Lemony Snicket & Libraries
" … [E]ven though they would soon be back at work, even though they had been offered one of the least fair deals ever offered to children, the three siblings felt a little bit better. Whether it was Uncle Monty’s library of reptile books, or Aunt Josephine’s library of grammar books, or Justice Strauss’s library of law books, or, best of all, their parents’ library of all kinds of books– all burned up now, alas– libraries always made them feel a little bit better. Just knowing that they could read made the Baudelaire orphans feel as if they’re wretched lives could be a little brighter."
–Lemony Snicket, The Miserable Mill: A Series of Unfortunate Events
The books in A Series of Unfortunate Events tell the lives of three orphaned siblings–Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire–persued by an evil man trying to get their fortune. Since these books are filled with bad things happening to three orphans, I’m not quite sure how to take the role of libraries in the books sometimes. Are the libraries just another bad thing happening to them? Or is it a place of refuge and goodness? The above quote clarifies that quite a bit. I’m fairly impressed that these dark books include something good, and that the something good is a library. The children often take a break from their lives by learning about things, especially through reading books. I really like that about these books.
July 19th, 2005 at 12:59 pm
I think the most important use of books in the series is for *problem solving* — the orphans really don’t have much time for escape. Klaus remembers what he reads and feeds that information to Violet who ties up her hair in a ribbon and engineers a solution… To have an engineer as an older sister, sigh.
July 19th, 2005 at 1:33 pm
Oh, yes, there’s definitely that aspect of them, too! It’s great how the orphans know books can provide them with all sorts of useful information.