The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #1) in Pick-a-Shelf

Jan 06, 2009 Carrie rated it really liked it

Shelves: childrens, humor, young-adult, re-read, middle-grade

When I first read this it was before the time of good reads. So like most of all the book I read before GR I just rated it 3 stars. Unless I remembered my enjoyment/lack of enjoyment. So with that being said I'm raising it to 4. ...more

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Aug 21, 2012 Harold Ogle rated it liked it

Shelves: humor, conceit, children, orphan

Years ago I read the first few books in this series, borrowing them from Susannah. To this day, I still smile any time I see "puttanesca" on a menu. But I'm re-reading the series now because my son, who is 9, is reading through them. It's a bit more enjoyable than the Droon series I'm reading for the same reason, but at the same time it's interesting how my appreciation of the charm of this book has diminished as I've read more children's fiction this past year.

First off, the primary appeal of t Years ago I read the first few books in this series, borrowing them from Susannah. To this day, I still smile any time I see "puttanesca" on a menu. But I'm re-reading the series now because my son, who is 9, is reading through them. It's a bit more enjoyable than the Droon series I'm reading for the same reason, but at the same time it's interesting how my appreciation of the charm of this book has diminished as I've read more children's fiction this past year.

First off, the primary appeal of this book (and, indeed, the whole series) is the conceit. In this case, the conceit is that the narrator is actually the mysterious author - Lemony Snicket - who is unearthing the accounts of the Baudelaire orphans and sending them surreptitiously (and sometimes illicitly) to an entrusted confidant, who will publish them so that the Public can benefit from the tragic tale. This makes for a very engaging narrator, who is actually more of a character than any of the actual protagonists. The protagonists are largely run-of-the-mill children's fiction characters: orphans with a penchant for inventing (Violet, 14) and a passion for reading to learn new things (Klaus, 12). A great deal of humor comes in from Sunny, who at one year of age is an atypical children's fiction character. The narrator goes to a lot of trouble to interpret each of Sunny's garbled exclamations ("By which she meant..."), and then promptly admits that no, it was probably just nonsense.

The story, both in this book and the whole series, is very dark and threatening, like a cross between the macabre of "The Addams Family" and Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales. Death is always present, and only sometimes escaped. The villains - Count Olaf and his gang of freaks - are truly evil, despicable characters, and any victory over them is only a temporary respite.

The overall message of the book is that adults are selfish, and in their selfishness either villains or incompetent. Kids - particularly the Baudelaire children - are completely on their own and can't count on help from anyone else.

In the beginning of the book, their parents die in a terrible fire. Their will is carried out by their trustee, the bumbling, inattentive and possibly consumptive Mr. Poe, who is a senior officer of a major bank. Mr. and Mrs. Baudelaire were fabulously wealthy, and the kids stand to inherit that wealth once they reach the age of maturity (presumably eighteen). In the meantime, they must live with a relative. Unfortunately, the idiotic parents did not stipulate which relatives, or even make sure that they had relatives to care for the kids. So Mr. Poe shunts them off to a distant cousin, Count Olaf (we never learn if this is his given or family name), an odious mastermind with his shiny, shiny eyes set on acquiring the Baudelaire fortune by hook or by crook (see? I made a pun!).

His first stratagem - the one in this book - is that he will engineer a marriage between Violet and himself. Once the marriage is consummated (I know, gross!), he will have access to distribute the money as he sees fit, and plans to kill all three children as his first present to himself (unless, as one of the horrible henchmen intimates, he grows to like Violet...in which case she will remain his wife and he'd only kill her siblings).

It's dark, it's funny, it's creepy. Kids love it. ...more

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Feb 17, 2010 Arlene rated it liked it

Shelves: series, pick-a-shelf-challenge, young-adult, 2010-50-book-challenge

I am not sure if I like the book or not. I really like the children and really hate the bad guy so I guess it is OK. I think that this is really just one of the stories in a really long book that was published as short books to appeal to younger readers.

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