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50 free A Series of Unfortunate Events trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
A Series of Unfortunate Events trivia for readers who ignored every warning to put the book down. The quiz covers all thirteen books - from The Bad Beginning to The End - and the world of Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire: Count Olaf's disguises and his ankle tattoo, Mr. Poe's coughing, Aunt Josephine's grammar, the Hotel Denouement, the Medusoid Mycelium and the mystery of V.F.D. and Beatrice. It also looks behind the pen name at Daniel Handler - his influences, his accordion and his San Francisco roots - plus Brett Helquist's illustrations, Tim Curry's audiobooks, the Gothic Archies' songs, the 2004 Jim Carrey film that won an Oscar for makeup, and the Netflix series with Neil Patrick Harris and Patrick Warburton. Questions run from easy to expert, a phrase which here means 'something for everyone'. Every answer has been checked against a reference page and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the real name of the author who wrote the series as Lemony Snicket?
Daniel Handler
He had never written for children before and reworked a mock-gothic manuscript meant for adults.
Q 02The series has thirteen books; how many chapters does each book have?
13
The final book cheats slightly with a separate extra section titled Chapter Fourteen.
Q 03What is the title of the first book?
The Bad Beginning
It came out on September 30, 1999, and the first twelve titles are all alliterative.
Q 04In which year was the first book published?
1999
The final book followed seven years later, and a Netflix series a decade after that.
Q 05What is the title of the thirteenth and final book?
The End
It contains thirteen chapters plus a separate mini-book called Chapter Fourteen.
Q 06The orphans' surname pays homage to which French poet?
Charles Baudelaire
Other names in the series nod to Monty Python, Edgar Allan Poe, George Orwell and Virginia Woolf.
Q 07Which sibling is the inventor of the family?
Violet
She is fourteen when the story starts and famously ties her hair up with a ribbon before inventing.
Q 08Which sibling is the voracious reader with a photographic memory?
Klaus
He is eleven at the start of the books, though the film makes him twelve.
Q 09What is baby Sunny's defining talent early in the series?
Biting with her sharp teeth
She later develops an interest in cooking, and in the TV series her babble is voiced by Tara Strong.
Q 10The two younger siblings' names are thought to allude to which real-life attempted-murder scandal?
The von Bülow affair
Violet's name is linked to Violet Sharpe, a maid questioned in the Lindbergh kidnapping.
Q 11Where is the villain's tattoo of an eye?
On his left ankle
Along with his unibrow, it is how the children see through every disguise the adults fall for.
Q 12Besides the tattoo, what facial feature gives the villain away in every disguise?
A unibrow
His henchmen are mostly unnamed and go by descriptions such as 'the hook-handed man'.
Q 13What is the secret organisation V.F.D. suggested to stand for?
Volunteer Fire Department
A schism split it into 'volunteers' and 'villains', and both the orphans' parents and their enemy belonged.
Q 21What is the name of the villain's sailor disguise at the lake?
Captain Sham
In The Reptile Room he had posed as an assistant called Stephano.
Q 22Which 'last safe place' do the children go to in The Penultimate Peril?
Hotel Denouement
They meet nearly every adult from the series there, and end up burning it down.
Q 23What is the deadly fungus released on the island in The End?
Medusoid Mycelium
The children find a cure their parents developed but cannot persuade the islanders to take it.
Q 14Which banker is in charge of the orphans' affairs and keeps choosing their guardians?
Mr. Poe
His constant coughing and refusal to believe the children are running jokes of the series.
Q 15The eldest sibling will inherit the family fortune when she reaches what age?
18
That is why the villain tries to marry her in the very first book.
Q 16In the first book, the villain's play is credited to 'Al Funcoot', an anagram of which character?
Count Olaf
The play is called The Marvelous Marriage and the wedding in it is meant to be legally binding.
Q 17How does the eldest sibling invalidate the forced marriage in the first book?
She signs with her left hand
The document required her to sign in her 'own hand', and she is right-handed.
Q 18Uncle Monty, the guardian in The Reptile Room, collects what?
Snakes
His prized specimen is the Incredibly Deadly Viper, which turns out to be completely harmless.
Q 19Aunt Josephine, the widow of The Wide Window, is obsessed with what?
Grammar
Klaus cracks her fake suicide note by spotting the deliberate grammatical errors in it.
Q 20Aunt Josephine's house overlooks which body of water, home to deadly leeches?
Lake Lachrymose
Its leeches make the film's boat chase deadly, and its name means 'tearful'.
Q 24What is the cure for the fungus in The End?
Apples
The hybrid fruit was bred by the children's parents but is unsafe for unborn babies.
Q 25Every book is dedicated to which woman, mourned by the narrator?
Beatrice
The final pages reveal she returned his engagement ring along with a 200-page book explaining why.
Q 26The narrator's lost love, to whom every book is dedicated, turns out to be whom?
The Baudelaires' mother
Kit Snicket's newborn is named after her at the very end of the series.
Q 27When the narrator explains a difficult term, which recurring phrase does he use?
'a word which here means...'
He once defined 'adversity' as meaning 'Count Olaf'.
Q 28The narrator's blurbs famously urge readers to do what?
Put the book down
He insists it is his 'solemn duty' to record the misery, but that nobody should have to read it.
Q 29The author names Roald Dahl and which macabre American illustrator as his influences?
Edward Gorey
The first book he ever bought as a child was that artist's The Blue Aspic.
Q 30Who illustrated the thirteen books?
Brett Helquist
Each book ends with a full-page picture hiding a clue about the next one.