Chapter-by-Chapter: The Wide Window

Here we are, come already to book three of A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Wide Window. So far we've covered The Bad Beginning; in which the Baudelaire parents died in a fire and the custody of the children was handled by the evil Count Olaf, who decided that the best way to get his hands on their fortune was to marry the eldest Baudelaire, Violet; and The Reptile Room, in which the Baudelaires are rehoused with their Uncle Montgomery Montgomery, a famous Herpetologist with a houseful of snakes, who plans to take them exploring in Peru, until Olaf shows up in disguise and murders Monty.

All of my books are the UK edition and they all follow more or less the same design. This one has a purply coloured spine with the strip beside it having a green and blue wave pattern. That coupled with the fact that the note at the end of the last book mentioning Lachrymose Lake and the picture on the cover showing the children on a boat suggests water is going to be involved somewhere.

I love this cover picture. There's so much going on. Violet's clearly got her hair ribbon in so she's obviously inventing at the moment, Klaus is reading and from what I recall of this book, Sunny's the one steering the boat. It all looks very dramatic.

As with the last book, a lot of what I remember is influenced by the part of the film that this book was adapted into. The children go to live with their Aunt Josephine who lives in a rickety house perched on the side of a cliff. I remember that her husband died in the lake below and that it involved Lachrymose Leeches which attack if you go near them after having eaten recently.

Obviously Count Olaf is going to come back. I remember him taking on a new disguise as an old sea captain, with a very apt name. And I remember that in the film Aunt Josephine is played by Meryl Streep.

Further to this, the blurb on the back reminds me of some other things we're going to encounter: a hurricane, a signalling device, hungry leeches, cold cucumber soup, a horrible villain, and a doll named Pretty Penny...

Ready to join in?

I'll be starting with the first post about the book next Monday afternoon, with posts weekday afternoons (except Wednesdays) and a double helping each Friday (morning and afternoon).