The Slippery Slope

Infobox Book |
name = The Slippery Slope
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Lemony Snicket (pen name of Daniel Handler)
illustrator = Brett Helquist
cover_artist = Brett Helquist
country = United States
language = English
series = "A Series of Unfortunate Events"
genre = Novel
publisher = HarperCollins
release_date = September 23, 2003
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (hardback & paperback)
pages = 337
isbn = ISBN 0-06-441013-7
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.

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 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 rest 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 into lox 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 the Verdant Flammable Device. Violet invents an ice-climbing device from a sled and forks, and Quigley and Violet climb the mountain. At one point, they stop for a rest and Snicket implies that they share a kiss. 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 says, "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 get Sunny as a reward for their efforts.

Claiming to be Volunteers, Violet, Klaus and Quigley demand Sunny's return. Olaf refuses, until Violet pretends to know the location of a missing sugar bowl (of unknown importance) from Esmé's tea set. 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, quitting the troupe. As they leave, they tell Olaf that one of their siblings was killed when their house burned down. The scouts, except Carmelita, the freaks and the hook-handed man are captured in a net, and carried off by eagles. 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 tries to tell them to meet him somewhere, but cannot be heard over the rush of the running water.

Cultural References, Trivia & 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." 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. Snicket 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 appears in episode 4 of the first series of Monty Python's Flying Circus, and, in a slightly abbreviated form, in their first film, "And Now for Something Completely Different".

*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.

*Near the beginning of the book, Violet and Klaus get out of their costume. Yet in "The Hostile Hospital", Violet was in a hospital gown and since then had no time to change back into her normal clothes. During the course of the book, there is an illustration showing her in her normal clothes, but her they were in the hospital when it burned down, it is unknown how she got her violet dress back.

*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.

Foreshadowing

*In the last picture of the book, there are a few mushrooms growing on the rocks echoing towards the next book in the series "The Grim Grotto", where there is a deadly mushroom-like fungus.

Translations

* Russian: " _ru. Скользкий склон", Azbuka, 2005, ISBN 5-352-01599-8