The Ersatz Elevator

Not to be confused with the elevator that was ersatz. The Ersatz Elevator is a 2001 book by Daniel Handler, narrating in first person as Lemony Snicket. This book is the last book of the first half section of A Series of Unfortunate Events, giving way to The Vile Village released in the same year. In this book, the Baudelaires try to figure out the meaning of V. F. D.. It is the last book in which the Baudelaire orphans go in the house of a guardian that looks after them, with Count Olaf uses the same old routine of disguises to get the Baudelaire fortune. The book is considered to be special. Olaf's disguise in the book is Gunther, a foreigner who is an auctioneer at the In Auction. The Baudelaires' guardians are Jerome and Esmé Squalor. Esmé is secretly working for Count Olaf. The Baudelaires find out about this when she throws them into the shaft of the ersatz elevator.

Beginning
For Beatrice,

When we met, my life began.

Soon afterward, yours ended.

Note at the Back
Dear Reader,

If you have just picked up this book, then it is not too late to put it back down. Like the previous books in A Series of Unfortunate Events, there is nothing to be found in these pages but misery, despair, and discomfort, and you still have time to choose something else to read.

Within the chapters of this story, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, encounter a brightly colored staircase, a red herring, some friends in a dire situation, three mysterious initials, a liar with an evil scheme, a secret passageway, and parsley soda.

I have sworn to write down these tales of the Baudelaire orphans so the general public will know each terrible thing that has happened to them, but if you decide to read something else instead, you will save yourself from a heapful of horror and woe.

With all due respect,

Lemony Snicket