posted on 22 Aug 2022

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

The Bad Beginning is the first of what turned out to be a series of thirteen books by US author, Lemony Snicket, the pen name of Daniel Handler. It is rumoured that he chose the name Lemony Snicket because of its (unconscious) similarity to ‘Jiminy Cricket’ – which may or not be true: it’s hard to be sure of any facts when it comes to Handler’s true biography because he mixes truth and fantasy creatively and the Snicket character has a backstory created especially for him.

The books that make up the full sequence known as A Series of Unfortunate Events are frequently referred to as ‘darkly comic’ but I would rather think of them as mock American Gothic written for children who get the joke. 

As the first book in the series, The Bad Beginning has the job of setting up the different volumes that will follow on. Snicket does this at an admirable pace and assumes, quite correctly in my opinion, that his readers (8+ in age I would guess although he has plenty of adult admirers too) just want to cut to the chase. So, as with so much classic children’s literature, the three children at the centre of the story have to first become orphans and then be menaced by wicked adults intent on doing away with them.

The plot is disarmingly simple and its essence is captured admirably by the review of the book by The Book Trust:

“….three children, Violet, Klaus and baby Sunny, whose parents are killed in a fire which also destroys their home - a tragic event which sets the tone for the rest of the book. Sent to live with Count Olaf, a distant relative, their unsettled lives take a turn for the worse. Count Olaf treats the children like slaves, ordering them to cook, clean, fetch and carry for him and forcing them to share a single, filthy bedroom, with only one bed.

When Violet turns 18, she is set to inherit the family fortune and it soon becomes clear that Count Olaf is determined to get his hands on the inheritance, by whatever dastardly means necessary. It is up to the three plucky children to outwit the Count, but as all other adults seem to have been taken in by the evil man, this proves to be an extremely difficult task.”

Snicket lays the peril on as thickly as possible and repeatedly inserts himself in the narrative to tell us that unlike other books where everything turns out well, the story of the Baudelaire children isn’t one of those. Even the blurb on the back board of the neatly designed volume teases the reader:

“Dear Reader,

I’m sorry to say that the book you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant. It tells an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children. Even though they are charming and clever, the Baudelaire siblings lead lives filled with misery and woe.” 

But, of course, nothing really bad happens despite the constant peril and – again as convention demands – in a world that seems to be populated by evil adults, there are always good and decent people to whom the children can turn or who are prepared to show them the possibility of a better life – only to have that possibility snatched away from them. I think adult readers will see that there’s an extended pastiche of the Victorian novel going on here and a cap is being doffed to Charles Dickens (think Great Expectations and Oliver Twist).

The Bad Beginning is the perfect appetiser for the series that follows because I’m pretty sure that any young reader who is captured by the story of the three Baudelaire children will simply have to find out what happens next – and probably over the dozen that follow.

Copies of the book are easily available in their lovely hardback form for very little money on the second-hand market – in fact you can by complete sets of all the Series of Unfortunate Events and they would make a great birthday or Christmas present.

 

Terry Potter

August 2022