The Wide Window

The Wide Window is a middle grade novel first published in 2000. It is published under the name Lemony Snicket, the pen name of novelist, playwright, musician, and screenwriter Daniel Handler. This mock-gothic adventure story blends elements of mystery, humor, and fantasy with a macabre setting in which a family of three orphans—Violet, Sunny, and Klaus Baudelaire—is sent to live with their fearful Aunt Josephine. Throughout the novel, the Baudelaire children must contend with their supposed distant relative, Count Olaf, as he schemes against them. The Wide Window is the third novel in Handler’s A Series of Unfortunate Events series. Like many of the novels in this series, The Wide Window uses dark humor to explore themes related to fear, loss, grief, and morality as well as the resourcefulness of children in the face of adult failings. Handler also publishes novels for adults and young adults under his own name, such as 2011’s Why We Broke Up, which received the 2012 Michael L. Printz honor. He is also the founder of Per Diem Press, an independent publishing house dedicated to publishing the poetry of young writers. 

This guide is based on the 2000 Harper Trophy hardback first edition of the book.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of death by suicide, gender/transgender discrimination, ableism, child abuse, and death.

Plot Summary

Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire arrive on the shore of Lake Lachrymose with Mr. Poe, the banker and family friend charged with overseeing their estate and finding them a physical guardian in the wake of their parents’ deaths. The three children have just come from the home of their Uncle Monty, whose untimely death necessitated yet another move for them. Now, they are headed for the home of a very distant relative, Josephine Antwhistle. Mr. Poe hands them a bag of peppermints—to which they are allergic—and puts them in a taxi, saying that he needs to get back to work. The cab driver drops them off at a strange house that looks like a stack of cubes teetering off the edge of a cliff, high above Lake Lachrymose. The driver comments that he would not want to be in this house in a few more days when Hurricane Herman arrives.

The elderly Josephine opens the door and greets the Baudelaires, ushering them inside for a tour of the house. During the tour, they learn that Josephine has many irrational fears and is obsessed with proper grammar. The house is always cold, and Josephine serves nothing but cold food because she is afraid of radiators and the stove. Although this beginning is not promising, the children see that Josephine arranged a nice bedroom for them, and they’re pleased that she even bought each of them a toy. The toys are in no way appropriate for their ages and personalities, but the children make the best of it, trading the toys amongst themselves to reflect their actual interests. Violet, the oldest, ends up with a toy train that she can take apart and use to make the inventions she loves so much. Sunny, the baby, ends up with a plastic doll that she can use for her favorite activity—biting things. Klaus, the middle sibling who loves reading, ends up with the present that is left over: a baby rattle.

After dinner, Josephine shows the children her library—full of grammar books—that features a wide window overlooking Lake Lachrymose. Josephine explains that she has been terrified of the lake ever since the death of her husband, Ike. Against her advice, Ike went into the lake too soon after eating and was attacked by the Lachrymose Leeches, who are drawn to the scent of food. Violet suggests that Josephine might want to sell the house and move away from the lake, but Josephine explains that this is impossible, as she is terrified of realtors.

A few days later, the children convince Josephine to risk a trip into town to get groceries, as there is a hurricane approaching. At the store, they run into the man who has been stalking them and trying to steal their fortune, Count Olaf. Disguised as Captain Julio Sham, Olaf wears a sailor’s cap, an eye patch, and a wooden prosthetic leg, but the children recognize him instantly. Previously, Olaf tried to force Violet to marry him, kidnap the children against their will, and then murdered their guardian. The children try to warn Josephine about him, but she’s completely taken in by his terrible disguise and superficial charm. Klaus tries to get Olaf to reveal the eyeball tattoo on his leg, but Olaf shows them his wooden leg, and Josephine believes this proves that he is really Captain Sham. Although the children protest, she takes his business card and agrees to meet him for tea someday soon.

That evening, Olaf calls Josephine. She sends the children to their room so that she can talk to Olaf privately. A while later, they hear the crash of shattering glass. When they investigate, they find a supposed suicide note tacked to the library door. The note transfers their custody to Captain Sham. The window overlooking the lake is smashed open, and they believe that Josephine jumped to her death. Violet calls Mr. Poe, and the children wait all night for his arrival. When Klaus points out that Josephine’s note is full of errors, the children decide that Count Olaf must have written the note—or forced Josephine to write it—and then pushed Josephine out the window. When Mr. Poe arrives, the children share their theory, but Poe does not believe them. He compares the handwriting on the note to a grocery list of Josephine’s and concludes that Josephine did, indeed, write the supposed suicide note. He tells the children that, legally, they will have to follow the note’s instructions and go live with Captain Sham.

While the children are getting their coats on in preparation to leave for a meeting with Sham, Klaus tells Violet that he needs her to figure out how to delay the transfer of custody, because he has discovered something about the note and needs a little more time to figure out what it means. At first, Violet cannot think of a way to accomplish this, but as she puts her coat on, she feels the bag of peppermints still in her coat pocket. Once they are at the restaurant where Poe intends to go over the custody paperwork with Sham, Violet slips peppermints to her siblings. All three eat peppermints and quickly develop dramatic swelling and hives. Violet tells Poe that they are having an allergic reaction and will take a taxi back to Josephine’s to lie down while he finishes the paperwork with Sham. As they leave the restaurant, the weather outside tells them that Hurricane Herman is getting quite close.

Back at the house, Klaus finally figures out what the errors in Josephine’s note mean: Each error points to a particular letter, and when the letters are put together they spell out “Curdled Cave.” As the hurricane reaches the house, the children scramble to find an atlas of Lake Lachrymose so that they can discover the cave’s location. They hope to find Josephine alive and hiding there and thus prevent their adoption by Captain Sham. Just after they find the cave’s location and realize they can get close to it using the ferry that crosses Lake Lachrymose, they notice that the supports that keep Josephine’s house perched on the cliff are giving way in the storm. The house shakes, and the children run outside. They are just in time to avoid being swept away as the house topples down the cliff into Lake Lachrymose.

At the dock, the children find that the ferry is not running due to the storm. They have no options left: They will have to steal a sailboat from Captain Sham’s Sailboat Rentals. They are nearly captured by one of Olaf’s minions, but they are able to get aboard a sailboat just in time and sail out onto Lake Lachrymose. Working together, they are able to figure out how to sail the boat to Curdled Cave. Inside the frightening cave, they find Josephine, sitting on a rock and sobbing into her hands. She is relieved to see them, believing that they have come to bring her food and live with her in the cave. She explains that during the phone conversation with “Sham” he revealed that he is really Olaf and threatened to drown her in the lake if she did not write the note assigning him custody of the children. The children beg her to come back with them so that she can testify about Sham’s real identity and get Olaf put in jail, but she refuses, too frightened of Olaf to leave the cave. Klaus points out that on their way into the cave, the children saw a “for sale” sign. Knowing that Josephine is terrified of realtors, he tells her that one might appear at any moment. She quickly agrees to leave the cave with the children.

As the children sail back across the lake, the Lachrymose Leeches attack. The boat begins to sink, but Violet quickly invents a signaling device to attract attention and bring a rescuer near. Unfortunately, the person who sees and responds to her signal is none other than Captain Sham. He brings them all aboard his boat, openly celebrating having finally gotten his hands on the children—and thus, their fortune. They threaten to tell Mr. Poe everything, and Sham realizes that, if Josephine is alive to testify against him, he will lose custody of the children and go to jail. He pushes Josephine into the lake and sails away. Back on the dock, Mr. Poe is waiting. Just as Sham predicted, Poe believes his story over the children’s, and it looks as if the children are doomed to be taken by Captain Sham. Sunny figures out how to expose Sham’s real identity, however: She crawls over to him and bites his prosthetic leg in half. When it falls away, Olaf’s real leg—with its distinctive eyeball tattoo—is revealed, and Poe realizes who Captain Sham really is. Poe says that he will have Olaf arrested, and Olaf flees. By the time the police arrive, he is long gone. Josephine is never found and is presumed to be dead. At the end of the story, the Baudelaires huddle together on the dock, glad that, even though they once again have no home or guardian, they at least have one another.