The Austere Academy characters

Appears from the start

The eldest Baudelaire, a fourteen-year-old inventor who ties back her hair to think and builds devices to escape danger. After four cruel homes and four escapes from Count Olaf, she leads and protects her younger siblings with weary determination.

Appears from the start

The bespectacled middle Baudelaire, twelve years old, an insatiable reader whose knowledge repeatedly saves the family. He remains alert for Count Olaf, having learned to recognize the villain behind any disguise.

Appears from the start

The infant Baudelaire, who speaks in short exclamations and bites with four remarkably sharp teeth. Small but capable, she contributes to the family's plans in her own way.

Appears from the start

The greedy, murderous actor obsessed with stealing the Baudelaire fortune, marked by a single eyebrow and an eye tattooed on his ankle. A master of disguise who has escaped capture at every turn, he is certain to appear again under a new false name wherever the children are sent.

Appears from the start

The coughing banker responsible for the Baudelaire fortune and for placing the orphans in new homes. Kindly but hopelessly credulous, he delivers the children to their next situation and rarely believes their warnings.

Appears from the start

The vain, cruel administrator who runs Prufrock Preparatory School. He fancies himself a musical genius and forces students and staff to attend his dreadful hours-long violin recitals. Petty, self-absorbed, and delighting in arbitrary rules and punishments, he makes the school a miserable place and shows the Baudelaires no kindness.

First appears in chapter 2

A spoiled, nasty student at Prufrock Prep who bullies the Baudelaires and takes pleasure in tormenting them. She toadies up to those in authority and hurls insults at anyone she considers beneath her, making herself a constant petty menace to the orphans.

First appears in chapter 3

One of the Quagmire triplets, fellow orphans at Prufrock Prep who befriend the Baudelaires. Duncan hopes to be a journalist and constantly jots notes in a notebook. He and his sister lost their parents and their third triplet, Quigley, in a fire, and they too have a large inheritance, a set of valuable sapphires. Kind and loyal, he becomes a true friend to the Baudelaires.

First appears in chapter 3

Duncan's sister, one of the Quagmire triplets and an aspiring poet who records her verses, often rhyming couplets, in a notebook. Orphaned by the same fire that killed her parents and brother, she shares the Baudelaires' grief and quickly becomes a devoted friend and ally to them at the school.

First appears in chapter 5

A new gym teacher who arrives at Prufrock Prep wearing a turban and costly running shoes. Despite the disguise, his shining eyes and single eyebrow lead the Baudelaires to recognize him as Count Olaf, arrived at the school to get his hands on them and their fortune.