<P> Despite the general absurdity of the books' storyline, Lemony Snicket continuously maintains that the story is true and that it is his "solemn duty" to record it . Snicket often goes off into humorous or satirical asides, discussing his opinions or personal life . The details of his supposed personal life are largely absurd, incomplete, and not explained in detail . For example, Snicket claims to have been chased by an angry mob for 16 miles . Some details of his life are explained somewhat in a supplement to the series, Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography . </P> <P> Lemony Snicket's narration and commentary is characteristically cynical and despondent . In the blurb for each book, Snicket warns of the misery the reader may experience in reading about the Baudelaire orphans and suggests abandoning the books altogether . However, he also provides ample comic relief with wry, dark humor . In the excerpt for The Grim Grotto, he writes: "...the horrors (the Baudelaire children) encounter are too numerous to list, and you wouldn't even want me to describe the worst of it, which includes mushrooms, a desperate search for something lost, a mechanical monster, a distressing message from a lost friend and tap - dancing ." Snicket's narration has been described as "self - conscious" and "post-modern". </P> <P> Snicket translates for the youngest Baudelaire orphan, Sunny, who in the early books almost solely uses words or phrases that make sense only to her siblings . As the series progresses, her speech often contains disguised meanings . Some words are spelled phonetically:' surchmi' in The Slippery Slope and' Kikbucit?' in The End; some are spelled backwards:' edasurc' in The Carnivorous Carnival, and' cigam' in The Miserable Mill . Some contain references to culture or people: for instance, when Sunny says "Busheney" (combining the last names of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, presumably), it is followed by the definition of "you are a vile man who has no regard for anyone else". Some words Sunny uses are foreign, such as "Shalom", "Sayonara" or "Arrete". Some are more complex, such as when she says "Akrofil, meaning,' they were not afraid of heights"', which phonetically translates to acrophile, meaning one who loves heights . She begins to use standard English words towards the end of the books; one of her longer sentences being "I'm not a baby" in The Slippery Slope . </P> <P> When describing a character whom the Baudelaires have met before, Snicket often describes the character first and does not reveal the name of the character until they have been thoroughly described . Lemony Snicket starts each book with a "post-modern dissection of the reading experience" before linking it back to how he presents the story of the Baudelaires and what their current situation is . Snicket often uses alliteration to name locations, as well as book titles, throughout the story . Many of the books start with a theme being introduced that is continually referenced throughout the book--such as the repeated comparisons of the words "nervous" and "anxious" in The Ersatz Elevator, the consistent use of the phrase "where there's smoke, there's fire" in The Slippery Slope and the descriptions of the water cycle in The Grim Grotto . </P>

Series of unfortunate events based on true story