The Ersatz Elevator: 6 (A Series of Unfortunate Events)

by Lemony Snicket (Author), Brett Helquist (Illustrator), Brett Helquist (Illustrator), Lemony Snicket (Author)

• Used

  Illustrated
  2001

  $4.20

• Used

  Paperback
  2010

  $3.40

  There is nothing to be found in the pages of A Series of Unfortunate Events but misery and despair. You still have time to choose another international best-seller to read. But if you must know what unpleasantries befall the charming and clever Baudelaire children read on...The Ersatz Elevator is the sixth instalment in A Series of Unfortunate Events in which Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire encounter a darkened staircase, a red herring, friends in a dire situation, three mysterious initials, a liar with an evil scheme, a secret passageway and parsley soda. With 5 million copies sold in the UK alone, one might consider Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events to make him one of the most successful children's authors of the past decade. We, however, consider these miserable so-called adventure stories and the Hollywood film starring Jim Carrey that accompanied the books for children as nothing more than a dreadful mistake.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2002

  $3.25

  Arriving at Dark Avenue, the three Baudelaire orphans, Violet, Klaus and little Sunny, begin their new life with Jerome and Esme Squalor. Jerome is a kind man, but he agrees unquestioningly with everything said by his wife, who is the city's sixth most important financial advisor. The Baudelaires find themselves in a strange world of in things: aqueous martinis (consisting of water with an olive), pinstripe suits (even for infant Sunny) and meals only involving salmon. Sadly, elevators are out, and the children are obliged to walk the many steps up to the Squalors' penthouse. Even more sadly, they soon meet Count Olaf again, disguised as the auctioneer Gunther, and discover that the ersatz elevator is not an elevator at all, but a shaft in which the Quagmire triplets are imprisoned. When they tell Esme of the triplets' fate, she shocks them by throwing them down the elevator too and revealing herself to be in league with Count Olaf. Sunny manages to escape using her teeth, and help her siblings out, who run down the ersatz passageway to emerge - in a spectacular climax - in the charred remains of their parents' mansion! With no time to reflect, they run to Esme's In Auction, hoping to save the Quagmires, but Esme and Olaf escape with the triplets, and the Baudelaires are once more left with only each other to rely on