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A Series of Unfortunate Events
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A Series of Unfortunate Events is a children's book series of thirteen novels written by Lemony Snicket, and illustrated by Brett Helquist. It is about the adventures of three children, the Baudelaire orphans, after the death of their parents in a fire. The setting of the series is anachronistic, 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.
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A Series of Unfortunate Events is a children's book series of thirteen novels written by Lemony Snicket, and illustrated by Brett Helquist. It is about the adventures of three children, the Baudelaire orphans, after the death of their parents in a fire. The setting of the series is anachronistic, 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 10. 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 siblings, Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire, after their parents were killed in a fire at the family mansion. In The Bad Beginning, they briefly live with a friend of their parents, Mr. Poe, who is the person in charge of the Baudelaire fortune after the Baudelaire parents' deaths, before being sent to live with Count Olaf, whom Mr. Poe describes as either the siblings' "third cousin four times removed, or their fourth cousin three times removed". The siblings discover that he intends to get his hands on the enourmous Baudelaire fortune, which awaits Violet, the eldest child, when she turns eighteen. In the first seven books, Olaf, each time in different disguises, follows the children wherever they go so he can get closer to the orphans and 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, disguised as Detective Dupin, for the murder of Count Omar (really Jacques Snicket). The Baudelaires routinely try to get help from Mr. Poe, but Poe is always either busy with work, oblivious to the danger Olaf poses, unaware that the disguised Olaf is not who he claims to be or simply thinks the Baudelaires are lying.
Each of the three siblings has a distinctive skill that often helps them during their adventures. Violet is always inventing new things to help them, Klaus is always finding out new information by reading books, and Sunny has extremely sharp teeth that can bite almost anything in two. In later books, Sunny learns how to cook, as she begins to grow to the normal size for her teeth so cooking becomes her primary skill. Sunny originally spoke in single word utterances which are often a variety of incomplete sentences, and some short word sentences as well. Their meaning is 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.'), or being written in other languages (e.g., Shalom or Sayonara), but eventually she begins to speak more in complete English sentences, her first possibly being "I'm not a baby" in The Slippery Slope, or "Like me" in The Vile Village.
Lemony Snicket, the author of the stories and the pseudonym of Daniel Handler, is actually a character himself on the periphery of the stories. He follows the Baudelaires, researching and recording their exploits. Bruce Butt noted in 2002 that in each book a letter from Snicket to his editor is included, presented as exciting updates on Snicket's research into the Baudelaire orphans, which Butt considered to be "the most sly aspect of the way this series has been ingeniously promoted". Over the course of the series, the Baudelaires learn some vague information about Snicket and possibly meet him briefly in The Wide Window and The Penultimate Peril.
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 several 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 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...". 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. For example, "Busheney" (Bush-Cheney) means "You're an evil man with no concern whatsoever for other people".
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 comprised of the V.F.D., Count Olaf, the orphan's 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 Biblical Original Sin, a snake offers the children a life-saving 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.
Handler often brings humor into some parts of his stories, such as in The Penultimate Peril where he explains the phrase "Not born yesterday". He says that he assumes that the readers were not born yesterday, and, in exact words, "-unless I am wrong, in which case welcome to the world, little baby, and congratulations on learning to read so early in life."
Allusions
To see more examples of allusions to literature and the real world in A Series of Unfortunate Events, see the individual page 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 the character of Mr. Poe and his children may refer 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 has met Edgar Allan Poe.
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.
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.
Distribution
Books
The series includes thirteen main books as follows:
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, though there have been several speculations about Beatrice's real identity (which is heavily hinted at in the final book).
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
A film adaptation, 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 tie-in editions of the novels feature a variation on the usual reverse-psychology blurb: the blurb takes the form of a message from Count Olaf, listing the good points of the story (such as "a dashing count") but suggesting that it would be much easier and less boring to watch the movie instead.
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 that another Film is in the works, but has been delayed by corporate shake-ups at Paramount.
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. Unfortunately, the film only generally follows the plot line of 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.
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 8 and Up.
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, the books were banned in Decatur, Georgia. 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. Bruce Butt, a reviewer, hopes that the "literary and wider allusion[s]" of character names within the books will encourage readers to later read more widely, and believes that the "narrative, rather than the content" is the attraction of the series. However, other critics complain that the author never fulfilled the real meaning or solved the real mysteries of the book.
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 a movie called Lemony Lick-It's A Series of Horny Events, parodying Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Translations
- Ancient Greek: "????a ???µ?µata" (lit. "Miserable adventures", still being made)
- Arabic : "????? ????? ?????????" (lit. "The Series of Tragic Stories")
- Bulgarian: ???????? ?? ??????????
- Chinese:
- Croatian "Niz nesretnih dogadaja"
- Czech: "Rada neštastných príhod"
- Dutch: "Ellendige avonturen" (lit. "Miserable adventures")
- Estonian: "Sari őnnetuid lugusid"
- Finnish: "Surkeiden sattumusten sarja"
- French: "Les Désastreuses Aventures des orphelins Baudelaire" (lit. "The disastrous adventures of the Baudelaire orphans")
- German: "Eine Reihe betrüblicher Ereignisse"
- Greek: ""
- Hebrew: ""
- Hungarian: "A balszerencse áradása" (lit. "The flooding of misfortune")
- Icelandic: "Úr bálki hrakfalla"
- Indonesian: "Kisah Anak-anak Baudelaire"
- Italian: "Una serie di sfortunati eventi"
- Japanese: "??????????" (lit. "Unfortunate Events of the World")
- Korean: "??? ???? ??? ??"
- Norwegian: "Den onde greven" (lit. "The evil Count")
- Persian: ""
- Polish: "Seria niefortunnych zdarzen"
- Portuguese: Uma Série de Desgraças (lit. A series of disgraces)(Portugal) and Desventuras em Série (lit. Series of Misadventures) (Brazil)
- Romanian: "O serie de evenimente nefericite"
- Russian: "" (lit. "Thirty three misfortunes"), Azbuka, 2004–2007
- Serbian: "?????? ????????? ????????"/"Serija nesrecnih dogadaja"
- Slovenian: "Zaporedje nesrecnih dogodkov"
- Spanish: "Una serie de catastróficas desdichas" (Spain) and Una serie de eventos desafortunados (Latin America)
- Swedish: "Syskonen Baudelaires olycksaliga liv" (lit. "The Baudelaire siblings unfortunate life")
- Thai: "????????????????????????????"
- Turkish: "Talihsiz Serüvenler Dizisi"
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