| The Slippery Slope | |
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| Author | Lemony Snicket |
| Illustrator | Brett Helquist |
| Cover artist | Brett Helquist |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | A Series of Unfortunate Events |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
| Publication date | September 23, 2003 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 337 |
| ISBN | 0-06-441013-7 |
| OCLC Number | 52602720 |
| Dewey Decimal | [Fic] 22 |
| LC Classification | PZ7.S6795 Sl 2003 |
| Preceded by | The Carnivorous Carnival |
| Followed by | The Grim Grotto |
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.
Contents |
Plot summary
The book starts where The Carnivorous Carnival left off. Klaus and Violet are rolling down a steep mountainside in an out-of control caravan, while Sunny is held captive by Count Olaf and his henchmen. Violet devises a brake for the caravan by using the hammocks as a drag chute and spreading sticky foods on the wheels. The two siblings travel up the mountain and take shelter from the vicious Snow Gnats in a cave, which is occupied by a troupe of Snow Scouts. Carmelita Spats, the children's rival from The Austere Academy, is one of the Snow Scouts, along with her uncle Bruce and a boy wearing a sweater, who seems to possess knowledge of V.F.D. During the night, he talks to them and leads them up the natural chimney (also known as the Vertical Flame Diversion) to the V.F.D. headquarters..
Olaf, his sidekicks, and Sunny are on the peak of Mount Fraught, the tallest mountain in the region. The adults are cruel to Sunny, forcing her to sleep in a casserole dish and cook them breakfast the next morning. Olaf insists that what she has prepared is disgusting and orders the Hook-Handed Man to fetch salmon from the nearby stream. Two people, a woman with hair but no beard and a man with a beard but no hair arrive, and announce that they have successfully burned down the V.F.D. headquarters. They also give Count Olaf the first twelve pages of the Snicket File. The man gives Esmé a green cigarette which is actually a Verdant Flammable Device. Sunny notices Esmé's Verdant Flammable Device and uses one to signal her siblings under the pretext of smoking the just-caught salmon for Olaf and his evil associates.
Meanwhile, Violet, Klaus and the boy come to the V.F.D. headquarters and find it has burnt down. The boy reveals himself to be Quigley Quagmire, whom the children believed to be dead. Violet, Klaus, and Quigley see, rising from the cliff, the plume of green smoke being emitted from Sunny's Verdant Flammable Device. Violet invents an ice-climbing device from a sled and forks, which Quigley and she use to climb the mountain. At one point, they stop for a rest and Snicket refuses to reveal what happens between the two, commenting that Violet and Quigley have been deprived of privacy. It is obvious after this point that the two have fallen in love, and many references are made to their romantic attachment. Violet wants Sunny to return with them, but she refuses, telling her sister that she can spy on Olaf and learn useful information. Violet reluctantly agrees after Sunny herself claims, "I am not a baby."
Violet, Quigley and Klaus hatch a plan to lure Esmé to them and use her to bait Olaf into giving Sunny back. They dig a pit and light a Verdant Flammable Device next to it. Esmé sees some green smoke at the bottom of the slope. She goes down it, thinking the smoke is coming from the "in" cigarettes. The children realize that two wrongs don't equal a right and that there is a better way to rescue Sunny than kidnapping Esmé. When she reaches the bottom, she runs into three masked strangers (the Baudelaires and Quigley), and they help her climb back up the slope, hoping to somehow force Count Olaf to give up Sunny.
Claiming to be Volunteers, the three demand Sunny's return. Olaf refuses, until Violet pretends to know the location of a missing sugar bowl (which is mysteriously important to Olaf and his group). Olaf barters for the dish, but the Snow Scouts reach the peak. Klaus, Violet, and Quigley take off their masks to convince the scouts to run. Olaf orders the two white faced women to grab Sunny and throw her off the mountain, but they leave in protest and quit working for Olaf. As they leave, they say that one of their siblings was killed when their house burned down. The scouts, apart from Carmelita Spats, and several of Count Olaf's associates are caught in a net in a plot to recruit them to Count Olaf's troupe. Carmelita is convinced to join Olaf and Esmé in their evil schemes. The Baudelaires and Quigley grab a toboggan and slide down the slope, but when they reach the bottom, the frozen waterfall shatters. In the ensuing flood, the Baudelaire siblings and Quigley Quagmire are separated. Quigley and Violet call desperately for each other, and Quigley tries to tell them to meet him somewhere, but cannot be heard over the rush of the running water.
Foreshadows
- On the last picture, there is a pile of mushrooms growing on rocks, foreshadowing The Grim Grotto.
Cultural References & Literary Allusions
- The mechanical instructor C. M. Kornbluth is named after the science fiction writer Cyril M. Kornbluth.
- There is a reference to Samuel Beckett's play "Waiting for Godot", when Sunny utters "Godot". The literal translation provided by Daniel Handler is "We don't know where to go, and we don't know how to get there.", much like the central plot in "Waiting for Godot" where the characters are unaware of the time that Godot will arrive.
- There is a reference to Monty Python's Flying Circus, specifically to the Self Defence Against Fresh Fruit sketch, in which John Cleese is telling his class about how to defend themselves from someone armed with a "piece of fresh fruit," throughout which, a student requests to learn how to defend themselves from someone armed with a "pointed stick." This is referenced in The Slippery Slope when Violet, Klaus and Quigley search the refrigerator in order to find out if there is anything important. Lemony says that a fridge would hold a bunch of strawberries, which would be important if a man said "If you don't give me a bunch of strawberries right now, I'm going to attack you with this large pointed stick." This sketch also (in a slightly abbreviated form), in their first film, And Now for Something Completely Different.
- Violet uses a Sumac knot when slowing the caravan, and states that she named the knot after a singer she likes. It is likely to be a reference to Peruvian singer Yma Sumac.
- As Violet, Klaus, and Quigley are climbing up the Vertical Flame Diversion, Snicket mentions that the pipes once found there were removed by a man he knew in order to build a submarine. This may be a reference to the next book in the series The Grim Grotto, in which the children reside in a submarine described as being made of different pipes.
- When the Baudelaires and Quigley are trying to find a way to escape from the top of Mount Fraught, Sunny says "Rosebud", prompting them to use the toboggan. This is a reference to the movie Citizen Kane. "Rosebud" is the first and last word in the movie, and the name of a sled that Kane owned when he was a child.
- At one point, Sunny uses the word "Busheney", which in the story means an evil, despicable man. The word is a reference of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
- On several occasions, Sunny uses the term "Mata Hari" to refer to her spying on Count Olaf and his troupe. Mata Hari was a Dutch spy during World War I.
- At one point, Sunny uses the word "Babganoush", which literally means,"I concocted an escape plan with the eggplant that turned out to be even handier than I thought." This is a reference to the Arabic dish Baba Ghanoush.
Cover images
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US cover |
 Japan cover |
Translations
- Brazilian Portuguese: "O Escorregador de Gelo" (The slide of ice), Cia. das Letras,2004, ISBN 85-359-0575-8
See also
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Slippery Slope |
- Violet Baudelaire
- Klaus Baudelaire
- Sunny Baudelaire
- Count Olaf
- Lemony Snicket
- Esmé Squalor
- Man with a beard, but no hair
- Woman with hair, but no beard
- Carmelita Spats
- Bruce (A Series of Unfortunate Events)
- Sugar bowl (A Series of Unfortunate Events)
- Count Olaf's theater troupe
- V.F.D.
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