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A Series of Unfortunate Events is a children's book series by Lemony Snicket, a.k.a. Daniel Handler.
The books released in this series to date are:
- The Bad Beginning
- The Reptile Room
- The Wide Window
- The Miserable Mill
- The Austere Academy
- The Ersatz Elevator
- The Vile Village
- The Hostile Hospital
- The Carnivorous Carnival
- The Slippery Slope
- The Grim Grotto
General plot overview
The series features the Baudelaire siblings Violet, Klaus, and Sunny. Their parents are killed in a terrible fire and they are sent to live with a distant relative, Count Olaf, who it transpires is an extremely neglectful and one could even say hostile relative, intent only on separating the orphans from the large fortune left to them by their parents. The siblings live with Olaf throughout The Bad Beginning; thereafter the series becomes somewhat formulaic, with the siblings sent by the rather unhelpful bank employee Mr. Poe, who is in charge of their care, to live with a succession of ever more distant relatives, where they are inevitably tracked down and once more troubled by the wearisome Count Olaf. After The Vile Village, the Baudelaires are forced to flee authorities who accuse them of murder, taking them to equally miserable locations at the Heimlich Hospital, the Caligari Carnival, and the Mortmain Mountains.
The series' mastery of the narrative voice, lugubrious humour, occasional vocabulary lessons and Gothic mood have earned it considerable sales and critical plaudits. Like Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, one major reason behind its popularity is how it violates a fundamental rule of children's books: as Alice in Wonderland was unique for being a story without a moral to teach its readers, so A Series of Unfortunate Events is unique for lacking the cheery, fuzzy tone of most children's stories. It is expected to consist of 13 volumes when finished, each with 13 chapters.
Each volume begins with a dedication to the memory of Lemony Snicket's beloved Beatrice (e.g. "When we first met I felt breathless. Now you are."). The books' back-cover blurbs, also written by Handler, warn the reader of the dreadful things described within each volume and respectfully suggest reading something else instead.
A movie to come out late 2004, stars Jim Carrey as Count Olaf, Meryl Streep as Aunt Josephine, Emily Browning as Violet, Liam Aiken as Klaus, and Jude Law as Lemony Snicket.
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