Towns in A Series of Unfortunate Events
|
In the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, there are various fictional towns where events of significant importance to the plot take place.
The City
Many of the events in the series take place in an unnamed city. The Baudelaire Mansion, 667 Dark Avenue, Count Olaf's House, Café Salmonella, and Hotel Denouement are found in the city. Briny Beach is also possibly in or near the city. There are a number of business districts are present, including fish, banking, stationary districts. Café Salmonella is located in the fish district, which looks, smells, feels, sounds, and if you were to lick the streets, probably tastes like fish. Mulctuary Money Management, the bank where Mr. Poe works, is located in the banking district of the city. In Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography, a public garden, the Royal Gardens, were burned down and only clumps of dirt remained. The city is portrayed as gloomy, polluted and gray and inhabited by bizarre individuals.
In the film, the Baudelaire Mansion is situated in 28 Prospero Place, Boston, Massachusetts.
Paltryville
Paltryville, first appearing in the fourth novel The Miserable Mill, is a small town which is home to the lumberjacks of the Lucky Smells Lumbermill and the optometrist and hypnotist Dr. Orwell.
The buildings have no windows (though the accompanying illustration of Orwell's office shows the building with two windows in view), and on a flagpole at the post office hangs a shoe instead of a flag.
There are piles of newspaper along one side of the town's wall, which, in The Unauthorized Autobiography are suggested to be the archives of The Daily Punctilio.
Village of Fowl Devotees
The Village Of Fowl Devotees, often abbreviated as V.F.D., is the setting in The Vile Village.
The city is called "Village of Fowl Devotees" because the entire village is devoted to crows. There are crows all over V.F.D., which roost downtown in the morning, uptown in the afternoon, and then all fly to a gigantic tree known as Nevermore Tree at night. Major places within the village are Town Hall and the nearby Fowl Fountain (a hideous fountain in the shape of a bird spewing water onto itself through its beak), which was built by Count Olaf and his associates to trap the Quagmires. Unknown to the townspeople, the fountain has a hidden mechanism in the eye of the crow, allowing the beak to open so at least two human-sized objects can be placed inside. Another major place is the jail, where the Baudelaires stay in the Deluxe Cell.
The Baudelaires misinterpret the abbreviation of the town's name as representing the organization V.F.D. and decided to pick this city to adopt them. The villagers agreed to adopt orphans so that they could do all the town's chores. During the Baudelaire's stay, the only village citizen who cares for the Baudelaires is Hector.
The village does not seem to have any connection to the secret organization.
The government of V.F.D. is a council of elders, all of whom wear crow hats on their heads. The council governs by creating rules and imprisoning those who break them.
Tedia Tedia, mentioned in The Reptile Room, the second novel, is a town near where Uncle Monty lives, is notable for a strong smell of horseradish coming from a horsradish processing plant. It is connected to Paltryville by Lousy Lane.
Ophelia Ophelia is a town which is mentioned in The Vile Village as one of the towns which has signed up to for a program to adopt children, through which the Baudelaires are adopted by the Village of Fowl Devotees. Mr Poe quickly denies the possibility of the Baudelaires living there as he dislikes the bank in Ophelia.
Roads Lousy Lane
Lousy Lane is the road which leads to Uncle Monty's house. It first appears in The Reptile Room, the second novel.
The road is said to go past Hazy Harbor and up to Tedia, both fictional places mentioned once in the series. The road has orchards producing very sour fruit. It also encircles the Opportune Odors Horseradish Factory, giving the area a sickly odor. The factory is possessed by V.F.D. where they are looking for a cure for Medusoid Mycelium. Also, the factory was made of lumber from the . The factory is depicted on the map in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography and was the apparent destination of Ishmael and the islanders when they departed from "Olaf-Land". Kit Snicket also mentions it in a letter to the now deceased Gregor Anwhistle, saying she was working on a way to dilute the poison, and horseradish is an antidote to the Medusoid Mycelium. The road traverses the Grim River, a river brown with mud. In the book it states the river is one tenth water, nine tenths mud, which was why all of its fish cough.
|
|
|