The Bad Beginning
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| Author | Lemony Snicket (pen name of Daniel Handler) |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Brett Helquist |
| Cover artist | Brett Helquist |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | A Series of Unfortunate Events |
| Genre |
Gothic fiction Absurdist fiction Steampunk Mystery |
| Publisher | Scholastic Inc. |
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Publication date
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September 30, 1999 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 162 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 41070636 |
| Fic 21 | |
| LC Class | PZ7.S6795 Bad 1999 |
| Followed by | The Reptile Room |
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, several special editions of the book have been made and the book has been translated into many different languages. The novel has received positive reviews.
Violet Baudelaire is aged fourteen and has a love for inventions; Klaus Baudelaire is twelve and an avid reader; Sunny Baudelaire is a baby who uses words only her siblings and parents understand, and has several surprisingly large and sharp teeth, which will come in handy. The children are told that their parents died in a fire which also destroyed their house. Mr. Poe, who gives them this news, is a banker whose job it becomes to find a guardian for the orphans. He is also in charge of the large Baudelaire fortune, which Violet will inherit when she turns eighteen. He places them into the care of Count Olaf. Olaf's house is a ramshackle with filthy living conditions covered in disconcerting eye images; it has a tower which the Baudelaires are forbidden from entering. Count Olaf is unpleasant, easily angered and forces the children to perform laborious chores.
One day, the Baudelaires are set the task of making dinner for Olaf and his theatre troupe. They make puttanesca, but when Olaf arrives he demands roast beef. The children reminded him that he never asked them to make roast beef and Olaf becomes angry, lifting Sunny into the air and striking Klaus across the face after the children tell everyone he has only given them one bed.
Olaf gives the children roles in his new play, in which Violet will marry Olaf. The children realize something is amiss and use Justice Strauss's library to research law. Klaus learns that the marriage in the play will be legally binding and that Olaf can inherit their fortune from it. He confronts Olaf, who gets one of his associates to put Sunny in a bird cage, dangling from outside the window of his tower. He threatens to kill her if Klaus and Violet do not follow his plan. Violet constructs a makeshift grappling hook and uses it to climb up the tower. She finds the hook-handed man (a member of Olaf's theatre troupe) waiting to capture her. Klaus is brought up to the tower and they are locked together in the room until the play begins.
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