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Under the pen name Lemony Snicket, Handler has written a series of children's novels, A Series of Unfortunate Events. Handler has also developed Snicket the narrator as a character, referring to him in the third person, ascribing character traits to him, and even writing a book entitled Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography. (The U.S. hardcover edition of this book has a reversible dust jacket so that it can be "disguised" as The Luckiest Kids in the World Book 1!: The Pony Party by "Loney M. Setnick".)
Handler originally came up with "Lemony Snicket" as a pseudonym to use rather than placing his real name on the mailing lists of several right-wing organisations he was researching for one of his novels. It became something of an in-joke with his friends, who were known to order pizzas under the name. When he found himself writing a series of children's books, he decided to use the Snicket name to add an air of mystery to proceedings; Lemony Snicket is an elusive figure. Handler has a considerable amount of fun with the Snicket character in the author biography sections of the books, in a page at the end of every book where Snicket makes complicated arrangements for the delivery of the manuscript of the next book to his publisher, on the Lemony Snicket website and in Snicket's Unauthorized Autobiography. He is described, among other things, as having been born beside the sea and now living underneath it, as a distinguished scholar, and as having been stripped of the Honorable Mention and the Grey Ribbon. Photographs of Snicket are shown, but are always taken from behind, except that in The Unauthorized Autobiography there is a photograph of the crew of a ship (whose names all seem to be those of famous authors), with a caption indicating that Snicket is in the photo, but the face of the sailor said to be Snicket has been mysteriously torn from the photograph.
Additionally, about once per book, Snicket provides the reader with a glimpse of his life. We know that he...
Also in the Series of Unfortunate Events books Mr. Handler puts himself into the story as a member of the mysterious V.F.D.
To fill time at the end of the first audio book, read by Tim Curry, there is an interview which is supposed to be with "Mr. Snicket" but apparently he is not home, and the interview proceeds with "Mr. Handler," who confuses himself with his "employer" throughout the interview. To avoid answering any tough questions, Handler invokes a psychological device by which the response to a query can be so horrible that it seems to the listener as if it was not been said at all.
Currently there are 11 published books in the A Series of Unfortunate Events series, along with the "autobiography." The first three books are the basis of the 2004 film Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.