The Bad Beginning cover art

The Bad Beginning

A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 1

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The Bad Beginning

Written by: Lemony Snicket, Brett Helquist
Narrated by: Full Cast
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About this listen

Be warned – to commiserate 25 years of misfortune and gloom, Lemony Snicket’s publishers have taken the untold risk of creating brand new collectors’ editions of A Series of Unfortunate Events, illustrated by the obscenely talented Emily Gravett. The temptation to buy a copy is severe indeed…

Dear reader,

You still have time to choose another international best-selling series to read. But if you insist on discovering the unpleasant adventures of the Baudelaire orphans, then proceed with caution…

Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are intelligent children. They are charming, and resourceful, and have pleasant facial features. Unfortunately, they are exceptionally unlucky.

In The Bad Beginning, the siblings encounter a greedy and repulsive villain, itchy clothing, a disastrous fire, a plot to steal their fortune and cold porridge for breakfast.

In the tradition of great storytellers, from Dickens to Dahl, comes an exquisitely dark comedy that is irreverent, hilarious and deftly crafted.

Despite their wretched contents, ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ has sold 60 million copies worldwide and been made into a Hollywood film starring Jim Carrey and massively popular Netflix series starring Neil Patrick Harris.

Are you unlucky enough to own all 13 adventures?

The Bad Beginning

The Reptile Room

The Wide Window

The Miserable Mill

The Austere Academy

The Ersatz Elevator

The Vile Village

The Hostile Hospital

The Carnivorous Carnival

The Slippery Slope

The Grim Grotto

The Penultimate Peril

The End

©1999 Lemony Snicket, Brett Helquist (P)2004 HarperCollins Publishers
Classics Family Life Fantasy & Magic Growing Up & Facts of Life Literature & Fiction Mysteries Mystery & Suspsense Science Fiction & Fantasy

Critic Reviews

‘Perhaps A Series of Unfortunate Events is so special simply because Handler saw children as people. He took his readers seriously' – Guardian

Lemony Snicket is the new Harry Potter’ – Entertainment Weekly

‘Deliciously wicked and wonderful’ – The Times

‘Lemony Snicket is a publishing phenomenon’ – Independent

‘Harry Potter’s worst nightmare’ – Evening Standard

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