Beatrice Baudelaire is a fictional character

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 in the novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 series A Series of Unfortunate Events

A Series of Unfortunate Events

A Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of children's novels by Lemony Snicket which follows the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire after their parents' death in an arsonous house fire...

 by Lemony Snicket

Lemony Snicket

Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler . Snicket is the author of several children's books, serving as the narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events and appearing as a character within the series. Because of this, the name Lemony Snicket may refer to both a fictional...

. She is the mother of Violet

Violet Baudelaire

Violet Baudelaire is one of the main characters in the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket and appears in all thirteen books. She is the oldest of the Baudelaire orphans at 14 years old, and often helps her 12-year-old brother Klaus and her baby sister Sunny...

, Klaus

Klaus Baudelaire

Klaus Baudelaire is one of the main characters in the children's book series, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket who appears in all thirteen novels. Klaus is the middle child of the Baudelaire orphans; he has an older sister named Violet and a younger sister named Sunny...

, and Sunny Baudelaire

Sunny Baudelaire

Sunny Baudelaire is one of the protagonists of Lemony Snicket's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events. Sunny is the youngest of the three Baudelaire orphans, and is described as an infant through much of the series...

, the wife of Bertrand Baudelaire, the unrequited romance of Lemony Snicket

Lemony Snicket

Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler . Snicket is the author of several children's books, serving as the narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events and appearing as a character within the series. Because of this, the name Lemony Snicket may refer to both a fictional...

, and a member of V.F.D.

V.F.D.

V.F.D. is a secret organization within the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The purposes of the organization are never made clear, although the name of the organization is connected to various interpretations of the word "fire." V.F.D...

Love life

Lemony Snicket was in love with Beatrice and they were engaged, but she canceled the marriage and married Bertrand instead. Various hints are dispensed throughout the series as to why she called off the marriage. According to Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography

Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography

Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography was first released on May 1, 2002. The book's content relates to the author Lemony Snicket and his series of books, A Series of Unfortunate Events...

, Lemony Snicket is mistakenly reported by The Daily Punctilio as dead. This is possible, as suggested in The Grim Grotto

The Grim Grotto

The Grim Grotto is the eleventh novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.-Plot:The book begins where The Slippery Slope left off, with the Baudelaires traveling on a collapsing toboggan down the Stricken Stream of the Mortmain Mountains, leaving Quigley Quagmire...

, where Lemony makes reference to Captain Widdershins convincing Beatrice that a certain story in a newspaper was true, which could be the report of his death. The other evidence for her belief was that she had planned to name Violet 'Lemony' had she been a boy, in accordance with the family custom of naming a child after a friend who had died. We can assume that Beatrice at one time believed that Snicket was dead. When Lemony was revealed to be alive, she had already married Bertrand and she could not marry him. However, in The Beatrice Letters

The Beatrice Letters

The Beatrice Letters is a book by Lemony Snicket. It is tangential to the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events, and was published shortly before the thirteenth and final installment...

 the reader is told that Beatrice returned Lemony's engagement ring and sent him a 200-page book explaining why the two could not wed, something she could not have done had she believed Snicket to be dead; although this may have been after he was revealed to be alive. This may contradict Ishmael's statement from The End

The End (A Series of Unfortunate Events)

The End is the thirteenth and final novel in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was published on October 13, 2006.- Plot description :...

 that the ring was given to Beatrice then back to Lemony to Kit to Bertrand then back to Beatrice. Also, the newspaper article mentions Lemony's work as the biographer of the Baudelaires, so this particular article could not have been published until after Beatrice's death, so this puts a damper on the idea that she read that particular article. She could, of course, have believed a completely different article about him (perhaps one accusing him of crimes he did not commit -- Snicket makes frequent references to such articles and false information), sent him the book and the letter, then later when she had married Bertrand, discovered the truth and also believed him (for a time at least) to be dead for some reason -- though again, it could not be the obituary that appears in the Daily Punctilio that convinces her of this as that must appear after her death. In The End

The End (A Series of Unfortunate Events)

The End is the thirteenth and final novel in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was published on October 13, 2006.- Plot description :...

, when Kit Snicket nears death, she informs the Baudelaire children that "their families have always been close, even if they had to stay apart from one another".

The Beatrice Letters reveal that Beatrice and Lemony first met when they were still schoolchildren and Beatrice was friends and classmates with the R, the Duchess of Winnipeg.

Mother of the Baudelaires

In The Beatrice Letters

The Beatrice Letters

The Beatrice Letters is a book by Lemony Snicket. It is tangential to the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events, and was published shortly before the thirteenth and final installment...

, which was published before The End

The End (A Series of Unfortunate Events)

The End is the thirteenth and final novel in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was published on October 13, 2006.- Plot description :...

, it is revealed that Beatrice's full name is Beatrice Baudelaire, making her a relative of the Baudelaire orphans. It later becomes clear that this Beatrice is the Baudelaire orphans' mother, and that there is another Beatrice Baudelaire, Kit Snicket's child, who is born in The End

The End (A Series of Unfortunate Events)

The End is the thirteenth and final novel in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was published on October 13, 2006.- Plot description :...

 and raised by the orphans. The Beatrice Letters

The Beatrice Letters

The Beatrice Letters is a book by Lemony Snicket. It is tangential to the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events, and was published shortly before the thirteenth and final installment...

 reveals that both Beatrices are baticeers (a person who trains bats). Baticeer is an anagram for Beatrice, of which such anagrams are used frequently in A Series of Unfortunate Events

A Series of Unfortunate Events

A Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of children's novels by Lemony Snicket which follows the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire after their parents' death in an arsonous house fire...

.

Even prior to the release of the thirteenth book, there was speculation that Beatrice was the Baudelaires' mother, based on the fact that a list of anagram

Anagram

An anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place, Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort. Someone who...

s in The Hostile Hospital includes "Carrie E. Abelabudite" an anagram for Beatrice Baudelaire. However, the same list includes "Ned H. Rirger" an anagram for Red Herring

Red herring (plot device)

Red herring is an idiomatic expression referring to the rhetorical or literary tactic of diverting attention away from an item of significance...

 (a similar passage, juxtaposing evidence that Beatrice is Mrs. Baudelaire and the "Red Herring" anagram appears in The Unauthorized Autobiography. However, the red herring may also be the name "Monty Kensicle', yet another anagram for Lemony Snicket

Lemony Snicket

Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler . Snicket is the author of several children's books, serving as the narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events and appearing as a character within the series. Because of this, the name Lemony Snicket may refer to both a fictional...

). The Baudelaires have heard her name mentioned twice by Esmé Squalor

Esmé Squalor

Esmé Gigi Geniveve Squalor is the secondary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. She is Count Olaf's girlfriend. Prior to the events of the series she was a professional stage actress and member of V.F.D. Esmé is distinguished...

, but they have not had opportunity to discuss it, so it was unknown if the name meant anything to them.

Snicket mentions Beatrice's death in the dedication of each book.

Involvement with the sugar bowl

Beatrice, the Baudelaire orphans' mother, may have stolen Esmé Squalor

Esmé Squalor

Esmé Gigi Geniveve Squalor is the secondary antagonist of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by American author Lemony Snicket. She is Count Olaf's girlfriend. Prior to the events of the series she was a professional stage actress and member of V.F.D. Esmé is distinguished...

's sugar bowl

Sugar bowl (A Series of Unfortunate Events)

The sugar bowl is a fictional object from A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. It was first mentioned by name in The Hostile Hospital, in which Snicket ponders whether it was necessary to have stolen it from Esmé Squalor. It is indirectly mentioned in The Ersatz Elevator by Esmé...

, which is an important artifact in the series. In The Ersatz Elevator, Esmé declares to the Baudelaires that she wanted to "steal from [them] the way Beatrice stole from me." In The Penultimate Peril, Esmé exclaims "Beatrice stole it [the sugar bowl] from me!" However, in The Hostile Hospital

The Hostile Hospital

The Hostile Hospital is the eighth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.-Plot and summary:The book begins where the previous one left off, with the three Baudelaire children escaping the Village of Fowl Devotees...

, Lemony Snicket states that he helped Beatrice steal the sugar bowl and that he feels guilty about it. The Beatrice Letters seems to suggest that Beatrice and Lemony attended a tea party held by Esme and, for reasons unknown, one of them stole Esme's sugar bowl, setting off the schism.

Inspiration

Beatrice "Bice" Portinari

Beatrice Portinari

Beatrice "Bice" di Folco Portinari was a Florentine woman known as the muse of the poet Dante Alighieri. Beatrice was the principal inspiration for Dante's Vita Nuova, and also appears as his guide in the Divine Comedy in the last book, Paradiso, and in the last four canti of Purgatorio...

 was Dante

DANTE

Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...

's inspiration and "true" love, whom he met when he was 9 and she was 8. However, she married another man and died three years later. This is probably the basis for the elder Beatrice Baudelaire (whom Snicket met when he was 11 and she was 10; he fell in love with her, but she married another man (Bertrand Baudelaire) and eventually died.

Charles Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...

, from which the protagonists' surnames are derived, wrote a poem called "La Beatrice."

Dedications

These dedications are made to the first Beatrice Baudelaire (the mother of the Baudelaire orphans) by Lemony Snicket in each book in A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Book	Quotation
The Bad Beginning The Bad Beginning The Bad Beginning is the first of thirteen novels in American author Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was later released in paperback under the name The Bad Beginning; or, Orphans! The novel tells the story of three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who are orphaned...	To Beatrice - darling, dearest, dead.
The Reptile Room The Reptile Room The Reptile Room is a children's novel and the second of A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. It was later released in paperback under the title The Reptile Room; or, Murder! Having just escaped from the greedy and evil Count Olaf in the first book, the Baudelaire children are now...	For Beatrice - My love for you shall live forever. You, however, did not.
The Wide Window The Wide Window The Wide Window is a children's novel and the third novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. It was later released in paperback under the name The Wide Window; or, Disappearance! In The Wide Window, the Baudelaire orphans are sent to live with their third...	For Beatrice – I would much prefer it if you were alive and well.
The Miserable Mill The Miserable Mill The Miserable Mill is the fourth of thirteen novels in American author Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It is to be released in paperback under the name The Miserable Mill; or, Hypnotism! The novel tells the story of the Baudelaire orphans continuing their adventure, but this time...	To Beatrice – My love flew like a butterfly Until death swooped down like a bat As the poet Emma Montana McElroy said: "That's the end of that."
The Austere Academy The Austere Academy The Austere Academy is the fifth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. It was released in paperback under the name The Austere Academy: or, Kidnapping! The Baudelaire orphans are sent to a boarding school, overseen by monstrous employees...	For Beatrice – You will always be in my heart, In my mind, And in your grave.
The Ersatz Elevator The Ersatz Elevator The Ersatz Elevator is the sixth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Daniel Handler under the pseudonym of Lemony Snicket. The Baudelaires are sent to live with the wealthy Esmé and Jerome Squalor.-Plot summary:...	For Beatrice – When we met my life began, Soon afterward, yours ended.
The Vile Village The Vile Village The Vile Village is the seventh novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. After escaping Olaf once again, the Baudelaire orphans are taken into the care of a whole village, only to find lots of rules and chores, evil seniors, and Count Olaf and his evil girlfriend...	For Beatrice – When we were together I felt breathless. Now you are.
The Hostile Hospital The Hostile Hospital The Hostile Hospital is the eighth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.-Plot and summary:The book begins where the previous one left off, with the three Baudelaire children escaping the Village of Fowl Devotees...	For Beatrice – Summer without you is as cold as winter. Winter without you is even colder.
The Carnivorous Carnival	For Beatrice – Our love broke my heart, and stopped yours.
The Slippery Slope The Slippery Slope The Slippery Slope is the tenth installment in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Daniel Handler under the pseudonym of Lemony Snicket.-Plot Summary:...	For Beatrice – When we first met, you were pretty, and I was lonely. Now I am pretty lonely.
The Grim Grotto The Grim Grotto The Grim Grotto is the eleventh novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.-Plot:The book begins where The Slippery Slope left off, with the Baudelaires traveling on a collapsing toboggan down the Stricken Stream of the Mortmain Mountains, leaving Quigley Quagmire...	For Beatrice – Dead women tell no tales. Sad men write them down.
The Penultimate Peril The Penultimate Peril The Penultimate Peril is the twelfth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.-Plot:The book starts off where The Grim Grotto left off...	For Beatrice - No one could extinguish my love, or your house.
The End	For Beatrice - I cherished, you perished. The world's been nightmarished
Chapter Fourteen	For Beatrice - We are like boats passing in the night - particularly you.
The Beatrice Letters The Beatrice Letters The Beatrice Letters is a book by Lemony Snicket. It is tangential to the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events, and was published shortly before the thirteenth and final installment...	To Beatrice, and From Her

See also

• Baudelaire family#Beatrice Baudelaire