Summary of novels in A Series of Unfortunate Events

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A Series of Unfortunate Events has a number of recurring themes and plot events, as shown in this table.

#	Title	Guardian (Unofficial Guardian 8+)	Olaf (2-8, 13)/Baudelaire's Disguise (8-12)	Olaf's Helping Associate	Olaf's Associate that leaves or dies in this book	Other characters introduced	Deaths	Library	Other significant events	Snicket's letter at end (referring to how to find the next book)
1	The Bad Beginning	Count Olaf	-	-	-	Violet, Klaus, Sunny, Mr. Poe, Justice Strauss, Count Olaf's theatre troupe	Mr. Bertrand Baudelaire & Mrs. Beatrice Baudelaire	Law	Series begins	On normal sheet of paper
2	The Reptile Room	Uncle Monty	Stephano	Hook-Handed Man, disguised as Dr. O. Lucafont	-	Bruce	Gustav Sebald, Uncle Monty	Herpetological	Olaf's first definite murder	On normal sheet of paper
3	The Wide Window	Aunt Josephine	Captain "Julio" Sham	Person of Indeterminate Gender	-	-	Aunt Josephine	Grammatical	House falls into lake	On normal sheet of paper
4	The Miserable Mill	Sir and Charles	Shirley T. Sinoit-Pécer	Bald Headed Man as Foreman Flucutono	-	Dr. Orwell, Phil	Dr. Orwell	The Lumbermill's Library	Klaus is hypnotized multiple times	On ripped sheet of paper
5	The Austere Academy	Prufrock Prep	Coach Genghis	The White-faced Women as the Cafeteria Helpers	-	Vice Principal Nero, Carmelita Spats, Duncan and Isadora Quagmire, Mr. Remora, Mrs. Bass	Miss Tench?	School	Quagmires are kidnapped, first mention of V.F.D.	On fancy piece of paper
6	The Ersatz Elevator	Jerome and Esmé Squalor	Gunther	Hook-Handed Man as the doorman	-	-	-	Books on what's "in"	Baudelaires discover tunnel	On sopping wet sheet of paper
7	The Vile Village	Village of Fowl Devotees, specifically Hector	Detective Dupin	Esmé Squalor as the Chief of Police	-	Hector, Jacques Snicket, The Council of Elders	Jacques Snicket	Rules, Hector's secret library	Baudelaires framed for murder, Quagmires escape in balloon, first appearance of the Harpoon Gun	As a telegram
8	The Hostile Hospital	Volunteers Fighting Disease	Mattathias, Laura V. Bleediotie, Dr. Tocuna, Nurse Flo	-	Person of Indeterminate Gender	Hal	The person of indeterminate gender, Babs the head of Human Resources	Library of Records	Baudelaires ponder their own morality	Letter is almost destroyed, only a few scraps remain
9	The Carnivorous Carnival	Madame Lulu	Beverly and Elliot the two-headed freak and Chabo the Wolf Baby	-	Bald Headed Man	Colette, Hugo, Kevin	The Bald-Headed Man, Madame Lulu	Archival	Snicket file discovered orphans learn location of V.F.D. headquarters	On normal sheet of paper; letters fade away
10	The Slippery Slope	Bruce and the Snow Scouts	Snow Scouts	-	The White-Faced Women	Quigley Quagmire, The Man With a Beard but No Hair and the Woman With Hair but No Beard	-	V.F.D.	V.F.D. headquarters burned, Carmelita returns, sugar bowl first mentioned in dialogue, Sunny grows up	On sopping wet sheet of paper; first time book name is hidden
11	The Grim Grotto	Captain Widdershins	Scuba Divers	Hook-Handed Man	-	Fiona, Kit Snicket		Mycological	Olaf gets medusoid mycelium, Fernald meets Baudelaires	Several torn sheets of paper from Hotel Denouement; book name hidden again
12	The Penultimate Peril	Dewey Denouement	Concierges	Hugo, Kevin, and Colette the Contortionist as hotel workers	Fernald (Hook-Handed Man), Fiona	Frank and Ernest Denouement	Dewey Denouement, unknown number of V.F.D. members	Hotel/Catalog	Revealed that Count Olaf was orphaned when his parents were killed by poison darts, last safe place burned down; an uncertain number of regular characters are killed	On napkin; book name is mentioned - but unknown to the reader
13	The End	Ishmael, Islanders	Olaf as Kit Snicket	-	-	Friday, Ishmael, Islanders, Beatrice Baudelaire (Kit Snicket's child)	Kit Snicket, Count Olaf, quite likely most of the islanders	Arboretum	Kit Snicket gives birth to the second Beatrice Baudelaire, Kit Snicket and Count Olaf die, the series ends	Letter to Editer on typewriter paper refering the reader to Chapter Fourteen.