The Wide Window

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.

“If you are interested in reading a story filled with thrillingly good times, I am sorry to inform you that you are most certainly reading the wrong book, because the Baudelaires experience very few good times over the course of their gloomy and miserable lives.”

Handler introduces Lemony Snicket’s intrusive and morose narrative voice, directly warning the reader against reading the story he is about to tell because almost nothing good happens in the story. Snicket’s assertion is ironic as there is no purpose in writing a book he genuinely does not want anyone to read—the repeated warnings function as a technique to pique interest in what could possibly be so bad.

“Your Aunt Josephine—she’s not really your aunt, of course; she’s your second cousin’s sister-in-law, but asked that you call her Aunt Josephine—your Aunt Josephine lost her husband recently.”

The repeated use of the phrase “your Aunt Josephine” underscores the humor in the complicated and distant relationship between Josephine and the Baudelaires. The repetition also reinforces Mr. Poe’s inattention—he knows next to nothing about Josephine, yet he sends the three traumatized children to live with a stranger.

“‘Grun!’ Sunny shrieked, which meant something like ‘I object to your calling it baby talk!’”

Snicket frequently breaks into the narrative to offer translations for Sunny’s babbling, which add to the story’s humorous tone, as his “translations” of Sunny’s words portray her as having improbably advanced ideas. This example is particularly playful in tone, as Sunny is allegedly using baby talk to protest her language being characterized as baby talk.