Lemony Snicket facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Lemony Snicket |
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| A Series of Unfortunate Events character | |
 
Patrick Warburton as Lemony Snicket and Snicket's signature from the books
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| First appearance | The Bad Beginning |
| Created by | Daniel Handler |
| Portrayed by | Patrick Warburton (TV series) |
| Voiced by | Tim Curry (video game, audiobook narrator) Jude Law (film) Daniel Handler (photography, audiobook narrator) |
| Information | |
| Occupation |
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| Family | Jacques Snicket (brother) Kit Snicket (sister) Beatrice Baudelaire II (niece) |
Lemony Snicket is a special name used by American author Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970). It's both his writing name, called a pen name, and a made-up character in his books. Handler has written many children's books using this name.
One of his most famous series is A Series of Unfortunate Events. This series has sold over 60 million copies worldwide! It also inspired a movie in 2004 and a Netflix TV show from 2017 to 2019. In A Series of Unfortunate Events, Lemony Snicket is also a character. He acts as the narrator who tells the sad story of the Baudelaire orphans. He investigates their adventures and shares them with readers.
You can learn more about Lemony Snicket's own story in a fictional book called Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography. His adventures continue in the four-book series All the Wrong Questions. There's even a small book called 13 Shocking Secrets You'll Wish You Never Knew About Lemony Snicket. This was released to promote The End book. Other works by Snicket include The Baby in the Manger, The Composer Is Dead, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid, The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming, The Lump of Coal, and 13 Words.
In the 2004 film, Jude Law provides the voice for Lemony Snicket. A person named James Henderson physically plays him. In the movie, Snicket writes down the story from inside a clock tower. For the video game based on the film, Tim Curry is his voice. In the Netflix TV series, Lemony Snicket is a mysterious narrator. He tells the story of the Baudelaire children. Patrick Warburton plays him in the show.
Who is Lemony Snicket?
Within A Series of Unfortunate Events, the narrator Lemony Snicket has his own background story. He comes from a family with three children. His brother, Jacques, and sister, Kit, were members of a secret group called V.F.D. (Volunteer Fire Department). They were also friends with the Baudelaire parents. Both Jacques and Kit appear as characters in the books.
Snicket also knew Count Olaf when they were young. They even went to school together. As a child, Lemony was taken and joined V.F.D. as a "neophyte," which means a beginner. There, he learned about language and was sent on strange missions. He lost touch with his old life, except for his siblings. Lemony attended a V.F.D.-run boarding school with other characters from the series. After graduating, he worked for a newspaper called The Daily Punctilio. He checked obituaries and reviewed plays.
Snicket's Difficult Life
As a character, Snicket is a worried and troubled writer and photographer. He is often wrongly blamed for different crimes. The police and his enemies, a fire-starting part of V.F.D., constantly hunt him.
In the V.F.D. organization, he met and fell in love with a woman named Beatrice. They even got engaged. However, he was wrongly accused of serious crimes. These false stories grew so much that The Daily Punctilio newspaper even reported that he had died.
Beatrice later married Bertrand Baudelaire. She became the mother of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire. These are the main characters of A Series of Unfortunate Events. Many years later, Beatrice and Bertrand sadly died in a house fire. This left the Baudelaire children as orphans. Then, Snicket's old acquaintance, Count Olaf, began to chase them.
Snicket feels he owes something to Beatrice. So, he decides to write down the lives of the Baudelaire children. He wants to do this until they are old enough to face the world's problems on their own.
A library is like an island in the middle of a vast sea of ignorance, particularly if the library is very tall and the surrounding area has been flooded.
Lemony Snicket has taken on the job of researching and writing about the Baudelaire orphans. He does this for "many personal and legal reasons." He follows their journey and gathers clues about their adventures. In the books, it's never said that he met the children. But in the Netflix TV show, he is the taxi driver who tries to help the children.
As the book series goes on, it becomes clear that Snicket knew the Baudelaire parents well. This was through their connections to V.F.D. However, even with all his research, Lemony still doesn't know where the Baudelaire children are. It's also unclear if he ever met them in the books.
Snicket often speaks badly about himself. He has called himself a "coward." In his novels, he says he wouldn't have been as brave as the Baudelaire children. He also admits to doing things that weren't good. For example, he took the sugar bowl from Esmé Squalor. He also hinted that he and Beatrice were involved in the death of Count Olaf's parents.
In the books, Snicket describes doing many unusual things in his free time. These include hiding his actions and finding new hiding spots. He also thinks about strange foods and researches the dangerous lives of the Baudelaire children. He claims he often writes himself awards for bravery. But he says these attempts never make him feel better.
Lemony Snicket as a Pen Name
The name Lemony Snicket first came about when Daniel Handler was researching his first book, The Basic Eight. Handler wanted to get information from groups he found "interesting or funny." But he didn't want to use his real name. So, he made up "Lemony Snicket" as a fake name. The name sounds a bit like Jiminy Cricket.
Handler explained in an interview that Lemony Snicket is more than just a name. He's a character who talks directly to the reader. He's also somewhat involved in the stories he tells. Handler thought it would be fun to publish the books under this character's name. Handler has also written other works as Lemony Snicket that are not part of A Series of Unfortunate Events. He has said that Mr. Snicket might research and publish other things in the future.
Handler publishes most of his children's books under this pen name. This includes the thirteen-book A Series of Unfortunate Events series. It also includes the four-book All the Wrong Questions series. Other books are The Baby in the Manger, The Composer Is Dead, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid, The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming, The Lump of Coal, and 13 Words.
As Snicket, Handler wrote an introduction and endnotes for The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily. This is his favorite children's book. He included references to A Series of Unfortunate Events in it. A 2005 collection of short stories, Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things That Aren't as Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures from the Sky, Parents Who Disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf, and One Other Story We Couldn't Quite Finish, So Maybe You Could Help Us Out, also has an introduction and an unfinished story by Lemony Snicket.
Snicket also wrote The Composer Is Dead. This is a mystery story meant to teach young readers about orchestra instruments. It was first performed by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Handler narrated it as Snicket. A recording of this performance is included with the expanded book.
In 2013, Snicket wrote the introduction for a special edition of the The Complete Peanuts comic series.
