Mr. Samsa

“	Perhaps you'd like to join me for dinner tonight. My friend Mr. Samsa has taken ill, so you could take his place.	”
	— Smogface Wiley, File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents, "Silver Spoon"

Mr. Samsa is a 'well-bred" man mentioned in File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents.

Biography

Little is known about him; he seems to be considered "well-bred"- rich and from a wealthy family- as he is friends with Smogface Wiley and is invited to his gatherings. This could also imply he lives in or near Stain'd-by-the-Sea, in order to regularly visit.

At the time of Lemony Snicket's investigation into Wiley's possible theft of a silver spoon, Samsa had taken ill.^[1]

Trivia

Samsa is likely named after the Samsa family of Franz Kafka's novel, The Metamorphosis, in which the main character, George Samsa, awakens one morning to find himself transformed into an insect- "taken ill."
- The novel is also mentioned in Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights?, as Snicket has borrowed the book from Pip and Squeak Bellerophon but is unable to finish it, as he leaves it in The Lost Arms when he leaves Stain'd-by-the-Sea.

Appearances

Books
A Series of Unfortunate Events (Books)
1. The Bad Beginning (1999):	Absent	7. The Vile Village (2001):	Absent
2. The Reptile Room (1999):	Absent	8. The Hostile Hospital (2001):	Absent
3. The Wide Window (2000):	Absent	9. The Carnivorous Carnival (2002):	Absent
4. The Miserable Mill (2000):	Absent	10. The Slippery Slope (2003):	Absent
5. The Austere Academy (2000):	Absent	11. The Grim Grotto (2004):	Absent
6. The Ersatz Elevator (2001):	Absent	12. The Penultimate Peril (2005):	Absent
13. The End (2006):		Absent
All the Wrong Questions
Who Could That Be at This Hour? (2012):	Absent	Shouldn't You Be in School? (2014):	Absent
When Did You See Her Last? (2013):	Absent	Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights? (2015):	Absent
File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents (2014):		Mentioned
Snicketverse
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography (2002):		Absent
The Dismal Dinner (2004):		Absent
The Beatrice Letters (2006):		Absent
29 Myths on the Swinster Pharmacy (2014):		Absent
The Hero of the Story (2017):		Absent
Poison for Breakfast (2021):		Absent
Other Snicket Books
The Baby in the Manger (2002):		Absent
The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming (2007):		Absent
The Lump of Coal (2008):		Absent
The Composer Is Dead (2009):		Absent
13 Words (2010):		Absent
The Dark (2013):		Absent
Goldfish Ghost (2017):		Absent

Sources

↑ PROSE: File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents

[13Incidents-1] PROSE: File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents

[1]