Saturday, October 2, 2010

A Series of Unfortunate Events: Book the First, The Bad Beginning





By Lemony Snicket
(1999) ISBN 0064407667

With warnings galore we decide to venture nevertheless into the unique world of the unfortunate Baudelaire children, Violet, Klaus and Sunny.  We start our acquaintanceship as their world falls apart with the deaths of their parents (we are told of the deaths, no bodies found) and the loss of their beautifully comfortable home, these incidents brought about by a great fire.  Their problems are compounded by the sketchiest of provisions for their care left by the parents.  There seems to be a good case for a malpractice suit against who was their attorney.  Per the terms of the parents instructions, only a relative can take charge of the trio and no specific persons were named and certainly no research was done so as to eliminate the odious and dangerous Count Olaf who claiming to be a relative immediately takes charge of the children and immediately set out to separated the children out of their huge fortune, a fortune that is not to be touched until Violet come of age and we quickly learn Olaf’s way around that problem.  It is due to their own resources that the Baudelaires do manage to live another day and escape from the Count’s clutches at least for the time being but since this is only the first volume in a series there is much suffering or fun to look forward to depending on how you like your reading or the bend of your sense of humor.  The Illustrations give the reader the proper start from the beginning and keep the mood in the right course, the unfortunate world of our friends, the Baudelaires.  This series is quite unique and the one comparison that comes to mind is the old films called The Perils of Pauline.

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