The Ersatz Elevator characters

Appears from the start

The eldest Baudelaire, a fourteen-year-old inventor who ties back her hair to think and builds devices from odds and ends. Hardened by loss and pursuit, she leads her siblings, now also driven to rescue their kidnapped friends the Quagmire triplets from Count Olaf.

Appears from the start

The middle Baudelaire, twelve, bespectacled, and endlessly well-read, whose research keeps solving the family's problems. He is determined to free the Quagmires and to learn the meaning of the mysterious V.F.D. they shouted as they were taken.

Appears from the start

The infant Baudelaire, who speaks in short exclamations and bites with four sharp teeth. Fearless despite her size, she does her part in the family's schemes and rescues.

Appears from the start

The murderous actor who hunts the Baudelaire fortune, marked by his single eyebrow and ankle tattoo. Having kidnapped the Quagmire triplets to seize their sapphires, he remains at large and is sure to reappear in a new disguise near the children.

Appears from the start

One of the Quagmire triplets and a dear friend of the Baudelaires, an aspiring journalist who fills a notebook with notes. Orphaned like the Baudelaires and heir to a fortune in sapphires, he was kidnapped by Count Olaf and is one of the friends the children are desperate to rescue.

Appears from the start

Duncan's sister and fellow Quagmire triplet, a poet who records her verses in a notebook. Also orphaned and heir to the Quagmire fortune, she was seized by Count Olaf along with her brother, and the Baudelaires are searching for a way to free them both.

Appears from the start

The coughing banker who manages the Baudelaire fortune and places the orphans with new guardians. Well-meaning but oblivious, he still fails to grasp the danger Count Olaf poses.

Appears from the start

One of the children's new guardians, a mild and generous man who lives in a penthouse at 667 Dark Avenue with his wife Esme. Kind to the orphans but constitutionally unable to argue or take a stand, he avoids conflict at almost any cost, which makes him a well-meaning but unreliable protector.

Appears from the start

Jerome's glamorous wife and the children's other new guardian, the city's sixth most important financial advisor. She is fixated on what is fashionable, dividing everything in the world into what is currently 'in' and what is 'out,' and reorders her home and life to match. Because darkness is supposedly in, the penthouse elevators are left dark and unused, forcing everyone to climb endless flights of stairs.

First appears in chapter 3

An auctioneer with a monocle and a heavy, put-on foreign accent who appears at the Squalors' fashionable building to run an upcoming auction. His shining eyes and single eyebrow lead the Baudelaires to recognize him as Count Olaf in disguise, come to carry out a new scheme.