50 Fun Facts About A Series of Unfortunate Events

What is the real name of the author who wrote the series as Lemony Snicket?

He had never written for children before and reworked a mock-gothic manuscript meant for adults.

The series has thirteen books; how many chapters does each book have?

The final book cheats slightly with a separate extra section titled Chapter Fourteen.

What is the title of the first book?

It came out on September 30, 1999, and the first twelve titles are all alliterative.

In which year was the first book published?

The final book followed seven years later, and a Netflix series a decade after that.

What is the title of the thirteenth and final book?

It contains thirteen chapters plus a separate mini-book called Chapter Fourteen.

The orphans' surname pays homage to which French poet?

Other names in the series nod to Monty Python, Edgar Allan Poe, George Orwell and Virginia Woolf.

Which sibling is the inventor of the family?

She is fourteen when the story starts and famously ties her hair up with a ribbon before inventing.

Which sibling is the voracious reader with a photographic memory?

He is eleven at the start of the books, though the film makes him twelve.

What is baby Sunny's defining talent early in the series?

She later develops an interest in cooking, and in the TV series her babble is voiced by Tara Strong.

The two younger siblings' names are thought to allude to which real-life attempted-murder scandal?

Violet's name is linked to Violet Sharpe, a maid questioned in the Lindbergh kidnapping.

Where is the villain's tattoo of an eye?

Along with his unibrow, it is how the children see through every disguise the adults fall for.

Besides the tattoo, what facial feature gives the villain away in every disguise?

His henchmen are mostly unnamed and go by descriptions such as 'the hook-handed man'.

What is the secret organisation V.F.D. suggested to stand for?

A schism split it into 'volunteers' and 'villains', and both the orphans' parents and their enemy belonged.

Which banker is in charge of the orphans' affairs and keeps choosing their guardians?

His constant coughing and refusal to believe the children are running jokes of the series.

The eldest sibling will inherit the family fortune when she reaches what age?

That is why the villain tries to marry her in the very first book.

In the first book, the villain's play is credited to 'Al Funcoot', an anagram of which character?

The play is called The Marvelous Marriage and the wedding in it is meant to be legally binding.

How does the eldest sibling invalidate the forced marriage in the first book?

The document required her to sign in her 'own hand', and she is right-handed.

Uncle Monty, the guardian in The Reptile Room, collects what?

His prized specimen is the Incredibly Deadly Viper, which turns out to be completely harmless.

Aunt Josephine, the widow of The Wide Window, is obsessed with what?

Klaus cracks her fake suicide note by spotting the deliberate grammatical errors in it.

Aunt Josephine's house overlooks which body of water, home to deadly leeches?

Its leeches make the film's boat chase deadly, and its name means 'tearful'.

What is the name of the villain's sailor disguise at the lake?

In The Reptile Room he had posed as an assistant called Stephano.

Which 'last safe place' do the children go to in The Penultimate Peril?

They meet nearly every adult from the series there, and end up burning it down.

What is the deadly fungus released on the island in The End?

The children find a cure their parents developed but cannot persuade the islanders to take it.

What is the cure for the fungus in The End?

The hybrid fruit was bred by the children's parents but is unsafe for unborn babies.

Every book is dedicated to which woman, mourned by the narrator?

The final pages reveal she returned his engagement ring along with a 200-page book explaining why.

The narrator's lost love, to whom every book is dedicated, turns out to be whom?

Kit Snicket's newborn is named after her at the very end of the series.

When the narrator explains a difficult term, which recurring phrase does he use?

He once defined 'adversity' as meaning 'Count Olaf'.

The narrator's blurbs famously urge readers to do what?

He insists it is his 'solemn duty' to record the misery, but that nobody should have to read it.

The author names Roald Dahl and which macabre American illustrator as his influences?

The first book he ever bought as a child was that artist's The Blue Aspic.

Who illustrated the thirteen books?

Each book ends with a full-page picture hiding a clue about the next one.

Which British actor narrates most of the unabridged audiobooks?

The author himself, as Snicket, read books three to five and found it 'very, very hard'.

Which novelty band, featuring the author, recorded a song for each audiobook?

The songs were written by Stephin Merritt and collected as The Tragic Treasury in 2006.

Which instrument does the author play in several bands?

He appears on The Magnetic Fields' album 69 Love Songs.

The author was born in which city?

He is an alumnus of the city's Boys Chorus and has spent most of his life there, in an Edwardian house.

What was the author's first novel, published under his own name?

Many publishers rejected it for its dark subject matter.

Roughly how many copies have the thirteen main books sold?

They have been translated into 41 languages.

What is the title of the four-book noir prequel about the narrator's childhood?

The Unauthorized Autobiography and The Beatrice Letters are companion books rather than prequels.

Who played the villain in the 2004 film?

The author wrote an early screenplay draft and courted him for the part himself.

Who voiced the narrator in the 2004 film?

He is glimpsed only in silhouette, typing away at his account.

Who played Aunt Josephine in the 2004 film?

Billy Connolly was Uncle Monty and Timothy Spall the banker Mr. Poe.

Who directed the 2004 film after the original director left over budget concerns?

The whole thing was shot on sound stages and backlots at Paramount and Downey Studios.

The 2004 film adapts how many of the books?

It covers The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room and The Wide Window, and grossed $211.5 million.

Which Academy Award did the 2004 film win?

It was nominated in the other three categories as well.

The 2004 film places the family mansion in which real city, unlike the books?

The books almost never name real places, though a Duchess of Winnipeg gets a mention.

Who played the villain in the Netflix series?

His performance was singled out for praise across the show's three seasons.

Who played the deadpan on-screen narrator in the Netflix series?

Casting him was the author's own idea.

How many episodes did the Netflix series run in total across its three seasons?

Each book got two episodes except the last, which was adapted as a single episode.

Which director, who had walked away from the 2004 film, ended up helming the Netflix series?

He was joined by True Blood showrunner Mark Hudis, who left the project in early 2016.

Where was the Netflix series filmed?

Production began in May 2016 and the first season arrived on January 13, 2017.

Who provided the voice for baby Sunny's babble in the Netflix series?

Presley Smith played Sunny on screen.