The Reptile Room is a middle-grade novel published by Daniel Handler under the pen name of Lemony Snicket in 1999. It is the second in the 13-book series A Series of Unfortunate Events, which chronicles the lives of the Baudelaire children (Violet, Klaus, and baby Sunny) after the untimely death of their parents. In the first book, a well-intentioned but oblivious man named Mr. Poe places the children under the care of their distant relative, Count Olaf, an evil and murderous man who wants to steal the fortune that the children will inherit when Violet turns 18 years old. In The Reptile Room, the children get a new guardian, Uncle Monty, who is a kind and brilliant scientist focused on the study of snakes. When Count Olaf enters the home disguised as Uncle Monty’s assistant, the Baudelaire children fail to stop him from murdering their new caretaker, which he accomplishes by faking a snakebite. However, through applying their unique skills, the Baudelaires are at least able to save themselves by proving that Count Olaf is both in disguise and guilty of the crime.

This guide refers to the paperback edition published by Harper Trophy in 2007.

Plot Summary

Mr. Poe, a friend of the Baudelaire children’s deceased parents, drives the three children to the home of their new guardian, Dr. Montgomery (or Uncle Monty). Unlike the Baudelaires’ previous guardian, Count Olaf, who wanted to steal the children’s fortune and eventually murder them, Uncle Monty is kind, generous, and smart. He is a herpetologist, or a scientist who studies snakes, and the children are delighted by the animals in his Reptile Room, especially the immense but harmless snake that he has discovered and named the Incredibly Deadly Viper. Uncle Monty plans to go to Peru in a week to study snakes there, and the children are thrilled when he invites them to come too. They eagerly agree to assist him in the absence of his former assistant, Gustav, who suddenly quit right before the children’s arrival. For a short period of time, the children are happy, enjoying their days spent helping their uncle and evenings with him at the movies.

The day before they’re meant to leave for Peru, Uncle Monty is not home, having left to purchase final supplies for the trip. While he’s out, his new assistant Stephano arrives, but the Baudelaire children can instantly tell the man is Count Olaf in disguise—the Count has merely grown a beard and shaved his unibrow. The narrator notes that Klaus will later regret that he did not attempt to call the cab driver back, which leaves them alone with him. Count Olaf threatens them with physical violence if they don’t obey him and call him Stephano, and the children are forced to allow him inside. They wait anxiously for their uncle’s return that evening.

When Uncle Monty returns home, the children try to tell him that Stephano is really Count Olaf, but Uncle Monty is too excited about the trip to listen. Throughout the evening and night, Count Olaf watches the children, brandishing a shiny knife when necessary to threaten them into silence. The following morning, Uncle Monty confides in the children that he finds Stephano suspicious—albeit because he believes Stephano is really a spy from the Herpetological Society, here to steal the discovery of the Incredibly Deadly Viper along with anything new they discover while traveling. The children again try to explain the truth, but Uncle Monty is too distracted with his own theory. Uncle Monty rips up Stephano’s ticket to join them on the ship to Peru, announcing that Stephano will instead stay behind at the house. At this moment, a lamp “falls” out of Klaus’s bedroom window and strikes Uncle Monty on the shoulder, barely missing his head; Uncle Monty blames Klaus, instructing him to be more careful about where he places things in his room.

The children tell Count Olaf that Uncle Monty has destroyed his ticket, and the Count scowls, suggesting an accident—much like the fallen lamp—might yet change the plans. Deeply anxious, the children spend the night together in Violet’s room until Stephano knocks on the door in the morning. He tells them to get ready to leave for Peru, and when the children protest, he gleefully tells them to ask Uncle Monty about it. The children find Uncle Monty’s dead body in the Reptile Room, pale and with two small marks like a snakebite. Count Olaf brandishes his knife again, forcing the children into Uncle Monty’s car with the intention of taking them to Peru, where “crimes are more difficult to trace” (77). However, Count Olaf crashes into the arriving car of Mr. Poe, who was on his way to deliver the children’s suitcases before they left for their trip. Mr. Poe’s car will not start again, but he is fine.  

The children rush to tell Mr. Poe that Stephano is Count Olaf, but upon learning that Uncle Monty is dead, then finding no tattoo of an eye on Stephano’s ankle, Mr. Poe assumes the children are “delirious” with grief. They all return to the house to call a doctor, and Dr. Lucafont arrives with suspicious speed. The doctor concludes that Dr. Montgomery was killed by a bite from the Mamba du Mal snake, which he claims must have let itself out of the cage before locking itself back inside. The adults descend into a debate about car riding arrangements for getting the body to the coroner and Mr. Poe to a mechanic. Violet, recognizing their opportunity to find evidence, exits with her siblings. She instructs Klaus to read about the Mamba du Mal snake while she roots through Count Olaf’s disgusting bedroom for evidence. Though she finds nothing useful, Klaus discovers that the Mamba du Mal snake strangles its victims and leaves dark bruises, which were not present on Uncle Monty’s pale body. Violet tells her siblings to create a diversion, and she hurries to search Stephano’s suitcase.

Sunny distracts the adults by pretending to get attacked by the Incredibly Deadly Viper as Violet creates a lockpick to open Count Olaf’s suitcase. Inside, she finds an empty vial of Mamba du Mal venom, a syringe with a needle, and makeup. Count Olaf makes the mistake of boasting about his knowledge of snakes, which he had previously denied having, and Violet seizes the opportunity to present their evidence. They seal their case by using a cloth to clean the makeup off Count Olaf’s ankle, revealing the tattoo. Mr. Poe, who finally believes them, announces that Count Olaf must be taken to the police. Dr. Lucafont volunteers to take him, but Sunny bites his oddly stiff hand, revealing a hook underneath it. Lucafont is really one of Count Olaf’s minions. Mr. Poe restrains the children from pursuing as the two flee, and the villains escape in Dr. Lucafont’s car. Mr. Poe calls the police, but the children know it will be useless.

The children fall asleep for a few hours on the house’s staircase. When they wake, it’s night, and men from the Herpetological Society are loading Uncle Monty’s collection of reptiles into trucks. The children disobey Mr. Poe and rush outside to say goodbye to the Incredibly Deadly Viper, which sheds tears as it is loaded into the truck. The children mull on the many meanings of the word “brilliant,” reflecting that Uncle Monty was indeed a brilliant man and that they are each brilliant in their own ways too.