By: Lemony Snicket
“It is very easy to say that the important thing is to try your best, but if you are in real trouble the most important thing is not trying your best, but getting to safety.”
Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Wide Window
*This post contains spoilers for The Wide Window and A Series of Unfortunate Events
For a discussion on the first two books in the series, see the linked posts bellow:
Overview:
Fresh off another daring escape from the clutches of Count Olaf, the Baudelaire siblings are place into care of their Aunt Josephine, a phobic ridden, grammar loving widow who lives precariously above a dangerous lake.
Desperate to make the most out of a dreary situation, Violet, Klaus and Sunny vow to make this odd arrangement work.
However, danger is all around Lachrymose Lake from the carnivorous leeches to the suspicious sea Captain with the pegged leg.
The Baudelaire’s must once again use their ingenuity and team work to stay out of the clutches of their most feared adversary.
My thoughts:
I love that the author uses common tropes and hidden clues throughout the stories. This method could really be helpful for prepping young readers to recognize these devices later on when reading more complicated material.
The dock of the lake is called Damocles Dock. If you are familiar with the parable, The Sword of Damocles, you would know that this must reference something being held together precariously.
To paraphrase the story, Damocles asked a King if he could swap places with him so that Damocles could understand what it would be like to have all the power and riches that the King had. The King agreed and when Damocles sat on the King’s chair he noticed that there was a sword hanging above him precariously held by a single horses hair. The King explained that he keeps it there as a reminder that having power also means that you are constantly in danger and your position is hanging on by a single thread. Damocles quickly switches back with the King, realizing that he wouldn’t want that responsibility.
This is an obvious reference to Aunt Josephine’s house which is barely holding onto the cliff. Any wrong move and the house and anyone in it could come tumbling down.
It also could allude to the Baudelaire’s safety. They may think that they are in a safe place but at anytime the danger could fall upon them.
Lachrymose, the name of the lake, refers to something that is tearful and sad. This lake brings sadness to many as Aunt Josephine lost her husband to the creatures that live there and ultimately she succumbed to it as well.
Then there are much more obvious plays on words. Count Olaf goes by Captain Sham and of course, a sham is a lie. You would think someone like Aunt Josephine who is obsessed with grammar and the English language would recognize the obvious connection but just like all the other adults in this series, she is blissfully unaware of what is right in front of her.
Hurricane Herman is most likely a nod to Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick. Not exactly a cheering story of triumph. A captain obsessed with revenge on a whale. Not an accident that Count Olaf is posing as a sea captain as his obsession with the Baudelaire orphans mimics Ahab’s obsession with the White Whale.
Perhaps my favorite literary device is what I like to refer to as “Chekhov’s peppermints”. A common phrase “Chekhov’s gun” refers to a gun that appears in the first portion of a story and must be used before the story concludes. Mr. Poe gives the Baudelaire children peppermints within the first few pages and they are quickly put away but not disposed of. These peppermints later come into play and allow the children to escape Count Olaf to recoup and come up with a game plan.
I must also give a nod to the small asides the author adds that are completely over the head of young readers. My favorite example is the following quote:
“But even if they could go home it would be difficult for me to tell you what the moral of the story is. In some stories, it’s easy. The moral of ‘The Three Bears’, for instance, is “Never break into someone else’s house”. The moral of ‘Snow White’ is “Never eat apples”. The moral of World War One is “Never assassinate Archduke Ferdinand.”
Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Wide Window
All these fun discussion topics aside, the story itself is a little lacking.
I feel as if all these added hidden nods and references takes away from the story as a whole because the author is trying to hit on too many things.
Aunt Josephine is not a villain nor is she a person you hope the Baudelaires will stay with for the rest of their lives. She’s just a very medium character with some annoying tendencies.
It would be completely understandable if her fears stemmed from the sudden, tragic loss of her husband but he feared everything just as much as she did.
Overall,
All of the references were nicely incorporated and fun to look for while reading. It is always nice to read something for younger readers that has little pieces that are clearly only for adults to catch.
The Wide Window is middle of the road when it comes to the series overall. It is not a linchpin title for the series in any manner and you wouldn’t be missing anything as a reader if you skipped it.
Rating: 3/5 stars
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