In the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, numerous locations are first mentioned in The Reptile Room.
Lousy Lane edit
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Lousy Lane is the road which leads to Uncle Monty's house. It first appears in The Reptile Room, the second novel.
The road is said to go past Hazy Harbor and up to Tedia, a fictional town. The road has orchards producing very sour fruit. It also encircles the Opportune Odors Horseradish Factory, giving the area a sickly odor. Note that the factory is owned by V.F.D. where they are looking for a cure for Medusoid Mycelium. Also, the factory was made of lumber from the Lucky Smells Lumbermill. The road traverses the Grim River, a river brown with mud In the book it states the river is one tenth water, nine tenths mud.
The Prospero edit
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In the fictional series A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket, the Prospero is the ship belonging to the V.F.D. It is anchored along Daedalus Dock (in Hazy Harbor), and among other things makes journeys to Peru.
In Regards to Uncle Monty edit
The Prospero (named after Prospero, a character who can control the sea in Shakespeare's The Tempest) plays its biggest role in The Reptile Room.
In The Reptile Room, Count Olaf (masquerading as Stephano) attempts to take the Baudelaires with him to Perú, where he plans to kill two of the Baudelaires, and wait with the third till he/she comes of age (thus acquiring the enormous Baudelaire fortune). His plan is foiled, however, when his car crashes into Mr. Poe's automobile.
Olaf had acquired the tickets from the late Dr. Montgomery Montgomery, who had shredded Olaf's original ticket (having suspected him of espionage).
The ship was scheduled to leave at 8:00 to some unknown destination, but in actuallity left at 5:00, in order to take volunteers out of the country. Count Olaf was unaware of this schedule change 1 (possibly because it was written on the special V.F.D. tickets Dr. Montgomery had presumably purchased), but intended to leave much earlier (in order to, "have time for a bottle of wine before lunch").
A man on the Black Rapids Deck (see below) attempted to explain why the ship was leaving early, but was only heard to shout out the words, "Phase Two,"2 and, "Drat!"
In The End, it is revealed by Ishmael that the ship was originally called the Pericles (named after a ruler of Athens in ancient Greece).
Crew edit
- The woman with the beaded necklace
- One of the two owners of the Prospero; wife of the man with the corsage.
- The man with the corsage
- One of the two owners of the Prospero; husband of the woman with the beaded necklace.
- Captain Julio Sham
- Captain of the Prospero. Both Count Olaf and a person known only as J. (possibly Jacques Snicket) have disguised themselves as this gentleman. Whether there is a real Captain Sham or whether it is simply a generic name for the disguise is unknown.
The following is a list of the crew. It is of note that each of the crew members has the last name of some well-known children's author.
-
- (Beverly Cleary has a passage in her novel Ramona Quimby, Age 8, which describes a man very similar to the V.F.D. librarian in Prufrock Preparatory School)
- Author of Matilda, one of the V.F.D. encoded books assigned by Kit Snicket for the students of Prufrock Preparatory School to read.
- Sailor Danziger
- Sailor Eager
- Sailor Gantos
- Sailor Griffin (?; there are many children's authors by the name of Griffin)
- Sailor Kalman (?)
- Sailor Kerr (?)
- Sailor Konigsburg(The author of The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place,among other books)
- Sailor Lowry
- Sailor Peck
- Sailor Scieszka
- Sailor Seibold (?) (not to be confused with Gustav Sebald)
- Sailor Selznick (The co-author of The Doll People and The Meanest Doll in the World )
- Sailor Snicket
- Sailor Snyder
- Sailor Sones
- Sailor Walsh (?)
- Sailor Whelan (?)
- Sailor Woodson (?)
The Ship edit
Black Rapids Deck edit
From here a person tried to explain the reason for the ship's early departure to a Punctilio reporter. This is also one of the decks patrolled by "enemies" disguised as either passengers or seagulls.
- White Jacket Lounge
Black Guinea Deck & Ringman Deck edit
According to Brett Helquist's illustration (above), these two decks are on the same level of the ship.
- Typee Shuffleboard Court
Notes edit
1 It is demonstrated that V.F.D.'s enemies were unaware of this schedule change because "E." (likely Esmé Squalor) had purchased a ticket for the 8:00 schedule.
2 Phase Two refers to phase two of disguise training, Various Finery Disguises, which demonstrates how to disguise oneself using costumes and makeup (Olaf's method as Stephano and countless others).
Uncle Monty's House edit
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"Uncle Monty's House", in Lemony Snicket's book series, A Series of Unfortunate Events, refers to the home of the Baudelaire orphans' late father's cousin's wife's brother, herpetologist Montgomery Montgomery. The house features a strong snake motif, with sculptures, paintings and (in the large front yard) topiaries of serpents. The home includes at least five bedrooms, a kitchen, a foyer, a living room and a large glass conservatory, used to house Montgomery's reptile collection; the second book in the series, The Reptile Room, takes its name from this room. At the end of this room there is a library, which is well guarded by the snakes. There are probably more rooms, as the home is rather large. It has many stories, as shown in the illustration.
In The Slippery Slope, it is revealed that the house is connected by a mysterious tunnel to the Quagmire Mansion. The purpose of this tunnel is as yet unknown. It is also mentioned that the house has been burned down.
It was mentioned (by Quigley Quagmire in The Slippery Slope and by Lemony Snicket in The Unauthorized Autobiography) that books concerning V.F.D. were hidden in Dr. Montgomery's library.