagram for Count Olaf

Mamba du Mal: Not only does this mean "snake of evil," but the title of Baudelaire's book in the original French would have been Les Fleurs du Mal.

Lemony Snicket fragment: "I have seen a woman I loved picked up by an enormous eagle and flown to its high mountain nest." I don't think this really has anything to do with what happened to Beatrice, but I'm including as many references to her as I catch.

Damocles Dock: The Sword of Damocles refers to unforseen dangers. (Good note to any Rocky Horror fans out there, too.) It comes from a story in which a peasant changes places with a king, and after initially believing the king's life was easy, being shown the sword which is suspended, point down, over the throne by a hair.

Georgina Orwell: How George Orwell, 1984 or Animal Farm apply here, I have no idea.

This is also the first book where we start to learn anything of substance about Beatrice:

"I once loved a woman who for various reasons could not marry me."

"My beloved Beatrice, before her untimely death, asked it, although she asked it too late. The question is: Where is Count Olaf?

So now we know that Beatrice was not married to Lemony and was probably killed by Count Olaf.

Quagmire: muddy swamp

Isadora and Duncan: Isadora Duncan, modern dancer

Genghis: Genghis Khan, Mongol conqueror

Prufrock Prep Prufrock- from a poem by T.S. Elliot

"For instance, my friend Professor Reed made a triptych for me, and he painted fire on one panel, a typewriter on another, and the face of a beautiful, intelligent woman on the third. The triptych is entitled What Happened to Beatrice and I cannot look upon it without weeping."

"...or like the man- and not, alas, me- who was lucky enough to marry my beloved Beatrice, and live with her in happiness over the course of her short life."

One that's said by the triplets rather than in the narration, but we'll see where it fits: "'And then we found a newspaper from your hometown that said-'"

"And because I felt like a different person, I dared to approach a woman I had been forbidden to approach for the rest of my life.... As My puruers scurried around the party, trying to guess which guest was me, I slipped out to the veranda and gave her the message I'd been trying to give her for fifteen long and lonely years. 'Beatrice,' I cried, just as the scorpions spotted me, 'Count Olaf is-"

Beatrice was killed in a fire. She was married to somebody else. Count Olaf had been after her for fifteen years. Count Olaf was most likely in the Baudelaires' home town just before the fire that killed their parents. This is where I started suspecting that Beatrice was the Baudelaires' mother, and the fire was set by Olaf. You'll notice that often, when the subject of Olaf's activities in the town before the fire, or the Baudelaires' mother, comes up, the sentence remains unfinished.

Akrofil- "And they're not afraid of heights, that's for sure.": Could this phonetically equal "acrophile?" I think so.

And now the part where we really start having fun with Beatrice and all the interesting conspiracies.

" 'Mount Fraught was known for having dangerous animals on it, but your mother wasn't afraid. But then, swooping out of the sky-'" See?! There was a reason for the eagle quote after all!

Jerome and Esme Squalor a J.D. Salinger story, "For Esme, with Love and Squalor." The "J" stands for Jerome.

"I want to steal from you the way Beatrice stole from me." The first time that the name Beatrice is spoken by a character in the story.

"...a slightly larger wooden box given to me by a woman whom my grandfather always refused to speak about. Inside this slightly larger wooden box is a roll of parchment, a word which here means 'some very old paper printed with a map of the city at the time when the Baudelaire orphans lived in it.'... added in the margins by the map's twelve previous owners, all of whom are now dead."

-Olaf's secret passageway under the Baudelaire mansion.

Fagin the man who organizes the urchins in Oliver Twist into a band of pickpockets, or anybody who runs a similar organization.

Hector: ironically named for the clasical hero, I suppose

"I myself fell in love with a wonderful woman who was so charming and intelligent that I trusted that she would be my bride, but there was no way of knowing for sure, and all too soon circumstances changed and she ended up marrying someone else, all because of something she read in The Daily Punctilio

Jacques Snicket and his tatoo.

Klaus thinks about his mother with her pocket dictionary. In The Unauthorized Autobiograpy, it is mentioned that VFD recruits children who show remarkable note-taking skills.- Contributed by Elf Chick

"And I would hop like nobody ever hopped before, if I could somehow go back to that terrible Thursday and stop Beatrice from attending that afternoon tea where she met Esme Squalor for the first time."

"I would have been able to tell them a long and terrible story about men and women who joined a noble organization only to find their lives wrecked by a greedy man and a lazy newspaper."

"In photographs, and in each public place, Snicket rarely shows his face."

"'This scrap says 'apartment,''"-Where Beatrice met Esme? In reference to the passage under the building?

"The word 'Beatrice' reminds me of a volunteer organization that was swarming with corruption."

"This piece just says 'fire'"- "The Snicket Fires"

"Whas it really necessary? Was it absolutely necessary to steal that sugar bowl from Esme Squalor?"

"And now the only trace I have left of those happy days is the tatoo on my left ankle."

Carrie E. Abelabudite an anagram for Beatrice Baudelaire. Of course, the only other name on the list that is not an anagram for a name is an anagram for "red herring," so make of that what you will. Thanks to alert reader Mel.

Bernard Rioux From Camus' novel The Plague. (Thanks to extremely alert reader Beyond_Pale)

Caligari: First, let me explain something: in my twisted mind, I see a word ending in "ari" and immediately think "first conjugation present passive infinative." In this case, I was right: the literal Latin translation is "to be made dark." However, alert reader Joe sent me a link about The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a surreal, creepy, B&W movie. I thought there was a significance that didn't involve dead languages.

Beverly: From the number of references to children's authors in the Autobiography, probably an allusion to Beverly Cleary

Elliot the poet T.S.

Hugo: Victor Hugo, author of Les Miserables and, more relevant in this case, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. (If you didn't know that already, leave this website.)

Flynn: Errol Flynn, an actor known for appearing in classic swashbucklers.

"You might examine some letters your sister received recently, for instance, and learn that she was planning on running away with an archduke."

"'Mother taught me how to draw fake scars on myself when she appeared in that play about the murder.'"-Violet

"...or receiving the news that someone in your family has betrayed you to your enemies..."

"My Dear Duchess, Your masked ball sounds like a fantastic evening, and I look forward to..."
Lemony's sister? The masked ball mentioned in book five?

-somebody with an initial "R" or "K" following the Baudelaires

"The Road Less Traveled": a Robert Frost poem. (I can't decide if the phrase "dead poet" is a deliberate nod to The Dead Poets Society, or merely the natural one to use when one has just mentioned a poet who is dead.)

Sumac The Alchemist says this refers to Yma Sumac

If a tea set is a good place for hiding things, is that why Esme's sugar bowl had to be stolen?

Denoument the end, especially the concluding action after the climax of a book

Mount Fraught see book six

Sunny-ism "Busheney," meaning "You're an evil man with no concern whatsoever for other people." Possibly sublte political commentary in the form of combining Bush and Cheney? (Suggested by Dante)

Clearly the repeated mentions of the salad recipie, also Esme's possession of the stolen snowsuit with the VFD insignia and the letter B, are meant to tie the Baudelaire's mother and Beatrice (regardless of whether they are one and the same- although is there any doubt they are?) to V.F.D.

Violet remembers her parents singing "The World is Quiet Here"- Beatrice was the original actress in The World is Quiet Here (see Unauthorized Autobiography)

Rosebud: Charles Kane's last word in Citizen Kane, the meaning of which creates a great mystery. It turns out to be the name of his sled.

Godot: Waiting for Godot, a play by Samuel Becket, in which two people stand around waiting for somebody who never appears.

Queequeg: a character in Herman Melville's Moby Dick. Believing that he is about to die, he builds himself a coffin. Ishmael survives until he is picked up by another ship by floating in it.

"hewenkella," Sunnyism: I'm guessing this is meant to be "Hellen Keller," who was famous for learning to sign and speak in spite of being deaf and blind.

An odd, square stone with messages carved in three languages: probably a reference to the Rosetta stone.

"Nobody could extinguish my love, or your house."-certainly consistant with Beatrice being Mrs. Baudelaire, although not conclusive considering that the villian is an arsonist.

"As I hurried out of the opera house before a certain woman could spot me," we know that Mrs. Baudelaire was there, but so was Kit.

"Andiamo," Sunnyism: Italian for "We go."

Frank and Ernest: A comic strip.

"Galimatias," Sunnyism: French for "nonsense."

"Henribergson," Sunnyism: Henri Bergson, a French philosopher.

"Scalia," Sunnyism: Antonin Scalia, surpreme court justice, known for holding to a strict interpretation of the constitution, unless he has to read it a little more loosely in order to find a way he can uphold federal overruling of state medical marijuana laws.

Ishmael: the narrator and only survivor of the Pequod in Moby Dick. (The first line is "Call me Ishmael." Ironic, then, that this one does not want to be called Ishmael.)

pyrrhonic: skeptical

Ariel: character in The Tempest.

Robinson: see above.

Erewhon: a book by Samuel Butler, a satire of Victorian society.

Weyden: a Renaissance painter.

Omeros: the Greek form of Homer, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Finn: Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain?

Calypso: A nymph in the Odyssey who delayed Odysseus on his journey home, offering him immortality if he would stay with her. When he refused her, she held him prisoner for seven years.

Pitcairn: the island to which the Bounty sailed after the mutiny.

Marlow: Author Marlowe came to my mind, but Wikipedia tells me this is also a character in Heart of Darkness.

Kurtz: Ivory trader in The Heart of Darkness

Fletcher: Fletcher Christian, leader of the mutiny on the Bounty.

Bligh: Captain of the Bounty prior to the mutiny.

Jonah: biblical character thrown overboard to stop a storm directed at the boat because he had disobeyed the will of God. Also a term for any person who brings a curse upon a ship.

Bellamy: I can't quite figure this one out, myself. Is this in reference to 18th cen. pirate, Samuel Bellamy? Or Edward Bellamy, 19th century American science-fiction author? Either would seem at home in this list.

Caliban: a character in The Tempest.

Janiceps: From Janus, two-faced (literaly) Roman god for whom January is named, and "cephalos," Greek for "head". (Thanks to Beyond_Pale for the second half.)

Nordoff: Charles Nordhoff, one of the authors of Mutiny on the Bounty.

Byam: fictional narrator of The Mutiny on the Bounty. (Thanks to Mattiris)

Willa: Willa Cather, author. (Thanks to Mattiris and Beeporama)

Dreyfuss: The Dreyfus Affair, a scandal related to a wrongful conviction for treason in France in the 1890's.

Miranda the heroine of The Tempest (Thanks to Beyond_Pale)

Alonso Even more Tempest. The backstory is straight from Shakespeare. (Thanks to Beyond_Pale)

"...in a boat made of paper.": I'm probably seeing things that Daniel Handler didn't even mean to do at this point, but my first thought was John Dickinson's quote on the Declaration, To declare independence now, would be to launch our fortunes into the storm in a skiff made of paper."

Boswell: James Boswell, biographer of Samuel Johnson.

Anais: Anais Nin, erotica writer. Hence the extremely bad pun of it meaning "In the flesh."

Cimmerians: Okay, thanks to Beyond_Pale for pointing out this was an actual tribe and not a disguised version of Summerians. Apparently they lived around the Black Sea c. 8th century BC, according to Herodotus.

Electra: used to mean "a family shouldn't keep such terrible secrets," Electra was the daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. I am not going to attempt to explain the entire fall of the house of Atreus. You can google that one. I'd have to explain at least five plays to feel like I had said enough, and there are still several generations they didn't cover.

"History is a series of crimes, follies, and misfortunes" a quote from historian Edward Gibbon.

Neiklot: Tolkein backwards.

Trahison des clercs: Treason of Intellectuals, a book written in the 1920's by Julien Benda.

Gentreefive: This would make a lot of sense if Adam and/or Eve ate from the tree of knowledge in Genesis Five, but that chapter is actually a list of whom begat whom at what age and how long they lived, which is still a family tree but I have no idea why anybody would bother alluding to it. Please help if you have an idea that makes sense.

Just a thought of mine: considering the "Busheny" remark, might there be some subtle commentary in the fact that the outcasts unite behind a leader they were previously ready to overthrow because of an outside threat that nobody knows how to handle?

McGuffin: a plot device or object which is used to motivate the plot, but which is basically irrelevant.

Abelard: Pierre Abelard, french eleventh century philosopher.

"...rumors of one's death...": An allusion to Mark Twain's quote, "Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

a carved black bird: The Maltese Falcon.

a gem that shone like an Indian moon: the Star of India.

Jojishoji I couldn't figure out where this came from either, until Dives showed me the article saying that the winning bidder in the "have your name said by Sunny Baudelaire" charity auction gave the prize to his father, Joey Shoji.

Larsen Captain C. A. Larsen, an antarctic explorer whose ship was crushed by ice. Thanks to Rodrigue de Posa.

yomhashoah: Yom Ha-Shoah, Holocaust rememberance day. Thanks to Arel Lucas.

"O Mort, vieux capitaine, il est temps!..." (appearing on the "title page" of chapter 14, thanks to D. Stuart for bringing it to my attention): This is the first stanza of "The Voyage, VIII" by Charles Baudelaire.

Lastly, a bit of commentary on the overal Genesis parallel of the story. According to Genesis, Adam and Eve lived in innocence in Eden and there was no death in the world until Eve ate the fruit from the one tree which was forbidden to them, and then offered it to Adam, who ate from it as well. Eve was persuaded to eat the fruit by a talking snake, who was later identified with Satan although there is nothing in Genesis to suggest this. Adam and Eve then develop knowledge of the world, and cover themselves when previously they were unaware of the concept of nakedness. God saw that Adam was now embarrassed to be naked when Adam says that is why he was hiding from God, and knew that they had eaten the fruit. God punishes Adam, Eve, and the snake, and throws mankind out of Eden, so that now people must work, and die, and women will suffer in childbirth, amongst other things. We have obvious parallels: a father figure who claims that he is protecting his children, and pretends to give them free will but kicks them out of Eden for going against his suggestions. Apples that are reputed to be dangerous. The apple delivered by the snake. The snake has an undeserved bad reputation in ASOUE, in the sense that it is not actually poisonous, which helps suggest that the snake in the garden of Eden might have been given a bad reputation, too. And could the fact that the castaways are all melow because of drinking an opiate be a reference to Karl Marx's famous statement that religion is the opiate of the masses? All in all, the suggestion is that if it isn't necessarily better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven (because I can't discuss this topic without quoting Milton), it's at least better to live in the world. For this concept, see also approximately half the episodes of the original Star Trek series.