The Bad Beginning
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| The Bad Beginning | |
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| Author | Lemony Snicket (pen name of Daniel Handler) |
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| Illustrator | Brett Helquist |
| Cover artist | Brett Helquist |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | A Series of Unfortunate Events |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
| Publication date | September 30, 1999 |
| Published in English |
September 30 1999 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 163 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0064407667 |
| Followed by | The Reptile Room |
The Bad Beginning is a novel by Daniel Handler, written under his pen name Lemony Snicket, and the first of thirteen books in the A Series of Unfortunate Events collection. It features the three recently orphaned Baudelaire children, 14-year-old Violet, 12-year-old Klaus and baby Sunny, who are given into the care of a distant cousin, Count Olaf, who only wants the fortune Mr. and Mrs. Baudelaire left behind.
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[edit] Plot summary
Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire are enjoying a day at Briny Beach. Mr. Poe, a banker and friend of the family, arrives to inform them that their parents had perished in a fire which also destroyed their home. Mr. Poe is the executor of the Baudelaire fortune; it is his responsibility to place the children with a guardian and take care of their money until Violet turns eighteen (the legal age to handle money).
The Baudelaire children are taken to their new guardian Count Olaf, a distant relative who makes his living as an actor. On their way, they encounter Justice Strauss, a kind and friendly judge who is their next-door neighbor. She tells them that they are welcome in her home anytime, which has a library in it. Count Olaf is a very cruel, filthy man with one long eyebrow and a strange tattoo of an eye on his left ankle, living in a dirty musty house. Most importantly, he is seeking the Baudelaires' fortune (the reason for their adoption). He constantly orders them to do chores and tasks, while only providing them with one bed to sleep in. Count Olaf also refers them as "orphans" instead of "children".
Olaf's theatre troupe is coming to his house that night to rehearse, and Olaf orders them to make dinner for everyone. There is no food in the house, so the children go to the marketplace with Justice Strauss to buy the ingredients for Pasta Puttanesca. Count Olaf complains that he wanted roast beef (which he had not told them); he becomes furious and strikes Klaus across the face. The children visit Mr. Poe at his bank in order to get help. Mr. Poe explains to them that Olaf may raise them however he sees fit, and calls Olaf to inform him of the Baudelaires' visit. Around their return home, Olaf apologizes to the children and informs them that they will be participating in an upcoming play, called The Marvelous Marriage written by Al Funcoot. Olaf will play the groom, Violet will be the bride, and Klaus and Sunny will be cheering people in the audience.
The children spend the day at Justice Strauss's home. While Violet and Sunny are helping in the garden, Klaus is reading law books in the library, and smuggles a book on nuptial law out of the library with him when they return home. Klaus spends the entire night reading about how they can foil Count Olaf's scheme to get their fortune and discovers that two people can be married if they sign a document and state their wedding vows in the presence of a legal judge. Olaf plans to marry Violet during the play, in order to gain control of the fortune. When Klaus brings it up to Count Olaf, he only smiles and laughs. Klaus runs to wake up his sisters only to find that Sunny is not there. Violet and Klaus follow Olaf outside and discover that Sunny is being held inside a birdcage at the top of the tower.
Count Olaf tells them that one of his henchmen had kidnapped Sunny while they were sleeping. He warns them that if they don't cooperate during the play, the cage will be released which would send Sunny to her death. That night, Violet invents a grappling hook to reach the top of the tower, only to be held captive with Klaus until the play begins.
The play is performed, then Olaf stops it after the wedding scene to declare that he and Violet are now married. Justice Strauss points out that Violet cannot marry as she is underage but Olaf counters with the fact that she can be married with the permission of her parent or guardian. As her guardian, he has given his permission. Sunny is returned to them, and Violet announces that she is right-handed but signed the document with her left hand. Judge Strauss declares that this makes the marriage invalid. Olaf escapes when one of his henchmen turns off the theater's lights. Just as Violet is about to turn the lights back on, Olaf whispers that he will always pursue them, and once he gains control of their fortune, he will kill them with his own hands. Justice Strauss is willing to adopt the Baudelaires, but Mr. Poe tells her that their parents' will says a relative must care for them. They enter Mr. Poe's car and it drives away as Justice Strauss waves goodbye.
[edit] Foreshadows
- In the last picture, there is a snake curled around a lamppost foreshadowing The Reptile Room.
- Al Funcoot, the writer of the play "The Marvelous Marriage," is an anagram for the name Count Olaf. In The Hostile Hospital, Klaus explains to Sunny that Olaf did this so that the children would not know that Olaf himself wrote the play.
- Lemony Snicket mentions an island that forbids anybody from eating its fruit. This might be a reference to Olaf-Land in The End.
- In a letter to Lemony Snicket's editor found at the back of the book, Snicket claims that an associate will place a small box in a phone booth, which the editor should find. In it is a description of the events during the time Dr. Montgomery was in care of the Baudelaire orphans, entitled The Reptile Room, which is also the name of the next book. The letters to Snicket's editor are also found at the ends of all the other books in the series, except for The End, which places the letter between the main book and the 'mini-book', Chapter Fourteen.
[edit] Cultural references and literary allusions
- The last name Baudelaire is a reference to Charles Baudelaire, a French poet. An excerpt from his poem "Le Voyage", from Les Fleurs du Mal, appears in The End.
- Mr. Poe's surname, Poe, and the names of his children, Edgar and Albert, are obvious allusions to Edgar Allan Poe.
- Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire share their names with Claus and Sunny von Bülow, who were involved in a famous court case of the 1980s; the district attorney who defended Claus was named Violet.
- Violet Baudelaire is also possibly a reference to a famous crime; she shares her given name with Violet Sharpe, a suspect of the Lindbergh kidnapping.
- Beatrice is likely a reference to Beatrice Portinari, the unrequited love of Dante Alighieri.
[edit] Special editions
There are multiple special editions of The Bad Beginning.
[edit] The Rare Edition
Another edition of The Bad Beginning was published by HarperCollins in September 2003; it is known as The Bad Beginning: Rare Edition (ISBN 0-06-051828-6). This boxed edition comes with a new cover, a portrait of the characters and an extra chapter filled with author's notes, many of which occasionally foreshadow later events in the series. However, each of the notes, particularly the ones relating to The End, proved accurate or were addressed by later books in the series.
[edit] Special Edition & Limited Edition
Two more editions of The Bad Beginning were published by Egmont Publishing on Oct 1, 2003; known as The Bad Beginning - Special Edition (ISBN 1-4052-0725-6), and The Bad Beginning - Limited Edition (ISBN 1-4052-0726-4), they come in a larger format and contain three plates of color artwork that are redrawn from the original edition of the book and two plates of new color artwork. The Limited Edition is bound in leather and contained within a box, similar to the Rare Edition, and each copy was signed by Daniel Handler. Contrary to the description on the UnfortunateEvents.com website [1], they do not contain any endnotes (as the Rare Edition does).
[edit] Orphans!
The Bad Beginning or, Orphans! is a paperback rerelease of The Bad Beginning, designed to mimic Victorian penny dreadfuls. [2][3] It was released on May 8, 2007[4]. The book features a new full-colour cover, seven new illustrations, and the first part of a serial supplement entitled The Cornucopian Cavalcade, which in this edition includes the first of 13-part comic entitled The Spoily Brats along with a page of Victorian-era false advertisements, both produced by Michael Kupperman, an advice column written by Lemony Snicket along with a page listing every entry in A Series of Unfortunate Events (some of which are fictional), the first part of a story entitled Q: A Psychic Pstory of the Psupernatural by Stephen Leacock [5][6], and a guide by Morley Adams on paper folding.
[edit] Cover images
 US hardcover |
 UK hardcover |
 US paperback |
[edit] Translations
- Russian: "Скверное начало", Azbuka, 2005, ISBN 5-352-00360-4
- Spanish: "Un mal principio", Montena, 2004, ISBN 0-307-20934-2
[edit] Quotation
[edit] References
- ^ Unfortunate Events, Competitions
- ^ http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1160689837900&call_pa
- ^ A Series of Unfortunate Events #1: The Bad Beginning, By Lemony Snicket , Illustrated by Brett Helquist: HarperCollins Children's Books
- ^ A Series of Unfortunate Events #1: The Bad Beginning, By Lemony Snicket , Illustrated by Brett Helquist: HarperCollins Children's Books
- ^ Now for the Unfortunate Paperbacks... - 4/9/2007 - Publishers Weekly
- ^ A Series of Unfortunate Events ::: NOW IN PAPERBACK!
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