The Bad Beginning
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
| Author | Lemony Snicket (pen name of Daniel Handler) |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Brett Helquist |
| Cover artist | Brett Helquist |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | A Series of Unfortunate Events |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
| Released | September 30, 1999 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 162 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0064407667 |
| Followed by | The Reptile Room |
The Bad Beginning is a children's novel and the first in A Series of Unfortunate Events by Daniel Handler under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket. 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.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire are at Briny Beach one day when Mr. Poe, a banker and friend of their parents, arrives tell them that their house has burned down, and that their parents have died. The orphans live with Mr. Poe until he can find a guardian for them. He finally brings them with their nearest relative, Count Olaf.
Count Olaf, a dirty man with one eyebrow, shiny eyes, and a mysterious tattoo of an eye on his ankle, is a greedy man who wants to claim the Baudelaire fortune for himself. When he finds that he will not receive it, he treats the children like slaves and makes them to do difficult chores for himself and his acting troupe. The only relief the orphans find is the library of the kind next door neighbor, Justice Strauss, a judge who lets the children visit anytime.
One day he tells the orphans that his troupe is coming over to practice their play. He tells the orphans to make dinner for his troupe. They don't have any ingredients, but with Violet's smartness, they are able to make a meal. When the children complain to Mr. Poe, he explains to them that Olaf, who stands in loco parentis, may raise them in his own way. Olaf, who finds out about the visit apologizes to the children, and informs them that they may (or, it turns out, must) participate in a play he is showing, called The Marvelous Marriage. Olaf plays the hero of the play. Violet plays his bride.
The children spend the day at Justice Strauss' house, reading books, until Olaf's henchman, the Hook-Handed Man comes to fetch them. Klaus takes a book on nuptial law with him, and in reading it finally discovers Olaf's plan. The law says that two people are married if they sign a particular document, each in their own hand, in the presence of a judge. Olaf apparently plans to marry Violet during the play, in order to gain control of the fortune. When he confronts Count Olaf about it, he only smiles and laughs. Klaus runs up to waken his sisters only to find that Sunny is not there.
Count Olaf shows them that one of his henchmen has kidnapped Sunny and is hanging her out of the top window of the tower in a birdcage. Violet, meanwhile, invents a grappling hook to reach the top of the tower, only to be caught and locked with her brother at the top of the tower until the play begins.
The play is performed, but stops after the wedding scene, when Olaf announces that he is now really married to Violet. Justice Strauss attempts to find a loophole to save Violet, but the only objectable point is that Violet is underage, which doesn't matter since she can still be married with a guardian's permission (since Olaf is her guardian, this point is shot down). When Sunny is returned, Violet announces that she is right-handed but signed the document with her left hand, which Justice Strauss agrees is a reason to declare the marriage invalid. Olaf escapes when one of his henchmen turns off the theater's lights. Before leaving, he whispers to Violet that he will always pursue the orphans until he has their fortune. Justice Strauss announces that she will adopt the orphans, but Mr. Poe tells her that a relative must care for them. He then drives away with the orphans.
[edit] Notes
- In the last picture, there is a snake 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.
- Brett Helquist's self portrait: Brett looking through binoculars.
- In this book, Mr. Poe states that the orphans must stay with a relative, but in subsequent books this requirement is apparently dropped; however, Mr. Poe makes several unsuccessful attempts to contact Baudelaire relatives early in The Vile Village, implying that he simply could not locate anyone willing to take in the children after the events of The Wide Window.
- Although when asked if she wants anything to eat near the end of the book Sunny replies "cake", in the second book she would rather have a raw carrot than coconut cream cake, as she doesn't like soft foods.
[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 Allen 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.
- 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 on the book, many of which foreshadow later events in the series. However, not all material in the notes proved accurate or were addressed by the series, particularly the ones relating to The End.
[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] Or, Orphans!
A Series of Unfortunate Events No.1: The Bad Beginning or, Orphans! is a paperback rerelease of The Bad Beginning, designed to mimic Victorian penny dreadfuls. [2][3] The release date is May 8, 2007[4] The book will include the first part of a serial supplement entitled The Cornucopian Cavalcade, which will include an advice column written by Lemony Snicket [5].
[edit] Cover images
 US cover |
 UK cover |
