The bad beginning

by Lemony Snicket, Daniel Handler

No cover — Lemony Snicket, Daniel Handler: The bad beginning (2003, Farshore)

English language

Published Nov. 22, 2003 by Farshore.

ISBN:: 978-1-4052-0726-3

(13 reviews)

The Bad Beginning is the first novel of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The novel tells the story of three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who become orphans following a fire and are sent to live with Count Olaf, who attempts to steal their inheritance. The book was published on September 30, 1999, by Scholastic Inc. and illustrated by Brett Helquist. An audiobook was released in 2003 with narration by Tim Curry, several special editions of the book have been made and the book has been translated into many different languages. There is a movie based on the series starring Jim Carrey and a Netflix TV mini-series starring Neil Patrick Harris.

9 editions

Christina reviewed The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #1)

Review of 'The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #1)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Very good, came to this 18 years past original publication, love Brett Helquist's illustrations and the Baudelaire Gothbabies Violet, Klaus and Sunny (as in von Bulow, get it? nudge nudge!). Clever and charming children can be orphaned, be thrust into the care of guardians who strike them and otherwise treat them badly. Young readers will learn new vocabulary, readers of all ages will see sly jokes. The adults are all frustrating: either cunning and horrible or well-meaning and dense. However, the children heroically put their wits to use to rescue themselves from unfortunate events in this Bad Beginning.