Violet, Sunny and Klaus Baudelaire are very intelligent children. After their wealthy parents sudden and suspicious death in a fire that also burnt down their home the children are sent to live with count olaf. Soon enough they dicover that count olaf is planning to kill them and claim their inherited fourtune. The children outwit olaf's first plan to kill them and Olaf looses custody over them. They are then sent to live with Uncle Monty ,another distant relative, but count olaf refuses to give up and continues to try and execute his plans to get his hands on the childrens fortune. Thus reducing the Baudelaires lives to an ever recourring series of unfortunate events.
Hazax of Rodmore
Chosen answer: The spy glasses are not explained in the books, but it seems that these are symbols of the fact that they are in VFD, the secret organization we learn about later on in the series. Both Dr. Montgomery and Aunt Josephine's husband and brother-in-law, the Anwhistle brothers, are implied to have been a part of VFD.