{{short description|2000 children's novel}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox book| | name = The Wide Window | title_orig = | translator = | image = The Wide Window USA.PNG | caption = First edition cover | author = [[Lemony Snicket]] (pen name of [[Daniel Handler]]) | illustrator = [[Brett Helquist]] | cover_artist = Brett Helquist | country = United States | language = English | series = ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'' | genre = {{hlist|[[Gothic fiction]]|[[Absurdist fiction]]|[[Mystery fiction|Mystery]]}} | publisher = [[HarperCollins]] | release_date = February 25, 2000 | media_type = Print (hardback & paperback) | pages = 214 | isbn = 0-06-440768-3 | dewey= [[Fiction|Fic]] 21 | congress= PZ7.S6795 Wi 2000 | oclc= 41355668 | preceded_by = [[The Reptile Room]] | followed_by = [[The Miserable Mill]] }}
'''''Book the Third: The Wide Window''''' is the third novel of the [[Children's literature|children's book]] series ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'' by [[Lemony Snicket]]. In this novel, the Baudelaire orphans live with their aunt Josephine, who is seemingly scared of everything. The book was published on February 25, 2000 by [[HarperCollins]] and illustrated by [[Brett Helquist]].
==Plot== [[Mr. Poe]] puts the Baudelaire orphans, [[Klaus Baudelaire]], [[Sunny Baudelaire]] and [[Violet Baudelaire]] under the care of [[Josephine Anwhistle|Aunt Josephine]], who lives in a house atop a hill overlooking Lake Lachrymose, a lake so large that hurricanes have occurred in that area. Aunt Josephine is [[Panphobia|afraid of everything]] from cooking food (as the stove might explode) to her welcome mat. However, she loves grammar, and her library is filled with books about the [[English grammar|grammar of the English language]]. It also has a wide window that overlooks the lake.
While helping Aunt Josephine in the grocery store, the Baudelaires run into a sailor named "Captain Sham", who they realize is [[Count Olaf]] in disguise. Aunt Josephine declines to believe this due to Captain Sham's charming personality. That night, the children hear a crash and find that Aunt Josephine had jumped out of the Wide Window that overlooks Lake Lachrymose, and has left a note for them informing them that Captain Sham will be their new guardian.
The note has many grammar errors, but Mr. Poe refuses to believe the children's claim the note was a lie by Count Olaf and takes them to dinner with him at the Anxious Clown, a cheap and grimy restaurant with an over-enthusiastic waiter. Needing a distraction to come up with a strategy, Violet puts peppermints in her own food and that of Klaus and Sunny. Allergic, they break into [[Urticaria|hives]], forcing Count Olaf to allow them to return to their aunt's house. Klaus shows them that, though the note is in Aunt Josephine's handwriting, the message 'Curdled Cave' is encoded by the errors. As they finish decoding the note, Hurricane Herman hits and the house begins to fall apart into the lake.
As the hurricane rages, the Baudelaire orphans plan to get to Curdled Cave by stealing a boat from Captain Sham's boat store near Lake Lachrymose. There, they encounter one of Count Olaf's henchpeople, a [[Henchperson of Indeterminate Gender|large person of undetermined gender]]. They endure the storm and reach the Curdled Cave, where Aunt Josephine reveals that Count Olaf forced her to write the note, but she decided to fake her suicide by breaking the Wide Window.
While traveling back, Lachrymose leeches attempt to suck their blood; the leeches smelled food in Aunt Josephine's stomach, as she ate a banana under the one-hour limit. They signal for help, only for Count Olaf to arrive on a ship. After leaving Aunt Josephine to be eaten by the leeches, Olaf brings the children back to the house, where Sunny reveals Olaf's ruse to Mr. Poe by [[Gordian Knot|biting]] Count Olaf's fake wooden peg in half, revealing his leg with his eye tattoo. He and his henchperson escape, leaving Mr. Poe to once again try to find a home for the orphans.
==Foreshadowing== In Chapter 13, it is mentioned that after the Baudelaires are sent to a boarding school, two fishermen discover Aunt Josephine's life jackets in tatters, floating in Lake Lachrymose. This detail foreshadows the Baudelaires’ subsequent enrollment at Prufrock Preparatory School in ''[[The Austere Academy]]''.
On the side of a building in the book's final picture hangs a sign in the shape of a pair of glasses with a pair of squinting eyes, referencing Dr. Orwell's office in ''[[The Miserable Mill]]''.
==Cultural references and literary allusions== *The name Damocles Dock presumably alludes to the legendary Greek figure [[Damocles]] who had a sword dangling over his head. The picture at the beginning of the book shows the three Baudelaires standing on Damocles Dock. In the archway at the entrance to the dock is a sword dangling over their heads. *In the previous book of the series, the endnote references the Café Kafka, a reference to the Austrian-Hungarian author [[Franz Kafka]]. One of Kafka's short stories, "[[Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk]]", features Josephine, the only mouse that can sing. In the short story, Josephine's music sounds like whistling if heard from the wrong angle, which may be a reference{{original research inline|date=April 2014}} to Aunt Josephine's late husband's ability to whistle with crackers in his mouth (along with the [[Baudelaire orphans]]' mother). Josephine's last name was Anwhistle, making her husband Ike Anwhistle ("I can whistle"). *Lachrymose (Lake Lachrymose) means "given to or causing tears".
==Special editions== ===The Wide Window; or, Disappearance!=== ''The Wide Window; or, Disappearance!''<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/dp/0061146331/ Amazon.com: A Series of Unfortunate Events #3: The Wide Window: Or, Disappearance! (A Series of Unfortunate Events): Books: Lemony Snicket, Brett Helquist, Michael Kupperman<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> is a paperback re-release of ''The Wide Window'', designed to mimic Victorian [[penny dreadful]]s. It was released on September 4, 2007.<ref>[http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/HarperChildrens/Kids/BookDetail.aspx?isbn13=9780061146336 A Series of Unfortunate Events #3: The Wide Window, By Lemony Snicket, Illustrated by Brett Helquist: HarperCollins Children's Books<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> The book includes seven new illustrations, and the third part of a serial supplement entitled ''The Cornucopian Cavalcade'', which features a 13-part comic by [[Michael Kupperman]] entitled ''The Spoily Brats'', an advice column written by Lemony Snicket, and, as in ''[[The Bad Beginning#Orphans!|The Bad Beginning; or, Orphans!]]'' and ''[[The Reptile Room#Murder!|The Reptile Room; or, Murder!]]'', (the final) part of a story by [[Stephen Leacock]] entitled ''Q: A Psychic Pstory of the Psupernatural''.<ref>[http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6431493.html Now for the Unfortunate Paperbacks... - 4/9/2007 - Publishers Weekly<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071111033310/http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6431493.html |date=November 11, 2007 }}</ref> This edition was the last of the paperback rereleases of the series - there have not been any more of these {{as of|2013|December|lc=y}}.{{citation needed|date=April 2018}}
==Translations== * [[Croatian language|Croatian]]: ''"{{lang|hr|Široki Prozor}}"'' * [[Czech language|Czech]]: ''"{{lang|cs|Široké okno}}"'', Egmont, 2001, {{ISBN|80-7186-184-7}} * [[Dutch language|Dutch]]: ''"Het Rampzalige Raam"'', (The Catastrophic Window), Huberte Vriesendorp, 2006, {{ISBN|978-90-216-1540-0}} * [[Finnish language|Finnish]]: ''"Avara akkuna"'', (The Wide Window), {{ISBN|951-0-26518-7}} * [[Greek language|Greek]]: ''"Το Φαρδύ Παράθυρο"'', Ελληνικά Γράμματα * [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]]: ''"{{lang|id|Jendela Janggal}}"'', (The Weird Window), Gramedia, 2003, {{ISBN|979-22-0567-5}}, 10603021 * Japanese ''"{{lang|ja|大きな窓に気をつけろ}}"'' (Beware the Big Window) {{ISBN|4-7942-1124-4}} * [[Korean language|Korean]]: ''"{{lang|ko|눈물샘 호수의 비밀}}"'' (Secrets of the Lacrimal Lake), Munhakdongnae Publishing Co, Ltd., 2002, {{ISBN|978-89-546-0836-7}} * [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]]: ''Iglene i innsjøen'' (The Leeches in the Lake), Karoline Melli, Cappelen Damm, 2001, {{ISBN|9788202204259}} * [[Polish language|Polish]] : "Ogromne okno" (The Giant Window) * [[Portuguese language|Brazilian Portuguese]]: ''"{{lang|pt|O Lago das Sanguessugas}}"'' (The Lake of Leeches), Cia. das Letras, 2000,{{ISBN|85-359-0171-X}} * [[Russian language|Russian]]: ''"{{lang|ru|Огромное окно}}"'', Azbuka, 2003, {{ISBN|5-352-00431-7}} * Spanish: ''"{{lang|es|El ventanal}}"'', Montena, 2004, {{ISBN|0-307-20937-7}} * [[Thai language|Thai]]: ''"บ้านประหลาด"'', Nanmeebooks Teen, 2002, {{ISBN|97-447-2802-7}}
==Adaptations== Elements of ''The Wide Window'' were featured in the 2004 film adaptation of the first three books in the series, ''[[Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events]]''. The book was adapted into the fifth and sixth episodes of the first season of the [[A Series of Unfortunate Events (TV series)|television series adaptation]] produced by [[Netflix]]. In the film, [[Meryl Streep]] portrays Aunt Josephine, while [[Alfre Woodard]] portrays the character in the TV series.
==See also== {{Portal|Children's literature}} {{wikiquote}}
*[[Violet Baudelaire]] *[[Klaus Baudelaire]] *[[Sunny Baudelaire]] *[[Count Olaf]] *[[Arthur Poe]]
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{Snicket}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wide Widow, The}} [[Category:2000 American novels]] [[Category:Books in A Series of Unfortunate Events]] [[Category:HarperCollins books]] [[Category:American novels adapted into films]] [[Category:American novels adapted into television shows]] [[Category:Sequel novels]] [[Category:2000 children's books]]