The Baudelaire siblings (a word here meaning brothers and sisters) like to be alone, as long as it's together.
They like grey cloudy days when tourists don't get in their way.
They are all allergic to peppermints.
Female, fourteen years of age when the series begins. Right-handed. Violet is inventive, and ties her hair back when she has to think hard.
At the age of ten she had had short hair.
If Violet had a peppermint it would bring her out in hives.
Male, a bit over 12 years old. Wears glasses.
If Klaus had a peppermint it would make his tongue swell up, something he discovered at a birthday party when he was eight.
At the age of 8 he had been into astronomy.
Female, has four teeth at the beginning of the series.
Most of what Sunny says is gibberish, which means it doesn't make any sense, but some of it does.
When Sunny has a peppermint she breaks out in hives and her tongue swells up.
She could whistle Mozart's fourteenth symphony with crackers in her mouth.
Has coughing fits when he interacts socially with the orphans, but they don't appear to affect him when he's working. He is a banker in the City. He was a friend of the Baudelaire's parents, and has known the three siblings for all of their lives (though he never remembers that they are allergic to peppermints). Mr. Poe gets promoted to Vice President in Charge of Coins at Mulctuary Municipal Money.
The wife of Mr. Poe.
A loud, obnoxious boy.
Another loud, obnoxious boy.
Either the Baudelaire Orphans third cousin four times removed or their fourth cousin three times removed. Not necessarily their closest relative, but geographically the one who lives nearest them.
He is an actor, with his own acting troupe and theatre. He is tall and thin. He has one scraggly eyebrow and shiny eyes. He wears a grey, stained suit. He has a tattoo of an eye on his ankle. His 'signature' is an eye. He has sharp, dirty fingernails.
He has written a play 'The Marvelous Marriage' under the nom de plume of Al Funcoot. Like every book in the Series the name of the play is alliterative, but unlike the titles of every Event, this title sounds happy.
Count Olaf is disrespectful of the children, calling them orphans, which is something they don't need to be reminded of.
He describes them to his theatrical troupe as wealthy children
.
Count Olaf's Theatre Troup
Smooth, snarly voice.
The Baudelaire siblings father's cousin's wife's brother.
Some sort of government scientist - a herpetologist. Has travelled a great deal. House filled with things he has brought back from
his travels.
Short, chubby with a round red face, with a loud booming voice. He has been studying snakes for forty years and is a member of the Herpetological Society.
Lives on the shores of Lake Lachrymose, where her house was destroyed during the orphans time there.
The orphan's second cousin's sister-in-law. Her husband recently died, possibly in a boat accident or by drowning.
Very pale, with white hair piled on her head in a bun. Considers herself an expert on the English language.
As a girl she grew up on the shores of Lake Lachrymose, swimming in it every day, knowing which beaches were rocky, which were sandy, knowing all it's islands and caves.
Her mother-in-law (the orphan's second cousin's mother) had only one eyebrow and one ear.
After being thrown overboard her life jackets are found by two fishermen, around the time the orphans are at a miserable boarding school.
Josephine's late husband. He could whistle Beethoven's fourth quartet with crackers in his mouth. After having a picnic with Josephine he waited only forty-five minutes before going for a swim in Lake Lachrymose and the Lachrymose Leeches smelt the food on him.
A doll that Josephine gave to Violet as a welcome gift (which was then passed on to Sunny, as it was hard and good biting material).
A bald man with a long nose who always wears a black robe.
Two women who always have ghostly white powder on their faces.
A blank-looking person, very large, either a man or a woman.
Skinny man with two hooks instead of hands.
Inhabit Lake Lachrymose, have six rows of very sharp teeth and can smell the smallest bit of food from a long distance. Usually feed on small fish, but if they smell food on a human will swarm around them...
Another disguise of Count Olaf. Has a single long eyebrow, a shining eye and a peg leg. Wears a blue sailor hat and a black eye patch. Allegedly lost his leg a few weeks earlier while sitting on his boat eating pasta with puttanesca sauce. Runs a business called Captain Sham's Sailboats.
Has an eye-shaped office, in an eye-shaped building.
Tall woman with blonde hair in a tight bun. Big black boots and holds a long black cane with a shiny red jewel on top.
Dr. Orwell's receptionist. Makes cookies. Wears a pale-brown dress, sensible beige shoes, pale lipstick and a blonde wig. Has a ridiculously high voice, largely because 'she' is actually Count Olaf in disguise. Also has grown long fingernails which 'she' has painted pink as part of the disguise, and wear false eyelashes (underneath Count Olaf's usual one long eyebrow). Wears long white stockings with an eye pattern on them.
Uncle Monty's assistant, killed by Count Olaf in the Swarthy Swamp by Count Olaf, who forged a letter saying Gustav had resigned the day before the Baudelaires arrived.
Uncle Monty's new assistant, due to arrive a week after the Baudelaires arrive. 'Stephano' has a long beard and no eyebrows. He carries a black suitcase with a silver padlock. He wears striped trousers.
A detective friend of Snickets.
Name almost an anagram of Count Olaf.
The director of marketing for the Herpetological Society. Wears plaid suits, in the pocket of which he keeps a cigar. Wears a shiny diamond watch on his wrist.
The waiter at the Anxious Clown restaurant.
Lives next door to Count Olaf, when we first meet her. A high court judge.
A snicket is a Yorkshire term for an alley, specifically one which can be used as a shortcut from one street to the next.
Lemony Snicket is an accordion player (like Daniel Handler). He is considered something of an expert, though expert in what we are not told, but one presumes his area of expertise is on the Baudelaires.
Regrets not taking a flashlight with him one fateful day (or night).
Has a friend who works as a snake charmer in Egypt. Once escaped from the castle of an enemy by printing cards declaring he was an admiral in the French navy. Has a friend called Gina-Sue who is socialist. His room in his home has a window that looks at a graveyard.
Snicket has seen a women he loved get picked up by an enormous eagle and flown to its high mountain nest. He has a friend called Dr. Lorenz.
Once received a two-hundred page book from a woman he loved who couldn't marry him, for various reasons. Grew up near the sea. Lives beneath the sea. No wife or children (though he'd like both). On trial, though it has been delayed.
The illustrator of the Series of Unfortunate Events. Has been called to study a test tube containing a Lachrymose Leech and a blueprint of a pincher machine to aid him in his illustrations.
Works at the Happy Smells Lumbermill. Has messy grey hair and is perpetually covered in sawdust, hair and clothes.
The previous foreman at the Happy Smells Lumbermill. Not too bad as a foreman, he stopped showing up for work a week before the orphans arrived in Paltryville.
Took over as foreman at the Happy Smells Lumbermill a week before the orphans arrived. Wears stained overalls and shoes that have been taped shut. Bald, with a terrible white wig. Dark, beady eyes and a face mask with a rough, muffled voice. Is the bald man (from Count Olaf's theatrical troupe) in disguise, his long nose is pressed down to his face under the mask.
Very tall, with very short hair. Wearing a bright blue vest.
Shorter than Klaus. Wears a shiny dark-green suit. Smokes a cigar which covers his face in smoke.
Wears a turban with a worthless jewel in it.
There are two of them. The Baudelaires meet them at Prufrock Preparatory School.
