The Miserable Mill (Series of Unfortunate Events #4)

While Count Olaf has many associates from his original acting troop who help him in his attempts to steal the Baudelaire fortune, The Miserable Mill is the first book where someone from outside joins the attempts. Dr. Orwell is an optometrist who lives in Paltryville, the city where our story takes place and she plays a huge role in this novel.

The Miserable Mill, by Lemony Snicket, starts off with the Baudelaire children being adopted by Sir who runs the Lucky Mills Lumber Company. Instead of providing a warm and nurturing home, he forces the three children to work the dangerous lumber machines, share a bunk in a dormitory with fellow workers, get paid in coupons, and have a lunch of a mere stick of gum. Even Sir’s partner Charles, who is treated like an assistant rather than an equal, thinks that the children shouldn’t be working. Charles tries to sneak them extra food and show them the library, but as he won’t stand up to Sir, it does little to help the situation.

While working at the Mill, one of Count Olaf’s associates trips Klaus and breaks Klaus’ glasses. To get them fixed, Klaus is sent to the only optometrist in the area, the aforementioned Dr. Orwell. After his appointment, Klaus returns confused and doesn’t seem to hear and understand what Violet and Sunny say to him. As it turns out, Dr. Orwell is a hypnotist and has hypnotized Klaus to cause accidents and hurt people around the mill. When Violet and Sunny go to confront the doctor about what is happening they discover Count Olaf in her office, and the villains laugh at the orphan’s pitiful attempts to stop them from stealing the fortune and their lives.

Luckily, and that is not a word often used to describe the Baudelaire children since that dreadful day at Briney Beach, they are able to outwit the evil adults (with no help from Charles, Sir or Mr. Poe). Violet, not usually a researcher, reads books on eyes and hypnosis to break the hold on her brother, Klaus helps to build an invention that stops the lumber machine from killing anyone, and Sunny uses her sharp teeth to protect her siblings from being stabs by Dr. Orwell.

Unfortunately, Sir blames the entire incident on the children, and sends them off to a boarding school until Mr. Poe can find another guardian to care for them. This book start to reveal that the evilness of Count Olaf and his associates is much more far-reaching than the children thought. Dr. Orwell was willing to hurt the children and listen to Count Olaf even though she wasn’t in his acting troop. The novel sets up that the children need to be wary of people they haven’t met as Count Olaf might know them from somewhere else and be working together.