Business locations in A Series of Unfortunate Events
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Many businesses appear in the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.
[edit] Anwhistle Aquatics
Anwhistle Aquatics is first mentioned in The Grim Grotto.
Anwhistle Aquatics, a marine research and rhetorical advice center, was moderated by Gregor Anwhistle, an ichthyologist and Josephine Anwhistle's brother in law. An article from the Daily Punctilio states that Anwhistle Aquatics was burned down by Fernald, although Snicket discloses to the reader that Captain Widdershins also participated in the center's destruction.
One of Anwhistle Aquatics's roles was to investigate the Medusoid Mycelium. However, when it was burnt down, the Gorgonian Grotto was filled with the deadly fungus that was left behind. It also trained salmon under the Voluntary Fish Domestication program, until the entire fleet was seized by Café Salmonella.
It is implied that the sugar bowl once found its way to Anwhistle Aquatics, but had been removed by the time the Baudelaires reached the Gorgonian Grotto.
[edit] The Anxious Clown
A Series of Unfortunate Events place | |
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The Anxious Clown | |
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First Visit | The Wide Window |
Later Visits | Seen in beginning illustration of The Penultimate Peril |
Location | Near the coast of Lake Lachrymose |
Type | Restaurant |
The Anxious Clown is a fictional restaurant from A Series of Unfortunate Events. In The Wide Window, the Baudelaires, Mr. Poe, and Count Olaf (disguised as Captain Sham) eat there. Their waiter, Larry, says, "I didn't realize this was a sad occasion", one of the codes in V.F.D.
Known customers include Mr. Poe and his sister, Eleanora, the Baudelaire orphans, Count Olaf (disguised as Captain Sham), Jacques Snicket, and Lemony Snicket, who had to collect a secret message.
The menu includes:
- Extra Fun Family Appetizer - "a bunch of things fried together and served with a sauce"
- Surprising Chicken Salad
- Cheer-up Cheeseburgers - cheeseburgers with the ingredients made into a smiley face
According to Jacques Snicket in a letter to Lemony in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography, the food there is dreadful.
[edit] Café Salmonella
A Series of Unfortunate Events place | |
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Café Salmonella | |
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First Visit | The Ersatz Elevator |
Location | The City |
Type | Restaurant |
The Café Salmonella is a salmon themed restaurant mentioned throughout A Series of Unfortunate Events .
It first appeared in The Ersatz Elevator when Jerome Squalor (encouraged by his wife Esmé Squalor) took Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire there. According to Esmé it is a very "in", or fashionable, restaurant. The café is located in the fish district. All waiters wear the waiter costumes described in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography, using the salmon variety. The interior is completely decorated with salmon. There are also salmon in the flower vases instead of flowers.
The food at Café Salmonella includes:
- Broiled Salmon
- Chilled Salmon Salad
- Creamy Salmon Soup
- Salmon Ice Cream
- Salmon Pie
- Salmon Ravioli
- Salmon Puffs
[edit] Caligari Carnival
A Series of Unfortunate Events place | |
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Caligari Carnival | |
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First Visit | The Carnivorous Carnival |
Location | The Hinterlands |
Owned by: | Madame Lulu |
Type | Carnival |
Caligari Carnival is a fictional carnival in the book series by Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events. It is the primary setting of The Carnivorous Carnival, the ninth novel in the series.
The carnival was owned and run by Madame Lulu, a colleague of Count Olaf's. Among the carnival's assets were a ticket booth, phone booth, several caravans and tents, and a worn down roller coaster.
The carnival is an obvious reference to the city of Cagliari in Sardinia, an island off the coast of Italy.

The carnival's prime attraction was the House of Freaks - featuring its stars, Colette the Contortionist, Hugo the Hunchback and the ambidextrous Kevin - all of whom believed wholeheartedly that they were unfit for the real world.
During the time of The Carnivorous Carnival, a lion pit was added to the carnival. It is believed that the lions mentioned in The Slippery Slope (Volunteer Feline Detectives) were captured by Olaf from the Mortmain Mountains and brought to Caligari Carnival. The Baudelaire orphans also disguised themselves as freaks to hide out there - Violet and Klaus as Beverly and Elliott, a two-headed freak; and Sunny as Chabo the Wolf-Baby.
The carnival was destroyed by Count Olaf and his troupe along with Esmé Squalor, to hide the evidence of his having been there. According to The Grim Grotto, the ashes and smoke from the fire were visible across The Hinterlands for days.
It is also mentioned by The Man With a Beard but No Hair and the Woman With Hair but No Beard, in The Slippery Slope, that an important piece of evidence hidden inside a figurine was sold at Caligari Carnival. Retrospective reading shows that the figurine seller in The Carnivorous Carnival is given unusual emphasis for a character who never appears, but there has been no further mention of this.
[edit] Cathedral of Alleged Virgin
A Series of Unfortunate Events entities | |
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Cathedral of Alleged Virgin | |
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First mentioned | The Hostile Hospital and Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography |
Possessed by | Unknown
type=Cathedral |
Cathedral of Alleged Virgin is a fictional cathedral metioned in The Hostile Hospital and Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography. While Lemony is writing down the Baudelaire children's stay at the Heimlich Hospital, he mentions he was for some reason also crouching down behind the altar of the Cathedral of Alleged Virgin, while a friend of his is playing a sonata on the pipe organ to drown out the sounds of his typewriter to not let it be heard by the worshipers sitting in the pews. The mournful melody of the sonata reminds Lemony of a tune his father used to sing while he cleaned the dishes, and refers to the expression that "music has charms to sooth a savage beast". In Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography, on the map of the city where most events in the A Series of Unfortunate Events series, it shows the Cathedral of Alleged Virgin, northeast of the Grim River, northwest of Uncle Monty's house, and farther northwest of the Hazy Harbor. It is also located on Lousy Lane.
[edit] Heimlich Hospital
A Series of Unfortunate Events entities | |
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Heimlich Hospital | |
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Film portrayal | Never |
First mentioned | The Hostile Hospital |
Possessed by | formerly by whomever owned the hospital; the Director of Human resources was Babs. |
Heimlich Hospital is a fictional hospital in The Hostile Hospital, a novel of the series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.
The hospital is only half completed, one half being fully functional, and the other half being a wooden frame. The lawn-one half well kept and green, the other a large plot of dirt. One side has with the word 'Heimlich' written in fancy gold, while the other an old piece of a cardboard box with the word 'Hospital' written in ballpoint pen. The completed half is a beautiful white building with carved portraits of famous doctors above the windows. Parts of the hospital include an operating theater, a library of records, patient rooms, and supply closets. The supply closets contain a sink, alphabet soup, rubber bands, doctor's coats, surgical masks, and sometimes a window.
Known wards include the "Stubbed Toe Ward", the "Sore Throat Ward", the "Ear Ward", the "Ward for People with Nasty Rashes", the "Accidentally Swallowed Something You Shouldn't Have Ward", the "Plague Ward", and the "Surgical Ward".
Every day, the Volunteers Fighting Disease sing to the patients in the hospital and give them heart-shaped balloons to cheer them up.
The name Heimlich is a reference to Henry Heimlich, an American physician best known for the Heimlich Maneuver.
Heimlich Hospital is burned down by Count Olaf in the The Hostile Hospital.
Lemony Snicket might have been at the hospital on the day it burned down. One name on the list of people in the Surgical Ward (see The Hostile Hospital) is Monty Kensicle, which is an anagram of Lemony Snicket (see Mysterious names and initials). Other names on the list include Linda Rhaldeen and Ned H. Rirger; these names also appear in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography. They are anagrams for Daniel Handler and red herring, respectively.
[edit] Hotel Denouement
A Series of Unfortunate Events place | |
Hotel Denouement | |
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First Visit | The Penultimate Peril |
Location | The City |
Size | 10 floors and a basement |
Owned by: | formerly Frank, Ernest and Dewey Denouement |
Type | Hotel |
The Hotel Denouement is a fictional hotel in Lemony Snicket's series of novels, A Series of Unfortunate Events. The hotel is the "last safe place" for the V.F.D.. It is a large building organized in the same way as a library, by the Dewey Decimal System. This is similar to the organization of the Library Hotel. It is owned by three identical triplet brothers, Frank, Ernest and Dewey Denouement, although Dewey remains in the shadows. The Hotel Denoument has exactly 10 floors, accordingly organized in concordance with the system, from the basement to the rooftop salon (not ranked numerically). The page references are to the novel The Penultimate Peril. There are several references to different rooms in the novel, which are catalogued partially in the following list. Note that the list is not exhaustive, as Lemony Snicket makes reference to a few other rooms in the opening pages of Chapter 7 (pp. 151-153).
At the end of The Penultimate Peril, the Hotel Denouement is burned down by Sunny Baudelaire to provide a signal to V.F.D. that the meeting planned for Thursday is canceled, as the last safe place is no longer safe. However, Lemony Snicket mentions that the real safe place was safe and never found by the enemy.
[edit] Rooms
note: the words in italics following the room number states what the number stands for in the Dewey Decimal system in reality.
- Basement: Information and general works
- 000 Computer science information and general works: Employees' quarters. (p.65)
- 025 Library operations: Laundry Room. (p.144). Fake location of the infamous sugar bowl but still significant since it contained highly flammable chemicals which were used to set the Hotel Denouement on fire.
- First Floor: "dedicated to philosophy and psychology" (p.63)
- 101 Theory of Philosophy: Reception. (p.63)
- 118 Force and Energy: Elevators.
- 121 Epistemology: Small, bare closet. (p.94). This closet holds four things of great importance. Initially, the harpoon gun, and lastly - the Baudelaire orphans.
- 128 Humankind: Bar. (p.56)
- 135 Dreams and Mysteries: Lobby couches. (p.63)
- 165 Fallacies and sources of error: Count Olaf's impermanent isolation chamber. (p.260)
- 168 Arguments and persuasion: Newsstand. (p.60)
- 174 Occupational ethics: Occupied by a banker, probably Mr. Poe (p.152)
- 175 Ethics of Recreation and Leisure : Concierge Desk. (p.57)
- 178 Ethics of consumption: Coffee Shop. (p.152)
- Second Floor: "for religion", features "a church, a cathedral, a chapel, a synagogue, a mosque, a temple, a shrine, a shuffleboard court..." (p.63)
- 296 Judaism: "A somewhat cranky rabbi". (p.63) This "Rabbi" is actually a volunteer. (p.152)
- Third Floor: "the social sciences", includes "ballrooms and meeting rooms" (p.64)
- 371 Schools and their activities, special education : Educational guests. (p.67). Vice Principal Nero, Mr. Remora, and Mrs. Bass are staying on this floor.
- Fourth Floor: "dedicated to language" (p.64) for foreign guests.
- 469 Portuguese: Portuguese guests. (p.67)
- Fifth Floor: "dedicated to mathematics and science" (p.64)
- 547 Organic Chemistry (p.114)
- 594 Mollusks and molluscoids (might be a mistake, fish are classified under 597 for cold-blooded vertebrates and fish): Tanks of tropical fish. Probably for the science of studying aquatic animals (Marine biology).
- Sixth Floor: "dedicated to technology" (p.64)
- 613 Promotion of Health, and personal health and safety: Sauna. (p.64)
- 674 Lumber processing, wood products and cork: Associates in the Lumber Industry. Lumber Processing or Wood Products (p.67). Sir and Charles stay on this floor and use its sauna. This floor pays some significance in The Penultimate Peril because Frank or Ernest gives Klaus Baudelaire bird paper and gives him an order to hang bird paper out of the sauna window.
- 697 Heating, ventilating and air conditioning: Controls for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. (p.64)
- Seventh Floor: "stands for the Arts" (p.64)
- 786 Keyboard and other musical instruments: A concertina/musical instruments. (p.114)
- 792 Stage presentations: A theater. (p.64)
- Eighth Floor: "reserved for rhetorical guests" (p.62)
- 831 German poetry: German Poets. (p.62)
- Ninth Floor. history and geography
- 954 South Asia, India: Indian restaurant. Run by Hal. (p.129)
- 999 Extraterrestrial worlds: Astronomy observatory. (p.65)
- Rooftop Salon.
- This section of the Hotel proves to be very significant. Violet finds Esmé Squalor, Carmelita, and Daily Punctilio reporter Geraldine Julienne here. Later in the novel, the siblings find themselves on the roof of the Hotel with Count Olaf. The children reluctantly join him in his ship - regrettably, as they must leave the caring but relatively unhelpful Justice Strauss as she supposedly perishes along with supposed others in the terrible fire of the Hotel Denouement.
[edit] Outside Appearance
The words "HOTEL DENOUEMENT" and "ENTRANCE" on the front of the hotel, as well as the floor numbers, are all in mirror writing. There is a reason for this: the hotel is in front of a reflecting pond, and what appears to be its reflection in the pond is in fact the real safe place, containing many V.F.D. secrets, information on everyone ever involved or acquainted with V.F.D. The pond is also served as a signal for V.F.D showing to Dewey and Frank that volunteers are on the way. The Hotel was made with wood from Lucky Smells Lumbermill.
[edit] Dr. Orwell's Office
A Series of Unfortunate Events place | |
Dr. Orwell's Office | |
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First Visit | The Miserable Mill |
Later Visits | The Slippery Slope
location=Paltryville |
Owned by: | formerly Georgina Orwell |
Type | Optometry office |
Dr. Orwell's Office was where Georgina Orwell practiced optometry and hypnotism before her death. The Miserable Mill describes the building a a mostly brown oval, which contains a green circle then containing a white circle, which in turn contains a round black door. It looks much like Count Olaf's tattoo. An in book illustration differs slightly from the description. The waiting room inside the office is small, containing a sofa, chairs and magazines. Dr. Orwell's receptionist, Count Olaf, disguised as Shirley, has his desk in the waiting room.
[edit] Last Chance General Store
A Series of Unfortunate Events place | |
Last Chance General Store | |
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First Visit | The Hostile Hospital |
Later Visits | Shown in film during events of The Bad Beginning |
Location | A large flat, dry landscape between The Village of Fowl Devotees and Heimlich Hospital |
Owned by: | Most likely Milt, the shopkeeper |
Type | General Store |
The Last Chance General Store's front is covered in posters advertising goods sold at the store. Telegrams can be sent from the store (for free if it is an emergency). The owner does not charge the Volunteers Fighting Disease for things.
The store sells fresh limes, canned meat, plastic knives, white envelopes, red wine, leather wallets, sleeping bags and much more. The floor is made of different types of tile, all for sale. The usefulness of such a General Store is undetermined.
The store appears in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events suring the events of The Bad Beginning. Count Olaf looks through magazines there as one of his plans for murder unfolds.
[edit] Lucky Smells Lumbermill
A Series of Unfortunate Events place | |
Lucky Smells Lumbermill | |
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First Visit | The Miserable Mill |
Location | Paltryville |
Owned by: | Sir |
Lucky Smells Lumbermill is a sawmill located in Paltryville, and is the site of most of the action in The Miserable Mill.
It is surrounded by a long wooden wall with one gate that has "Lucky Smells Lumbermill" stuck on it with gum. This sign is claimed to be the second most disgusting in the world, after a sign with the word 'DANGER' spelt out with dead monkeys. In the mill there is the dormitory, the mill itself, a storage shed and the building where Sir and Charles work and live.
The workers at the mill aren't treated very well. They are forced to live in a windowless room (with the exception of the windows drawn on the walls with a ballpoint pen) in uncomfortable bunk beds. The only meals are gum for lunch (which is only 5 minutes long), and disgusting casseroles for dinner. All workers are paid with expired coupons. However, this could change because near the end of the book Phil reads in The Paltryville Constitution that it is illegal to pay workers in coupons. But is never said if the workers were ever paid with money. In the thirteenth book, a place called Lucky Smells Melon Farm is mentioned. It is possible that the Lumbermill was once a melon farm.
There is a library at the mill, but it only consists of three books:
- The History of Lucky Smells Lumbermill (donated by Sir)
- The Paltryville Constitution (donated by the mayor)
- Advanced Ocular Science (donated by Dr. Orwell).
[edit] Present/Retired Employees
- Sir - 1st Owner
- Phil - Worker (quit)
- Foreman Firstein - Foreman (retired, no further details given but his departure is consistent with that of people murdered by Count Olaf so that he or his associates can replace them)
- Bald Man with Long Nose A.K.A. Foreman Flacutono - Foreman (quit)
- Violet Baudelaire - Worker (fired)
- Klaus Baudelaire - Worker (fired)
- Sunny Baudelaire - Worker (fired)
- Charles - 2nd Owner
[edit] Mulctuary Money Management
A Series of Unfortunate Events place | |
Mulctuary Money Management | |
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First Visit | The Bad Beginning |
Location | Banking district of The City |
Owned by: | Mulctuary Money Management |
Type | Bank |
Mulctuary Money Management is a bank located in the banking district of the city. Mr. Poe, executor of the Baudelaire estate, is Vice President in charge of Orphan Affairs. A teacher from Prufrock Preparatory School, Mrs. Bass, robs the bank prior to The Penultimate Peril.
[edit] Prufrock Preparatory School
A Series of Unfortunate Events entities | |
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Prufrock Preparatory School | |
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Film portrayal | Never |
First mentioned | The Austere Academy, mentioned in The Wide Window |
Possessed by | Vice Principal Nero |
Prufrock Preparatory School is a fictional school in The Austere Academy, the fifth book in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Named after "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot, it contains a cafeteria, an administrative building, and a theater where Vice Principal Nero performs his dire violin concerts for six hours at a time. Its motto inscribed on the arch at the entrance to the school is "Memento Mori" which means "Remember you will die". There is a dormitory that is shaped like a tombstone (from the Baudelaire's point of view) or a big toe (from Mr. Poe's point of view) and made entirely of stone, in which students have to have a parent or guardian's permission to stay. Inside the dormitory, there is a living room, a game room, and a large lending library. All students have their own room and a fresh bowl of fruit every Wednesday. If parent or guardian's permission is not obtained, which the Baudelaires, the main characters of the series, cannot obtain because they are orphans, then pupils are forced to live in the Orphans' Shack.
The shack, called "The Orphans' Shack" since Duncan and Isadora Quagmire, two orphans, were forced to live there is made entirely of tin. Bales of hay can be used as beds. Tiny crabs scurry around on the floor. The walls are all panted bright green with tiny pink hearts, and a fungus drips from the ceiling.
The school has a number of bizarre and strict rules, irrationally similar to those of the orphans' previous guardians, thought up by Vice Principal Nero. If a pupil is late, their hands are tied behind their back for meals. Being late for a meal means having no cups to drink from (and drinks are poured straight onto the tray). Entering the administrative building is punished by not being allowed to use normal cutlery. Failure to attend Vice Principal Nero's nightly six hour long concerts is dealt with by having to buy Nero a bag of sweets and watching him eat them.
The Baudelaires are sent to live at Prufrock Preparatory in The Austere Academy. While Klaus and Violet are students, Sunny is given the job of secretary to Vice Principal Nero, who is obnoxious and ignorant. Two fellow students and orphans, Duncan and Isadora Quagmire, become friends with the Baudelaires and figure prominently in several of the later books in the series. Carmelita Spats, another student, bullies and teases the Baudelaires and Quagmires unmercifully during their stay at the school, and also returns in several books.
There has been some speculation that Prufrock is a V.F.D. training school. Mr. Remora teaches note-taking skills, and Vice Principal Nero mentions that a bowl of fresh fruit is placed in the dormitory every Wednesday, which could be a very subtle reference to the sugar bowl. Nothing has yet been confirmed.
In The Austere Academy, Count Olaf disguises himself as "Coach Genghis", a new faculty member at Prufrock, in his latest attempt to kidnap the Baudelaires and steal their fortune. Due to a switch around by the Baudelaires and the Quagmires, however, Olaf ends up kidnapping Isadora and Duncan instead. It is also hinted in The Beatrice Letters that the younger Beatrice Baudelaire may have attended this school also.
[edit] Staff
- Vice Principal Nero
- Mr. Remora (Eats bananas while making his students memorise each detail in his short stories in Room One)
- Mrs. Bass (Has an obsession for the metric system and has her students measure various items in Room Two)
- Two Cafeteria Workers (Later found to be the White-Faced Women in disguise)
- Coach Genghis (Count Olaf in disguise)
- There is also a mysterious librarian character — referred to in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorised Autobiography — who wears an unusual assortment of clothes and asks "Have you been good to your mother?" a question from the book Ramona Quimby, Age 8, seemingly as a way to identify other V.F.D. members.
[edit] Students
[edit] Valorous Farms Dairy
A Series of Unfortunate Events entities | |
![]() Valorous Farms Dairy, photographed following a thunderstorm (From the Unauthorized Autobiography). |
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Valorous Farms Dairy | |
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Film portrayal | Never |
First mentioned | Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography |
Possessed by | The Snickets |
Valorous Farms Dairy is the birthplace of Lemony Snicket. Commonly mistaken by others to be a cattle farm, it is in fact a dairy farm and the place to which several of Snicket's letters (titled "Dear Dairy" in an effort to conceal information from potential enemies, who would mistake it for a misspelling of "Dear Diary") are addressed. At least one arson attempt has been made against it.
The initials of its name suggest that it has some association with V.F.D., and some evidence, such as the letters Snicket sends there, points to them as, at the least, unwitting allies.
It is suggested in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography that one of Count Olaf's associates was hiding here disguised as a cow for a period of time while trying to figure out what happened to Dr. Montgomery's reptile collection.
This building was burnt down, according to a letter from Brett Helquist to Lemony Snicket, in which he enclosed a picture suspiciously similar to that of the Baudelaire home in The Bad Beginning.
[edit] Vineyard of Fragrant Grapes
A Series of Unfortunate Events place | |
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Vineyard of Fragrant Grapes | |
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First Visit | Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography |
Type | Vineyard |
The Vineyard of Fragrant Drapes (V.F.D.), was either renamed the Vineyard of Fragrant Grapes to avoid connection with V.F.D or was deliberately misspelt as V.F.D for coded corrsepondence. It is a fictional vineyard mentioned in Lemony Snicket's autobiography. It is where Snicket and Beatrice were to be married. It is also where Jerome Squalor and Esmé were married.
Snicket's autobiography includes two letters, addressed to Snicket and Squalor, informing both of their wedding arrangements. While the structure of both letters are similar, Snicket's letter contains a message written in the Sebald Code, warning him to avoid the vineyard under the pretense of an anticipated arson attack.