A Series of Unfortunate Events is a
children's book series of thirteen novels (or
"tridecalogy") written by
Daniel
Handler under the pseudonym
Lemony
Snicket, and illustrated by
Brett
Helquist. It is about the adventures of three children, Violet
Baudelaire, an inventor, Klaus Baudelaire, a researcher, and Sunny
Baudelaire, a chef (consequently), after the death of their parents
in a fire. The setting of the series is
anachronistic, presumably set in the
1960s sometime after the invention of
skyscrapers, and throughout the series there are
many literary and cultural allusions.
A
film adaptation of the first three
books in the series was released on
December 17, 2004, as
Lemony Snicket's
A Series of Unfortunate Events, which also had a
video
game adaptation of the same name based on it.
Audio books have been released which included
songs by
The Gothic Archies, and
a compilation album of the songs has also been released.
Origins
The author of the series, Daniel Handler, has said in an interview
with online entertainment-magazine
The
A.V. Club that he decided to write
a children's story when he was trying to find a publisher for his
first novel,
The Basic
Eight. One of the publishers,
HarperCollins passed on
The Basic
Eight, but they were interested in him writing a story for
children. Handler thought it was a terrible idea at first, but met
with the publishers to discuss the book. They challenged him to
write the book he wished he could have read when he was ten. He
retooled a manuscript he had for a mock-Gothic book for adults,
which became a
"Gothic novel about children growing up through
terrible things", a concept which the publishers liked, to
Handler's surprise. The first book in the series was
The Bad Beginning, released on
September 30, 1999.
Plot summary
The series follows the adventures of three very clever siblings;
the Baudelaire orphans.
Violet
Baudelaire is fourteen when the books begin, she is the oldest
and an incredible inventor.
Klaus
Baudelaire, the middle child, is twelve when the books begin.
Klaus loves books and is an extraordinary reader.
Sunny Baudelaire, is a baby in the
beginning of the series. She has four very sharp teeth and loves to
bite things and speaks in random phrases- her English improves as
the series goes on. (In
The
End, she finally learns to speak properly. She also
develops a love for
cookery.)
The children become orphans after
their parents were killed in a fire
at the family mansion. In
The Bad Beginning, they are sent
to live with a distant relative named
Count
Olaf after briefly living with Mr. Poe, a banker in charge of
the orphan's affairs. Count Olaf orders the siblings to cook and
clean in his gloomy, dirty house. The siblings discover that he
intends to get his hands on the enormous Baudelaire fortune, which
awaits Violet when she turns eighteen. In the first book, he
attempts to marry Violet, pretending it is the plot for his latest
play, but the plan falls through when Klaus reads up on
marriage law.
In the first seven books, Olaf disguises himself and finds the
children wherever they are, and with help from his many
accomplices, and tries to steal their fortune. Their roles switch
in the eighth through twelfth books, in which the orphans adopt
disguises while on the run from the police after being framed by
Count Olaf. The Baudelaires routinely try to get help from Mr. Poe,
but Poe is always oblivious.
As the books continue, the three children uncover more and more
mystery surrounding their parents' deaths and soon find that their
parents were in a
secret
organization, V.F.D., along with several of their
guardians.
The siblings are followed by misfortune wherever they go, but
occasionally something good happens. In the fifth book, Violet,
Klaus and Sunny make friends with the Quagmires, also orphans who
lost their parents in a fire. In
The Slippery Slope Violet
shares a tender moment with
Quigley
Quagmire (it is never detailed exactly what happened), who was
believed to have died in the same fire that killed his parents. In
The Grim Grotto Klaus falls in love with Fiona, who later
breaks his heart by leaving them to live with her brother, one of
Count Olaf's accomplices. In the end the Baudelaires must rely on
their strengths and each other in order to uncover the mystery and
finally find a place they can call home.
Each of the three siblings has a distinctive skill that often helps
them in dire situations. Violet always invents things to help them,
Klaus always finds out information from books, and Sunny has
extremely sharp teeth that can bite almost anything into pieces. In
later books, Sunny learns how to cook, as she begins to grow normal
size teeth and cooking becomes her primary skill.
Sunny originally spoke in single word utterances which were often a
variety of incomplete sentences or short word sentences. Their
meaning was either disguised by being spelled phonetically (e.g.,
'surchmi' in
The Slippery Slope), backwards (e.g.,
'edasurc' [crusade] in
The Carnivorous Carnival) through
cultural references (Sunny says: 'Matahari', followed by a
definition of 'If I stay, I can spy on them and find out.'),
phrases (Sunny asks: 'Kikbucit?', the
phonetic spelling of "kick the
bucket", i.e. dying, in
The End while asking if Count Olaf
is dead), the author's own views (Sunny says "Bushcheny" to Count
Olaf, meaning "you are a vile man who has no regard for anyone
else") or being written in other languages (e.g., "Shalom" or
"Sayonara"), but eventually she begins to speak in more complete
English sentences.
Setting
The books seem to be set in an alternate, "timeless" version of
Earth with stylistic similarities to both the
19th century and the 1930s, though with contemporary, and seemingly
anachronistic scientific knowledge. One example of this
"technological disconnect" is documented in
The Hostile Hospital, where the
Baudelaire children send a message via
Morse
code on a telegraph, yet in the Last Chance
General Store, there is
fiber-optic cable for sale. An "
advanced
computer" appears in
The
Austere Academy, which, while outdated by current
standards, is nonetheless more advanced than the earliest
computers. The setting of the world has been compared to
Edward Scissorhands in
that it is "
suburban gothic".
Although the film version sets the
Baudelaires' mansion in the city of Boston,
Massachusetts
, real places rarely appear in the books, although
many are mentioned. For example, in The Reptile Room,
Uncle Monty and the Baudelaires plan a trip to Peru
; there are
also references to the fictional nobility of North American
regions, specifically the Duchess of Winnipeg
and the King
of Arizona
. A
book in Jerome and Esmé Squalor's library was titled
Trout, In
France They're Out.
Recurring themes and concepts
The majority of the books in
A Series of Unfortunate
Events pick up where the previous book ended, and the plots of
the first seven books follow the same basic pattern: each book is
thirteen chapters long (only exception for
The End where
there are actually fourteen chapters making for 170 chapters in
total), where the Baudelaires are in a new predicament in a new
location with a new guardian who has a
literary name. The location of each book's
critical events is usually identified in the book's title. Handler
works the siblings' respective skills into the story line. Violet
always has something to invent, Klaus always finds a library to do
research in, and in the early books, Sunny always finds something
to chew on or, in later books, cook, as she begins to grow into her
teeth and develops culinary skills (except in
The Miserable Mill, where Violet and
Klaus swap roles, Klaus being the inventor and Violet the
researcher).
Lemony Snicket often explains words and analogies in incongruous
detail. When describing a word the reader may not be aware of, he
typically says "a word which here means...".Sometimes when an adult
person is saying what a word means Klaus would say that he and his
siblings know what the word means unless Klaus sees there is no
point in saying so. For example:
Mr. Poe:_______, by the way means ________ ______ _______.
Klaus: We know what ________ means.
Despite the general absurdity of the books' storyline, Lemony
Snicket continuously maintains that the story is true and that it
is his "solemn duty" to record it. Snicket often goes off into
humorous or satirical asides, discussing his opinions of various
matters, or his personal life. The details of his supposed personal
life are largely absurd, incomplete and not explained in detail.
For example, Snicket claims to have been chased by an angry mob for
sixteen miles. However, some details of his life are explained
somewhat in his fictional autobiography,
Lemony Snicket:
The Unauthorized Autobiography.
Lemony Snicket's narration and commentary is characteristically
cynical and despondent. In the excerpt for each book, Snicket warns
of the misery the reader may experience in reading about the
Baudelaire orphans and suggests abandoning the books altogether.
However, he also provides ample
comic
relief with wry,
dark humor. In the
excerpt for
The Grim Grotto, he writes: "[...] the horrors
[the Baudelaire children] encounter are too numerous to list, and
you wouldn't even want me to describe the worst of it, which
includes mushrooms, a desperate search for something lost, a
mechanical monster, a distressing message from a lost friend and
tap-dancing". Snicket's narration has been described as
"self-conscious" and "post-modern".
Snicket displays a great aversion to macabre elements, but also
gives off a sense of squeamishness with passages like the above
excerpt. When giving accounts of bravery or resilience on the part
of the Baudelaires, Snicket often calls himself a coward either
explicitly or otherwise. His tone betrays admiration for the
children as well as his own severe insecurity. This contrast
between the Baudelaires' actions and Lemony Snicket's bemused,
reverent reactions underscores one of the themes of the books. By
emphasizing the vitality of the Baudelaire orphans, Daniel Handler
seems to urge the reader to find courage in him or herself and in
his or her friends and if not to challenge despondence then at
least to take it with a grain of salt. In this way he uses the
persona of Lemony Snicket as a
foil for the Baudelaires.
Snicket translates for the youngest Baudelaire orphan, Sunny, who
in the early books can say only words or phrases that make sense to
her siblings. This becomes less common as Sunny begins to speak
real words, one of her first longer sentences in the series being
"I'm not a baby" to her sister Violet in
The Slippery
Slope. The words she uses are often from another language,
such as "Arigato" ("thank you" in
Japanese) when thanking Quigley, or a
cultural reference. .
When describing a character whom the Baudelaires have met before,
Snicket often describes the character first and does not reveal the
name of the character until they have been thoroughly described. He
never does this when the disguised Olaf is introduced to the
children. Lemony Snicket starts each book with a "post-modern
dissection of the reading experience" before linking it back to how
he presents the story of the Baudelaires and what their current
situation is. Snicket often uses
alliteration (repeated starting sounds on
consecutive words) to name locations throughout the story. He uses
this writing technique for the titles of the books (the only
exception being the final book,
The End).
A theme which becomes more prevalent as the series continues is the
simultaneous importance and worthlessness of secrets. In the final
book,
The End, the concept is especially important, as
demonstrated by a several page long discussion of the phrase
In
the dark. Ultimately, however, the mystery of the Baudelaire
orphans is never solved. The vast secret consisting of the V.F.D.,
Count Olaf, the orphans' parents, and so forth remains a mystery.
There are several possible interpretations of this — that secrets
are unimportant, or that some things are best left unsolved, for
example. Clues pointing towards the semi-
de facto ending
were in the introductions to the books by Lemony Snicket, as we are
constantly told to put the books down, and that they will not end
well.
Social commentary is a major
element in the books, which often comment on the seemingly
inescapable follies of
human nature.
Although the books are
melodramatic and
escapist, they also depict "the
sinister menace of an all-too-real adult world". The books
consistently present the Baudelaire children as
free-thinking and independent, while the adults
around them obey authority and succumb to
mob psychology,
peer
pressure, ambition and other social ills. A high account is
given to learning: those who are "well-read" are often sympathetic
characters, while those who shun knowledge are villains.
The books have strong themes of
moral
relativism, as the Baudelaires become more confused during the
course of the series about the difference between
right and wrong, feeling they have done wicked things
themselves and struggling with the question of whether
the end justifies the means. In the final
book, in an allusion to the
Book of
Genesis, a
snake offers the children a life-giving
apple.
Evil characters are shown to have sympathetic characteristics and
often have led difficult lives. Similarly, good characters' flaws
become major problems. Almost every major character in the books
has lived a life as difficult as that of the Baudelaires,
especially the villains. The books highlight the inevitability of
temptation and moral decision-making, regardless of external
situation. This indicates that regardless of one's outside
influences, one always has the final choice in whether they will be
good or bad. Characters that make brave decisions to fight back and
take charge are almost always "good" and characters that just go
along end up as "bad". However, people are also described as being
neither good nor bad, but a mix of both.
At the end of each book, there is a
letter to the editor, which explains to
the editor how to get a manuscript of the next book. Snicket is
writing from the location of the next book and reveals its title.
Snicket notes that the editors will find various objects along with
the manuscript, all of them having some impact in the story. For
the first three books, the letters are on ordinary pieces of paper.
However, starting with the fourth book (which previews the fifth
book) each letter has a specific quality to do with the next book,
such as torn edges, fancy stationary, sopping wet paper, or
telegram form. The letters change dramatically starting with the
letter previewing
The Carnivorous Carnival. For this
preview letter, the letter is ripped to shreds. Only a few scraps
remain, one of them showing the title. The remaining letters are
difficult to read, and some do not even show the title at all. At
the end of
The Carnivorous Carnival, there are only a few
letters visible, one showing the title, which Lemony Snicket makes
an excuse that his typewriter is occasionally freezing due to the
cold air in the Mortmain Mountains.
The Grim Grotto's
preview letter has sopping ink. At the end of
The Grim
Grotto, there are several letters and each of them is torn in
half. The letter (which is written on a napkin) previewing the last
book in the series simply reads: "To My Kind Editor: The End is
near. With all due respect, Lemony Snicket." Without explicitly
revealing it, Snicket shows the name of the final book:
The
End.
Allusions
To see more examples of allusions to literature and the real
world in A Series of Unfortunate Events
, see the
individual article for any book in the series.
While the books are marketed primarily to children, they are
written with adult readers also in mind; the series features
references more likely to make sense to adults.Many of the
characters' names allude to other fictional works or real people
with macabre connections. More obscure literary references abound,
perhaps in keeping with the common theme of being
"well-read".
For example, the Baudelaire orphans are named after
Charles Baudelaire, and Sunny and Klaus
take their first names from
Claus and
Sunny von Bülow, while Mr. Poe may be a
reference to
Edgar Allan Poe. (One
should also take note that Mr. Poe has two sons, Edgar and Albert,
the first making a reference to Poe's
first
name) Strangely, Charles Baudelaire met Edgar Allan Poe, Allan
had died from a disease of coughing blood, and Mr. Poe often
suffers from a terrible cough throughout the series.Also, most or
all of the inhabitants of the island in which the Baudelaires find
themselves on in
The End are characters from
The Tempest, a play by
William Shakespeare. This links together
using
word play when
Kit Snicket tells the orphans about her story.
Historical references are made in the fifth book where Nero, a
violin playing
head master, is named
after the
Roman emperor Nero who, as legend says, played the fiddle as Rome
burned.The books are all dedicated to a woman named Beatrice, who
is supposed to be Lemony Snicket's ex- fiancé .
Genre
This series is most commonly classified as
children's fiction, but it has also been
classified in more specific genres such as
gothic literature, or some variety
thereof, whether it is mock-gothic, a
satire
of gothic literature, neo-Victorian or "suburban gothic".
Other genres that the series have been described as are
absurdist fiction, because of its strange
characters, quirky writing style and improbable storylines and
black comedy, because of the mix of
humorous and
macabre elements. They have
also been classified as '
steampunk', in
that they involve anachronistic settings and technology, but can
also be classified as adventure.
Distribution
Books
The series includes thirteen novels as follows:
- The Bad Beginning
(1999)
- The Reptile Room
(1999)
- The Wide Window
(1999)
- The Miserable Mill
(2000)
- The Austere Academy
(2000)
- The Ersatz Elevator
(2001)
- The Vile Village
(2001)
- The Hostile
Hospital (2002)
- The Carnivorous
Carnival (2002)
- The Slippery Slope
(2003)
- The Grim Grotto
(2004)
- The Penultimate
Peril (2005)
- The
End (2006)
There are books that accompany the series, such as
The Beatrice Letters,
Lemony Snicket:
The Unauthorized Autobiography, and
The Puzzling Puzzles; journals
The Blank Book and
The Notorious
Notations; and short materials such as
The Dismal Dinner and
13 Shocking Secrets You'll Wish You Never Knew About Lemony
Snicket. The books were at one point published at the rate
of three or four books per year. The
endpapers were "designed in a suitably Victorian
style", with cloth binding on the spines matching the colours of
the cover.
A paperback release of the full series, featuring restyled covers,
new illustrations and a serial supplement entitled
The
Cornucopian Cavalcade is in progress, with
The Bad Beginning or,
Orphans!,
The
Reptile Room or, Murder!, and
The Wide Window or,
Disappearance! currently published.
Humorous quotes from the series were used in a book published under
the Snicket name,
Horseradish: Bitter
Truths You Can't Avoid.
In an interview with the
667 Dark
Avenue fansite, Daniel Handler alluded to more Lemony Snicket
books focused on the world of
A Series of Unfortunate
Events.
Every book's dedication is to a woman named
Beatrice, who is supposedly the dead
beloved of Lemony Snicket, who married another and died before the
events of the books.
Every book in the main series has a clue in a form of a picture
about the next book at the end of the book that can be seen before
the letters to the editor. At the end of "Chapter Fourteen",
however, a shape of a question mark is seen in the picture
(possibly
the Great
Unknown from books 11 and 13).
Audio
Audio books
Most of the series of unabridged audio books are read by actor
Tim Curry, though Handler as Lemony
Snicket reads books 3 to 5. Of narrating the audio books, Handler
has said: "It was very, very hard. It was unbelievably arduous. It
was the worst kind of arduous." As such, future narrating duties
were handed back to Curry, of whom Handler states: "he does a
splendid job". The “Dear Reader” blurb is usually read by Handler
(as Snicket) at the beginning, although it is missing in
The
Hostile Hospital. Handler usually reads the 'To my Kind
Editor' blurb about the next book at the end. Starting at 'The
Carnivourous Carnival' there is another actor who replaces Handler
in reading the two blurbs, although they are skipped entirely in
The Grim Grotto. All of the recordings include a loosely
related song by
The Gothic
Archies, a novelty band, featuring lyrics by Handler's
Magnetic Fields bandmate Stephin
Merritt.
Album
In October 2006,
The
Tragic Treasury: Songs from A Series of Unfortunate Events
by The Gothic Archies was released. The album is a collection of
thirteen songs written and performed by
Stephin Merritt (of
The Magnetic Fields), each one
originally appearing on one of the corresponding thirteen
audiobooks of the series. Two bonus songs are included.
Film
The film is an adaptation of the first three titles in the series,
although it is more a mix of the various events and characters into
one coherent story, suitable for a single film.
Lemony Snicket's
A Series of Unfortunate Events, based on the first three
books, was released on December 17, 2004. Directed by
Brad Silberling, it stars
Jim Carrey as Count Olaf,
Meryl Streep as Aunt Josephine,
Billy Connolly as Uncle Monty,
Emily Browning as Violet,
Liam Aiken as Klaus,
Timothy Spall as Mr. Poe, and
Jude Law as the voice of Lemony Snicket. The film
was successful, but many viewers who had read the books were
disappointed, as the movie only loosely related to the book. The
movie was also criticized because the movie was comical, when the
books were solemn and serious with occasional wry humor.
Considering the success of the movie, the director and some of the
lead actors hinted that they are keen on making a sequel, but no
one has written a script as of yet.
Browning has said that further films would have to be produced
quickly, as the children do not age much throughout the book
series. Violet and Klaus both have a birthday in the series (Klaus
turn 13 in
The Vile Village and Violet turns 15 in
The
Grim Grotto), Sunny becomes a toddler, and in
Chapter
Fourteen, the children have been castaways for exactly a year.
All in all, the children can appear, at most, two years older than
they were in
The Bad Beginning.
Daniel Handler has stated in a
Bookslut Interview that another Film is in the works,
but has been delayed by corporate shake-ups at
Paramount. In June 2009, Silberling
confirmed he still talked about the project with Handler, and
suggested the sequel be a
stop motion
film because the lead actors have grown too old. "In an odd way,
the best thing you could do is actually have Lemony Snicket say to
the audience, 'Okay, we pawned the first film off as a mere
dramatization with actors. Now I'm afraid I’m going to have to show
you the real thing.'"
The film
takes place in and around Boston, Massachusetts: The envelope at
the end of the film is addressed to Boston, Mass. Perhaps
incidentally, Viacom, Paramount's parent,
owned two TV stations in Boston
at the time of the film's release: CBS affiliate
WBZ-TV
, and UPN affiliate WSBK-TV
(they are
now owned by CBS
Corporation).
The film's plot, because based upon only the first three novels in
the series, hugely varied from the books, with a fast resolution,
which also varies from the books.
Video game
A
video game based on the
books and film (more so the film, as the name and many plot
elements seen in the movie but not the book are seen) was released
in 2004 by Adrenium Games and
Activision
for the
PlayStation 2,
GameCube,
Xbox,
Game Boy Advance, and the
PC as
Lemony
Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. The player plays
as all three orphans at points in the game, and encounters
characters such as
Mr. Poe,
Uncle Monty and
Aunt Josephine, along with villains such
as
Count Olaf, the
hook-handed man, the
white-faced women, and the
bald-headed
man. The game, like the movie, follows only the first three
books in the series. Although never mentioned in the game there are
some references to
V.F.D. such as while in
the first level a package is delivered from the "Very Fast Delivery
Service." The note attached to the package also reads at the end
"P.S. The world is quiet here," which is the motto of V.F.D.
Board game
A
board game based on the books was
distributed by Mattel in 2004, prior to the movie. "The Perilous
Parlor Game" is for 2-4 players, ages 8 and up. One player assumes
the role of Count Olaf, and the other players play the Baudelaire
children. Count Olaf's objective in the game is to eliminate the
guardian, while the children try to keep the guardian alive. The
game employs Clever Cards, Tragedy Cards,
Secret Passage Tiles, and Disguise Tiles in
play.
Card game
"The Catastrophic Card Game" is the second game based on the books.
In this
card game, players are looking to
complete sets of characters. There are 4 different sets: The
Baudelaire Orphans, Count Olaf in Disguise, Olaf's Henchmen and the
Orphans Confidants. Players take turns drawing a card from either
the draw pile or the
top card from the
discard pile in hopes of completing their sets. For 2 - 4 Players,
Ages 14 and under
Reception
Reviews
Reviews for
A Series of Unfortunate Events have generally
been positive, with reviewers saying that the series is enjoyable
for children and adults alike, and that it brings fresh and adult
themes to children's stories. The
Times
Online refer to the books as "a literary phenomenon", and
discuss how the plight of the Baudelaire orphans helps children
cope with loss—citing the rise in sales post
September 11, 2001 as evidence.
Although the series has often been compared to
Harry Potter due to the young heroes and
the sales of the two series, reviewer
Bruce
Butt feels that the series' tone is closer to
Roald Dahl and
Philip
Ardagh. Handler acknowledges
Edward
Gorey and Roald Dahl as influences. Mackey attributes the
series' success to the "topsy-turvy moral universe".
Criticism
The series has come under criticism from some
school districts for its dark themes. Citing
objections to the suggested
incest (referring
to Olaf's attempt to marry his distant niece Violet in
The Bad Beginning, although his
motivation was not sexual in nature, but rather an attempt to gain
her inheritance) and use of the word "damn" in
The Reptile
Room. Handler later commented that the word's use was
"precipitated by a long discussion of how one should never say this
word, since only a villain would do so vile a thing! This is
exactly the lily-liveredness of children's books that I can't
stand."
Access to the books was similarly restricted
at Katy ISD Elementary
School, Katy
, Fort Bend
County, Texas
.
The series has been criticised for formulaic and repetitive
storytelling.
Sales
A Series of Unfortunate Events has been printed in 41
different languages, selling at least fifty-five million copies as
of May 2007.
Awards
In addition to its strong reviews, the
The Bad Beginning
won multiple
literary awards,
including the Colorado Children's Book Award, the Nevada Young
Readers Award and the Nene Award. It was also a finalist for the
Book Sense Book of the Year. Its sequels
have continued this trend, garnishing multiple awards and
nominations. Among these are three IRA/CBC Children's Choice
Awards, which it received for
The Wide Window,
The
Vile Village, and
The Hostile Hospital; a best book
prize at the
Nickelodeon
Kids' Choice Awards, and a 2006
Quill Book Award, both for the Penultimate Peril. While not
technically awards, the Ersatz Elevator was named a
Book Sense
76 Pick, and
The Grim Grotto is an Amazon.com
Customers' Favorite.
In popular culture
- In Arthur episode
"Fern & Persimmony Glitchet", the series is parodied with Fern
writing letters to Lemony's counterpart about writing. Lemony is
portrayed as a real and very secretive writer involved in dangerous
work (like the fictional writer of the series). At the end of the
episode, the gang goes to the signing for a non-existent 14th book
in the series.
- In The Simpsons episode
"Bonfire of the Manatees",
Fat Tony plans to shoot an adult movie called Lemony Lick-It's A
Series of Horny Events, parodying Lemony Snicket's
A Series of Unfortunate Events, the movie version of the
book series.
External links
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