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Warning: Spoilers ahead.

There has always been an air of mystery surrounding Lemony Snicket. After all, he is a fictional character brought to life by Daniel Handler. But perhaps the most asked question about the author of A Series of Unfortunate Events is: who is Lemony Snicket’s Beatrice?

The short answer is that Beatrice is Beatrice Baudelaire, the mother of Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire who the book series is based on. Each of Snicket’s 13 novels is dedicated to Beatrice.

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By the sounds of these dedications, you can probably already guess that Beatrice is – spoiler alert – dead.

If you know anything about the series, it’s that the Baudelaire kids became orphans after their parents, Beatrice and Bertrand, perished in a house fire.

But what does Beatrice have to do with Lemony Snicket, you ask? Well, turns out these two characters have a long history together that you discover throughout the series.


Beatrice and Snicket were childhood friends and were both part of a secret society called V.F.D. (Volunteer Fire Department).

The two fell in love and almost married. However, Beatrice rejected Snicket’s proposal and wrote him a 200-page book explaining why. Unfortunately, the reason has never been revealed to readers.

In episode seven of Netflix’s “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” Snicket explains: “In my closet, I keep a 200-page book written by the woman I loved, explaining at great length and in specific detail the reason she could not marry me. Which if I were to leave out in the open, I would find myself reading over and over. It would be as if my darling Beatrice were bringing me bad news every day and every night of my life.”

Snicket’s love for Beatrice explains why he feels compelled to share the Baudelaire orphans’ story. After all, the series takes place after Beatrice’s death. But according to Business Insider, there’s also another Beatrice.

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Beatrice is also the name of Snicket’s niece. The author’s sister Kit, who was also a member of V.F.D., had her daughter before she was poisoned in the last book of the series, The End. After Kit died, Baudelaire orphans Violet, Klaus and Sunny decided to name the baby girl Beatrice after their mother and take her into their care.

In Snicket’s The Beatrice Letters, the connection between baby Beatrice and the Baudelaires is revealed. Business Insider reports that the Baudelaire siblings were separated from the infant at some point, which led baby Beatrice to be taken in by the V.F.D. society. There, she was reunited with her uncle, Lemony Snicket.

Thus, to explain what happened to the Baudelaires to his niece, Snicket wrote A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Is your mind blown yet?

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