Cultural References and Literary Allusions
- One of the snakes in the Reptile Room is a Virginian Wolfsnake, a reference to the novelist Virginia Woolf. Uncle Monty warns the Baudelaire children never to allow the snake near a typewriter.
- When Mr. Poe panics during Sunny's staged victimization by The Incredibly Deadly Viper, he calls out a number of names in desperation. The exact quote reads as follows: "Good God! Blessed Allah! Zeus and Hera! Mary and Joseph! Nathaniel Hawthorne!" While the first six names refer to varying religious figures, the last individual, Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a 19th century novelist.
- Dr. Montgomery Montgomery, the herpetologist (a person who studies reptiles), may be a reference to Monty Python's Flying Circus.
- Both the name of the boat to Peru, Prospero, and the name of Count Olaf's disguise, Stephano, are allusions to William Shakespeare's The Tempest.
- When planning how to prove that Stephano murdered Uncle Monty, Sunny is asked to watch the door and bite anyone that tries to enter the Reptile Room. The full quote reads '"Ackroid!" Sunny said, which probably meant something like "Roger!"' and is a likely reference to Agatha Christie's 1926 novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
- In the UK version of the cover, Klaus and Violet are not seen, and Uncle Monty is seen smiling rather than being frightened.
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