I have a theory that Lemony Snicket's adjectives slowly get more complicated. So, let's test this theory out:
- The Bad Beginning (2)
- The Reptile Room (8)
- The Wide Window (1)
- The Miserable Mill (4)
- The Austere Academy (10)
- The Ersatz Elevator (11)
- The Vile Village (6)
- The Hostile Hospital (3)
- The Carnivorous Carnival (12)
- The Slippery Slope (7)
- The Grim Grotto (5)
- The Pentultimate Peril (9)
- The End
Data was based in how commonly a word was used in English, found through Google Ngram. I disagree with a few of these, but I haven't tampered.
As the Bauldelaires' journey becomes more uncertain, so does the vocabulary Snicket uses. We are as mystified as the siblings.
Despite this, there are outliers. There's a brief rise in complexity at books 5 and 6. These two books are where the mystery of VFD kicks off, and are quite plot-heavy. This makes them very oblique (though fascinating). With The End, Snicket forgoes use of an adjective. This signifies that, like the Baudelaires, we have no hope of knowing what is happening.
