The Wide Window

I've been reading this series as bedtime stories with Milly, although I did have to go back and read a few myself that she had raced through, unable to wait for me to read them to her at the pace of one chapter a night. They are genuinely brilliant books, funny and dark, mysterious and absurd.

This third one sees the orphans placed with their ridiculously risk averse Aunt Josephine. Once again their lives are ruined by both villains and well-meaning but idiotic adults. It's lucky the Baudelaires are quite ingenious themselves. A note here to also say that I love the descriptions of Count Olafs troupe of associates - none have a name, they are just the hook-handed man, the powder faced ladies, the one that could be a man or a woman etc.

Dear Reader,

If you have not read anything about the Baudelaire orphans, then before you read even one more sentence, you should know this: Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are kindhearted and quick-witted, but their lives, I am sorry to say, are filled with bad luck and misery. All of the stories about these three children are unhappy and wretched, and this one may be the worst of them all. If you haven't got the stomach for a story that includes a hurricane, a signalling device, hungry leeches, cold cucumber soup, a horrible villain, and a doll named Pretty Penny, then this book will probably fill you with despair. I will continue to record these tragic tales, for that is what I do. You, however, should decide for yourself whether you can show more possibly endure this miserable story.

With all due respect,

Lemony Snicket show less

The Wide Window is the third installment in the woeful tale of the Baudelaire orphans, and I found it quite fun. In this chapter, the children are sent to live with their "aunt" Josephine, who lives in a rickety house hanging over the edge of Lake Lachrymose. Aunt Josephine is terrified of everything. She won't prepare hot food because that entails turning on the stove. She won't answer the phone because it might electrocute her. She doesn't touch doorknobs because they might explode and send fragments flying everywhere. It's humorous, but it has bad implications for the Baudelaires. Aunt Josephine is terrified of pretty much everything — but when a certain Count shows up in disguise, she isn't afraid of him in the least.

The adults show more are amazingly thick once more. Mr. Poe seems to be improving very, very slightly, but he's still fine with handing the children over to the nefarious disguised Olaf. Again the children are quick-thinking and intelligent without becoming bores. I found Aunt Josephine's love for grammar quite amusing. Grammar is the joy of life, is it not? As a grammar gammer myself, I thoroughly enjoyed how grammar became a huge clue in the action. We can't start kids too young on this stuff :-P

Snicket makes an acute observation when he notes that people whose gender is hard to determine are especially creepy. But I don't agree that a fear of realtors is irrational! Snicket says that the worst they can do is show you an ugly house and occasionally wear very ugly yellow jackets. I disagree; a realtor can be very intimidating. I'm always frightened that they will take advantage of me somehow. No, I'm definitely with Aunt Josephine in her horror of realtors!

Overall, this is another worthy chapter in the saga. I'm looking forward to the next one. show less

The third installment, The Wide Window, sees the Baudelaire siblings placed with a new distant relative - their Aunt Josephine - a second cousin's sister in law. Aunt Josephine is a grammar fiend and terrified of life. She won't touch the doorknobs in case they shatter, she doesn't cook hot meals because she could burn herself, she spends her time freezing because she's scared the radiator will explode, she won't pick up the phone for fear of being electrocuted, her lists are endless and lead you to wonder how she's managed to live so far. It sounds utterly depressing but then I guess that's the point.

And yet for all her fear, one meeting with "Captain Sham" sees her smitten and unwilling to listen to any such nonsense that Captain show more Sham is really Count Olaf. Honestly Josephine is easily the worst relative so far and that includes Count Olaf because at least he was honest (to the Badelaire's anyway) about his intentions - - they might not have known what he was going to do but they were sure he was up to something. Aunt Josephine though is a horrible person. She is ready to sell them out for the sake of herself. Why agree to take the children in at all? She abandons them at the first sight of trouble. It's not like she didn't know they were being pursued by Count Olaf. She said Mr Poe warned her.

So Count Olaf threatens her and she caves, fakes her death and wills the children to Captain Sham. The kids figure out that her note is really a code and track her down to a cave. Where they find she's planning to live in a cave and they can either live with her there or go live with Captain Sham. I mean really?! She could've just faked her death without leaving them in the care of Captain Sham. At least then she wouldn't have been such an utter bitch.

Like usual, the children have to save themselves, unable and unwilling to trust the adults in their lives. This time, Sunny saves the day - biting through Captain Sham's fake leg and revealing the dreaded eye tattoo of Count Olaf.

Like the first two books, the action is fast paced and riddled with the sad and depressing story that is the Baudelaire's life. The bit at the end about them at least having each other wasn't enough to cheer me up for all it was a nice sentiment. 3.5 stars. show less

Finishing the third book in the same afternoon might be viewed by some as taking the mickey just a bit, but suddenly mine eyes have been opened to the addictive qualities of the narrative recounting the misfortunes of the Baudelaire children, as another unfortunate relative in another odd location attempts to provide, in their own unique way, a stable and loving environment, and fail to see the approaching calamity that is Count Olaf, despite repeated strenuous warnings from the children. Both piquant and hilarious, somehow, nonetheless, I suspect I shan't finish a fourth volume tonight. That'd be a bit much. Tomorrow, then?

The third book in "A Series of Unfortunate Events" is the best so far. The plotting is better than the previous two books (particularly the first), and there is some genuinely exciting scenes. It is probably the most cinematic of the books, or at least the one that would make the best movie. It still has all the charm and absurdity of the first novels, including this gem from near the end of the book (not a spoiler): "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 show more Archduke Ferdinand.'" With prose like that, how could I stop reading? I look forward to tackling book 4 soon! show less

Book three finds the children living with an eccentric aunt in a rickety house overlooking the sea. While their aunt is kind, she is still scarred from the loss of her husband; a wound which manifests in her obsessive paranoia about safety. But when Count Olaf arrives disguised as a sailor and a hurricane threatens their home, the Baudelaires will have to think fast to avoid a tragic fate.