Dear Reader,

You are presumably looking at the back of this book, or the end of the end. The end of the end is the best place to begin the end, because if you read the end from the beginning of the beginning of the end to the end of the end of the end, you will arrive at the end of the end of your rope.

This book is the last in A Series of Unfortunate Events, and even if you braved the previous twelve volumes, you probably can't stand such unpleasantries as a fearsome storm, a suspicious beverage, a herd of wild sheep, an enormous bird cage, and a truly haunting secret about the Baudelaire parents.

It has been my solemn occupation to complete the history of the Baudelaire orphans, and at last I am finished. You likely have some other occupation, so if I were you I would drop this book at once, so the end does not finish you.

With all due respect,

Lemony Snicket

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Like an off-key violin concert, a flash flood, or a bout of food poisoning, all things must come to an end. Thankfully, for Lemony Snicket and A Series of Unfortunate Events, the end is here.

Snicket readers still have many burning questions:
Will the Baudelaire orphans meet their end?
Will Count Olaf prevail?
Who is Beatrice?
Will the ending be unhappy, as promised?
Is there a point to reading all 13 books in one miserable series?

Avoid the thirteenth and final book of Lemony Snicket's international best-selling series and you'll never have to know. The most unfortunate event of all hits bookstores this fall. Read something else.