Book the First: 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 house fire in which their parents perished, 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, and several special editions of the book have been made. The book has been translated into many different languages, and inspired a film based on the series starring Jim Carrey and a Netflix TV series starring Neil Patrick Harris.

Plot

Violet Baudelaire is fourteen years old and loves inventing; Klaus Baudelaire is a twelve year old with a great love for knowledge and literature; Sunny Baudelaire is a baby and has four surprisingly large, sharp buck teeth, with which she loves to bite. While they are at Briny Beach, the banker Mr. Poe, tells them that their parents have died in a fire that destroyed their home. He places them in the care of Count Olaf, said to be a distant relative, although the children have never heard of him before. Olaf's ramshackle house is filthy and covered in disconcerting images of eyes; it has a tower which the Baudelaires are forbidden from entering. Count Olaf is unpleasant, easily angered, and forces the children to perform odious chores. It soon becomes clear that Count Olaf is scheming to collect the Baudelaires' fortune. The only solace the children find is spending time with their neighbor, Justice Strauss.

For the next few days, Olaf keeps the Baudelaires busy by forcing them to clean his house. The Baudelaires disagree but do not dare to object. One day, the Baudelaires are set the task of making dinner for Olaf and his theatre troupe. The troupe contains two white faced women, a hook-handed man, a bald man with a long nose and a person of indeterminate gender. The siblings make puttanesca, but when Olaf arrives, he demands roast beef. The children remind him that he never asked them to make roast beef, which angers Count Olaf, who then lifts Sunny into the air, and strikes Klaus across the face after Klaus tells everyone Count Olaf has provided them with only one bed and a pile of rocks for the three of them to sleep on and to play with, and that the Baudelaire fortune is not to be used until Violet comes of age.

A few days later, Count Olaf forces the Baudelaire children to act in a play called *The Marvelous Marriage*, written under the name “Al Funcoot" (an anagram for "Count Olaf"), with Violet playing the role of his bride. After secretly borrowing a book from Justice Strauss’s library, Klaus discovers that the wedding in the play will be legally valid, allowing Olaf to steal their fortune. When Klaus confronts him, Olaf threatens Sunny’s life by keeping her trapped in a birdcage outside his tower window unless Violet and Klaus obey him. Violet invents a grappling hook to climb the tower, but the hook-handed man captures her. Klaus is later brought to the tower, and the siblings are locked together until the play begins.

After Violet signs the marriage document, Olaf interrupts to tell the audience that their wedding was legally binding. Justice Strauss objects, but concedes that the law requires them to hand over the Baudelaire fortune to Olaf, to Mr. Poe's dismay. Violet interrupts to proclaim that the marriage was not legally binding, as she signed with her left hand despite being right-handed and the wording is 'own hand'. Justice Strauss agrees that this invalidates the marriage. Before Mr. Poe can arrest Olaf for his actions, one of his associates turns the lights in the theatre off and he is able to escape. Before his escape, however, he tells Violet that he will get their fortune if it is the last thing he will ever do, and in the event that he does, he will do away with the children. Justice Strauss tells the Baudelaires that she is willing to adopt them; however, Mr. Poe says that this would go against their parents' will, as Justice Strauss is not a relative. He decides to take them back to his household until he can find another guardian for them. The Baudelaires reflect on their uncertain future as they are driven away.

Critical reception

In 2012, School Library Journal named The Bad Beginning the 48th best children's novel. Kirkus Reviews noted the uncomfortably macabre tone of the novel, warning that because "the Baudelaire children are truly sympathetic characters", the novel is "not for the squeamish". Catherine Pelosi of Kids' Book Review responded positively to The Bad Beginning, describing it as "exciting, humorous and appropriately dark".

Special editions

The Bad Beginning: Rare Edition

The Bad Beginning: Rare Edition () was published by HarperCollins on September 23, 2003. In addition to a brown slipcase showcasing the original cover, a redesigned book cover with green eye-patterns throughout, additional illustrations, and a stand-up cardboard portrait of the Marvelous Marriage cast specially illustrated for this edition by Brett Helquist, this edition also contains a fourteenth chapter filled with author's notes, many of which foreshadow later events in the series or provide excessively detailed information about the events in The Bad Beginning itself.

A re-release of The Bad Beginning: Rare Edition () was published by HarperCollins as a Barnes and Noble Exclusive Edition in 2017. It contains all additional material apart from the portrait of the characters from The Marvelous Marriage cast, and is contained within a dark blue slipcase which sets it apart from the first Rare Edition published in 2003.

An ebook version dubbed the Rare Edition Enhanced () published in 2012 is available for purchase on limited platforms including Barnes and Noble.

The Bad Beginning; or, Orphans!

The Bad Beginning; or, Orphans! is a paperback edition of The Bad Beginning designed to mimic a Victorian penny dreadful. It was released on May 8, 2007.

Other special editions

Two editions of The Bad Beginning were published by Egmont Publishing on October 1, 2003 —

The Bad Beginning: Collectors' Edition () and The Bad Beginning: Limited Edition (). The Collectors' Edition is priced at £14.99 while sealed copies of the Limited Edition on eBay shows on the barcode the price tag of £100 alongside a different ISBN number 9781405207263. Both editions are printed and bound in Italy.

Both editions come in a larger format containing three plates of color artwork that are redrawn from the original edition of the book, and two plates of new color artwork illustrated specially for the edition by Brett Helquist, depicting Count Olaf's raspberry breakfast and the Baudelaires in a library (the latter was later reused for the 2006 cover of The Puzzling Puzzles: Bothersome Games Which Will Bother Some People (A Series of Unfortunate Events Activity Book)).

The Limited Edition is bound in leather and contained within a slipcase, similar to the Rare Edition. Each copy contains a bookplate signed by Daniel Handler as the "official representative of Lemony Snicket". It is said that only 1,000 copies were produced. In comparison, the Collectors' Edition does not come with a signed bookplate, slipcase, nor leather binding, but what sets it apart from the Limited Edition is the die-cut window design on the front cover.

A new Short-Lived Edition was released for general sale on June 14, 2012. Published at an affordable price to introduce new readers to the series, it contains a sticker on the front cover with the tagline "THE SHORT-LIVED EDITION - Buy it for a pittance! - $3.99 - Then please read something else."

A Deluxe Limited Edition () is set to be released on October 14, 2025. In this limited-run deluxe edition, The Bad Beginning will receive a luxurious soft touch cover with gold foil stamping, full-color digital edges and endpapers, and bonus content from Lemony Snicket and Brett Helquist.

Audiobook

Two audiobook versions of this novel were released. The first version was released in September 2003. It was read by Tim Curry and featured Daniel Handler, under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket, who read a portion, A Conversation Between the Author and Leonard S. Marcus, which won an "Earphones Award" on AudioFile, which described the audiobook as "fabulously funny" and complimented the conversation involving Handler.

The second version was released in October 2004, after the release of the film, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. This multi-voice cast audio book was narrated by Tim Curry and featured Tara Sands, Mitchell Federan, Dick Rodstein, Maggie Albright, L.J. Ganser, Oliver Wyman, and Carolee Goodgold. This version also included sound effects and a soundtrack. This edition of The Bad Beginning was an Audie Awards finalist for Children's Titles for Ages 8+ in 2005, and a Grammy Award Nominee for Best Spoken Word Album for Children in 2005. AudioFile gave the audiobook a positive review, although stated that "the cast of seven at first sound self-consciously formal until one realizes that the acting is supposed to be as mannered as the clever writing".

Adaptations

Film

Elements of The Bad Beginning were featured in the 2004 film adaptation of the first three books in the series, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Television

The book was adapted into the first two episodes of the first season of the television series adaptation produced by Netflix.

Translations

  • . Translated by Aleksander Melli. Oslo: Cappelen. 2000. .
  • . Translated by Melita Kovačević. Zagreb: Algoritam. 2001. .
  • . Translated by Huberte Vriesendorp. Amsterdam: Ploegsma. 2001. .
  • . Translated by Néstor Busquets. Barcelona: Lumen Editorial. 2001. .
  • . Translated by John-Henri Holmberg. Stockholm: Egmont Richter AB. 2002. .
  • . Translated by Maarja Kangro. Tallinn: Draakon & Kuu. 2003. .
  • . Translated by Mika Ojakangas. Helsinki: WSOY. 2003. .
  • . Translated by Daina Ozoliņa. Riga: Zvaigzne ABC. 2003. .
  • . Translated by Nataliya Rakhmanova. Saint Petersburg: Azbooka. 2003. .
  • . Translated by Maja Savelli. Ljubljana: Tuma. 2003. .
  • . Translated by Klaus Weimann. Munich: Manhattan. 2004. .
  • . Translated by Violeta Palčinskaitė. Vilnius: Presvika. 2004. .
  • . Translated by Nurettin Elhüseyni. Istanbul: Doğan Egmont Yayıncılık. 2005. .
  • . Translated by Aia Beraia. Tbilisi: Sulakauri. 2016. .
  • . Translated by Oleksandr Mokrovolskyy. Kyiv: KM Books. 2017. .
  • . Translated by Jolanta Kozak. Warsaw: Harper Collins. 2022. .

References

  • A Series of Unfortunate Events Read Alouds, Activities, and More from HarperCollins publishers, plus: "watch Lemony Snicket read the awfully terrible first book… until he can’t stand it anymore." https://www.harpercollins.com/blogs/harperkids/a-series-of-unfortunate-events-read-alouds-activities-and-more