“ | Some say that the whole world is a fragmentary plot. | ” |
— Eratosthenes, Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights?
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Eratosthenes is a librarian featured in All the Wrong Questions.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Eratosthenes is known to be a librarian. He does not seem to be a resident of Stain'd-by-the-Sea, though he mentions having heard different versions of the story of the draining of the town.[1]
His potential involvement with VFD is unknown, though likely, considering files sent to him were said to be also sent to VFD Headquarters.[2]
Shouldn't You Be in School? []
The third account of Lemony Snicket's time in Stain'd-by-the-Sea is addressed to him, to file under the name of the town, as well as arson, investigations of; Hangfire; pedagogy; Haines family, suspicions concerning, and to CC to VFD headquarters.
Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights?[]
“ | Shut the window yourself, if you want it shut. Open it if you want it open. Climb out of it or climb back in. We'll say anything you want us to say. Just leave us alone. | ” |
— Eratosthenes, Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights?
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Eratosthenes is a passenger on The Thistle of the Valley, along with Walleye and Pocket. The three of them witness Stew Mitchum climb from the side of the train and murder Dashiell Qwerty with a poison dart. He then enters their compartment and threatens them into framing S. Theodora Markson for the crime. By the time he returns with his parents, Lemony Snicket has started to talk to the nervous librarians. They tell the Officers that they saw Theodora kill Qwerty, and after they leave, Snicket tells them that he knows they are false witnesses, and also that the murder victim was a librarian like them.
The three librarians are fetched by Ornette Lost, and they become witnesses to Hangfire summoning the Bombinating Beast, and to Snicket murdering him by feeding him to the creature. After the train crashes, Snicket tells the librarians he will send them his accounts of his time in Stain'd-by-the-Sea. They decide to come clean and admit they saw Stew murder Qwerty, though the Officers now intend to frame Ellington Feint. The last Snicket sees of the librarians is of them watching Cleo Knight sketch something.
Physical Appearance[]
He was a very old-looking man with a gray beard that grew out in two different directions, like a split in a river. He wore shabby but stylish clothes.[1]
Quotes[]
Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights?[]
“ | Eratosthenes is my name, and my occupation is the same as the others. I saw that stranger over there, S. Theodora Markson, throw the wepaon out the window of the train when she was done, and I heard the glass shatter on the floor. | ” |
— Chapter Six
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- Lemony Snicket: “Giacomo Casanova was a noble librarian. So was Marcel Duchamp, and that goes double for Beverly Cleary. But you three are disgraces to the profession, and you know it.
- Eratosthenes: Now see here, young man-
“ | It's an old story. I've heard versions of it before. | ” |
— Chapter Thirteen
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“ | But we weren't witnesses to Qwerty's murder. We'll tell those police officers what we really saw. | ” |
— Chapter Thirteen
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“ | That Markson woman was framed. She should be released from her cell. | ” |
— Chapter Thirteen
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Trivia[]
- He is likely named after Eratosthenes of Cyrene, a Greek mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer and music theorist, and the first person to calculate the circumference of the Earth. He is known to have been the chief librarian at the Library of Alexandria, which is famous for having been burned to the ground.
Appearances[]