A Series of Unfortunate Events
My first meeting with Lemony Snicket.
What a start to the new year!
Introduced by a colleague-turned-friend, Lemony Snicket’s The Bad Beginning is my first read of 2025. The initial book of the 13-part series titled A Series of Unfortunate Events, revolves around the miserable lives of the Baudelaire siblings (Violet, Klaus and Sunny) after the tragic death of their parents. Count Olaf, the distant relative chosen by their parents, assumes custody of the little ones and thus starts the actual story of evilness.
Count Olaf is the archetypal villain of children’s fiction and his appearance, words and gestures truly reflect his impure intentions. While the children struggle to cope with their changed lives, they try to find solace in little things — Violet tries to create something with the everyday things using her scientific bent of mind, Klaus explores the spectacular library of a gentle neighbour of Count Olaf and Sunny makes sure to never run of things to chew on.
Spanning just over 150 pages, the story narrates how Count Olaf plots to curb the Baudelaire inheritance by duping the three children. However, it successfully creates memorable characters who try their best to fight against their perpetrator and alter their destinies.
What works for me is the atmosphere of the story. The setting reminds me of Wuthering Heights and how authors achieve excellence by using a location as an important character in their fictional worlds.
The short blurb by the author on the back cover comes as a warning about the “unpleasantness” of this book which then echoes throughout the story. With gothic elements, dark humour and the right amount of sarcasm, the story assumes a greater height, which is enough to captivate an adult’s heart.
Oscillating among gothic fiction, mystery, detective and absurdism, the story is hard to categorise and perhaps, that is why it becomes so memorable and acceptable to readers with different literary tastes. The best part is where Snicket explains the meaning of unfamiliar words in the course of the narration by adding:
“a word which here means . . . .”
As a lover of picture books for kids, I have read quite a few stories on the classic conflict of good vs evil and not to forget, the “happily lived ever after” stories.
But this was something different, something fresh — for it shows that children’s fiction might not always end in happiness and contentment. The real world is harsh and it is wise to make our children aware of this harshness as they reach a certain age when they need to choose humanity over mindless discriminations and kindness over being logically right.
Favourite lines:
- “. . . to be in one’s own room, in one’s own bed, can often make a bleak situation a little better.”
- “Sometimes, just saying that you hate something, and having someone agree with you, can make you feel better about a terrible situation.”
