Series+of+Unfortunate+Events+-+The+Bad+Beginning

**Summery/Review**
====The book, The Bad Beginning, begins with the three Baudelaire named Violet, Klaus and Sunny spending the day down at the beach. While having fun at the beach a friend of the family, Arthur Poe arrives to inform them that their mother and father have both died in a fire which has destroyed their mansion and all of their possessions leaving him as executor of the Baudelaire estate. The children were now homeless and had no guardians to take care of them. The children were now forced to go live with their closest relative named Count Olaf. The Count has only adopted the children under the belief that he would receive their inheritance when Violet turns eighteen. He treated them poorly and made them do all the chores and cook all his meals. Count Olaf creates a devious plan to gain the Baudelaire Children's inheritance by creating a play that would trick Violet into marrying him. Klaus realizes that the play is a scam to take their money and tries to warn Violet. Unfortunately Klaus is stopped by one of Count Olaf's hired hands and is forced into play, but was not allowed to speak. When Violet realized that Count Olaf is tricking them it is already to late. On the night of the play,//The Marvelous Marriage,// Count Olaf plays a man marrying a girl played by Violet. Violet tried to annul the scammed wedding by signing her name with her opposite hand. As soon as the contract has been signed, Olaf announces that the performance is over, and that Violet is now legally his wife. Mr. Poe, Justice Strauss, and many audience members object, but finally Strauss concludes that the ceremony has been legal. To Olaf's dismay, however, Violet informs Strauss that she has signed the document with the wrong hand, and the judge agrees that this is not in compliance with the law, rendering the ceremony annulled. In a rage of anger Count Olaf makes an escape by turning all the lights off, but before he and his troupe escapes, Olaf finds Violet in the dark and promises her that he will get their fortune if it's the last thing he does. Over all this book is a book filled with on-going mystery and will want to make the reader want to keep reading in order to find out if the Baudelaire children will ever find a guardian not trying to steal their inheritance.====

[[image:daniel_handler__300x3360.jpg width="153" height="171"]]
Lemony Snicket, also known as Daniel Handler, was born in 1970 and raised in San Francisco, where he lives now. He attended Lowell High School and then graduated from Wesleyan University in 1992.As a young child, Daniel was acutely aware of the fact that terrible things sometimes happen to children. His father fled Germany in childhood, and Daniel grew up knowing about the frightening events of the Holocaust at a very tender age. Handler has published novels using his real name for older teens and adults, including //__The Basic Eight__//, //__Watch Your Mouth__//, and Adverbs, which will be appearing sometime in 2005. The name //Lemony Snicket// originally came from research for Handler's first book, //__The Basic Eight__,//Handler wanted to receive material from organizations he found "offensive or funny", but did not want to use his real name, and invented "Lemony Snicket" as a pseudonym. Daniel Handler, still under the name of Lemony Snicket, is to write a new series of four that are presently untitled, to be released in 2012.

**Other Children's Literature**

 * //The Basic Eight// (1998)
 * //A Series of Unfortunate Events// (as Lemony Snicket) (13 books from 1999 to 2006)
 * //Watch Your Mouth// (2000)
 * //Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography// (as Lemony Snicket) (2002)
 * //How to Dress for Every Occasion, by the Pope// (2005)
 * //Adverbs// (2006)
 * //The Beatrice Letters// (as Lemony Snicket) (2006)
 * //Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid// (as Lemony Snicket) (2007)
 * //The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming// (as Lemony Snicket) (2007)
 * //The Lump of Coal// (as Lemony Snicket) (2008)
 * //The Composer is Dead// (as Lemony Snicket) (2009)
 * //13 Words// (as Lemony Snicket) (2010)
 * //Why We Broke Up// (2011)

**Awards**

 * The Academy of American Poets Prize (1992)
 * Wesleyan University's Olin Fellowship (1992-1993)
 * Quill Award for The Penultimate Peril (2006)
 * Colorado Children's Book Award
 * Nevada Young Readers Award

**Historical Context**
This book was written for young mystery-loving readers. Nickelodeon Movies purchased the film rights of the //A Series of Unfortunate Events//book series in May 2000. The film was released in the United States and Canada on December 17, 2004.Home Video released the film on DVD on April 26, 2005 in both single-disc and two-disc special edition format.

**Major Themes**

 * Dark
 * Mystery
 * Family
 * Trust

**Citations**
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 * Page created By Ryan Kimes**