The Ersatz Elevator - Cultural and Literary Allusions

Cultural and Literary Allusions

• The Café Salmonella is a reference to salmon and to the disease of the same name.
• The Crying of Lot 49 is a novel by Thomas Pynchon in which a set of rare stamps are sold in Lot 49 of an auction.
• Esmé Gigi Geniveve Squalor's name is a reference to J. D. Salinger's story "For Esmé – with Love and Squalor". Jerome is Salinger's first name, as well as the name of Esmé's husband. He has the initials J.S., which is a recurring acronym in the series.
• 'Red Herring' is a phrase used when talking about a distraction. Ironically, the statue of the red herring contained the two surviving Quagmire triplets.
• The opening discussion of nervous versus anxious is reminiscent of The Giver written by Lois Lowry.
• The Verne Invention Museum is a reference to Jules Verne.
• Akhmatova Book Store is a reference to a Russian poet.
• Pincus Hospital, we learn, is where Sunny was born. This is an ironic reference to Gregory Goodwin Pincus, inventor of the contraceptive pill.
• Gunther, Olaf's disguise, may refer to the ancient King of Burgundy, Gunther.
• Jerome Squalor, when discussing xenophobia, mentions Galileo and Jun'ichirō Tanizaki.
• There are 1,849 windows in 667 Dark Avenue. 1849 is the year in which Edgar Allan Poe died.
• Armani, another one of Sunny's utterances, is a reference to Armani, an expensive clothing brand.
• 667 Dark Avenue is one number away from 666, a number often associated with evil (in a British English joke, it is "The Neighbour of the Beast") They live across the street from the beast. Also, there are 66 floors in the building and this is the sixth book, two more references to 6.
• Veblen Hall, site of the auction of mostly useless goods, may be a reference to Thorstein Veblen, sociologist, who coined the phrase "conspicuous consumption".
• When the Baudelaires first climb the stairs to the penthouse, they overhear a woman say "Let them eat cake". This quote is attributed to Marie Antoinette.
• One of the books in the Squalor library is titled "Boots Were In in 1812". This may be a reference to one of the Grimm's Fairy Tales, "The Boots of Buffalo Leather," which supposedly may have been written in 1812.
• The UK version of the book cover is slightly different. Instead of Klaus and Sunny watching Violet climb down the elevator, it shows the orphans falling with Esmé watching triumphantly.