The Trouble Begins: A Box of Unfortunate Events, Books 1-3 (The Bad Beginning; The Reptile Room; The Wide Window)

These books are amazing. As a big fan of quality children's writing, I was completely engrossed in these books. Each narrative is strong, compelling, and unique. The author retains his structure while not allowing the plots to get too formulatic and boring. While you can see by the end of book 2 that a pattern is emerging (that is all I'll say here) -- and the fact that the series continues -- it seems to me that this helps the reader know that somehow the children will survive whatever ordeal they find themselves in, which is a great device. It alleviates our anxiety, and more importantly, a child's anxiety, that real harm might come to the kids, while letting us relax enough to enjoy the story as it unfolds.
I once read an essay by Maurice Sendac in which he described how hard it was to get published. The common thinking was that you can't wirte about things that scare children, like death. These dark fears are tabboo. He argued that children do think about such things, and that writing about them in a careful way respects children and their real concerns and provides them with a place to air their deepest fears. The success of his books, I believe, is in large part due to his respect for children.
These books, I believe, provide the same sort of thing, though they are much funnier than Sendac. The children are so bright and clever that they are wonderful heros. The grownups never seem to listen to them or realize that these are really insightful and intelligent people. I suppose this might be interpreted by some parents as undermining adult authority, but the writing is so good and the characters so ridiculous that bright kids would not see them as actual representations of real adults. This is very much along the lines of Roald Dahl, who is known for his horrible grownups who treat children as foolish little no-nothings. Children are much more insightful than many adults give them credit for, and bright kids love reading stories in which they can be the smart heros, solving the mysteries and beating the villain. This has been such a standard plot device for so long that I needn't list how many classic books have used it successfully. Just a few are the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series, Matilda (and many of Dahl's books), Treasure Island, The wonderful Tintin series, of course harry Potter, etc., etc.). Kids love being the heros, and, like Harry Potter and many of these others, the key is in making the children heros, while allowing them to be terribly afraid while scary things are happening to them. Without this fear they feel, the stories would, of ocurse, be flat and stale and not ring true.
If Snicket didn't apply the assorted techniques to prepare his readers, I might feel otherwise, but I would have LOVED these books as a kid, and I can't wait until my 3.5 yr old is old enough to read them to her (in several years). Finally, one must read things as they are intended. Many of Grimm's Fairy Tales are very scary and violent, but alas, they are fairy tales. These books are contempory fairy tales. If they one day get produced as movies, they should be made by Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands, Batman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, etc.) who is one of the few people who could give them that air of unreality which would make them so thrilling and fun, without terrifying children and scaring them for life.
These are fantastic books which I highly recommend buying for the children in your life -- those who are old and bright enough to appreciate them as they are intended. Before you give them away as a gift, though, do sit down for a couple hours one stormy evening, make some tea, turn off the blasted television, and enjoy (at least the first of) these highly entertaining books.

I absolutely had to write a reveiw of this book after reading some of the idiocy posted here. First of all, they are called UNFORTUNATE EVENTS. Not HAPPY ENDINGS. These are NOT "The Happy Golden Years." They are not about Children as victims. They are about two smart cookies and a baby who don't accept the world around them as inevitable or inherently right. They have the best quality any person can have above intelligence: resourcefulness. To those who dislike these books, I can only imagine what technicolor idealist rubbish you would have your children read. Children these days know better than to believe everything ends happily. I believe that they are relieved to finally find in Lemony an adult who understands and acknowledges *sometimes it's tough being a kid*. Children are smart enough to see what is pretend, and surely grow bored with books that have underlying psychological agendas, games where everyone wins, and protagonists who go through life with no negative events. Who can relate to that? As in the case of Cleary's Ramona books, life just isn't like that.
I think that children who read these books (aside from those who have lost a parent or a have a fear of losing parents) will see right through the farce and root for these small heros. Sure, there are some shockers in plot, but the children solve their problems ingeniously. This story has great lessons, and smacks of epic poetry (If you can keep your head about you when everyone else is losing theirs and blaming it on you...) It is no more terrible than Hansel and Gretel. In fact, these children lost their parents to an accident, and I would fear that a child reading Hansel and Gretel would believe that a parent could be convinced to abandon his children. These books are cautiously dangerous, creating the terrible in a careful way.
In the case of this book, it may prompt your children to ask, "Where will I go if you die?" and you, hopefully, will be able to allay their fears with a relative much more pleasant than Count Olaf.
These are wonderful books about children who try very hard, love each other, who keep their brave faces and wits about them even when all alone, no matter what this brutal but loving author throws at them. Violet and Klaus make reading, research, creativity, and cunning wit very very cool. This is so important to our flawed culture that promotes winning through physical force alone. These books are written in an entertaining hand, with wit and sarcasm and a worthy nod to Nabokov. I can't wait to read the rest. I give it four stars because they are not quite the best of their genre, and are definately not long enough. Otherwise, they are excellent tomes I will treasure, and enjoy sharing with the pint sized protagonists in my life.

We bought this box set and I decided to read them before giving them to my 8-year-old. Yes, I'm aware that the premise of these books is that bad things happen to these kids, and no, I was not looking for any happy endings. I don't like sickeningly sweet stories. There must be conflict if there's to be anything interesting happening at all.

But geez. Unfortunate events? Why not title them "One Crappy Thing Happens After Another"? There is no valuable lesson here to be learned. Sure, life isn't fair. But reading these books doesn't make you say "Well, these poor orphans, there's this guy always trying to kill them and steal their money, and they'll likely never have a home or anyone to love them and care for them ever again. Still, you'll have that now and then, won't you? Great story, isn't it, kids?"

You don't want a life lesson? Okay, fair enough. Let's talk about reading a story just for the fun of it. Wait a minute, we can't do that either, because this is no fun at all. I enjoy a good tragedy as much as the next person (being a big fan of Shakespeare and all), but this doesn't have any redeeming quality to its string of tragedies. It's just senseless, awful stuff that just keeps coming.

What really, really irritates me is this banker guy that's supposed to be watching over them as he shuttles them from useless guardian to useless guardian. He never believes them when they tell him they need help. Is that really what you want to have kids reading? That adults will either ignore you or try to destroy you? I remember being a kid, and if I felt ignored, it was the worst feeling ever. Kids yearn to be taken seriously, for adults to value their opinions. They want to be treated like fellow human beings by adults. All that happens to these three kids is that they get placed in mortal peril by a clueless adult who doesn't give a crap what they say, no matter what, despite his professions of affection for them. It's nonsense.

I guess I missed the boat on the appeal of these books. The author is talented, and his dry wit comes through now and again; it's a shame it's wasted on these stories. I'm sure I'll get a score of "0 of 2,858 people found this review useful," not because the review is useful or not, but because they don't like what I say. Hm. Well, that's unfortunate, very sad, but you didn't really expect a happy ending to this review, did you?

I enjoy reading these books to my children, and my eldest reads and re-reads them on his own. The only thing annoying to me as a reader is Sir Lemony's habit of explaining what words mean. Yet this annoyance to me is a source of joy to my seven year old, who doesn't have to ask what words mean and thus interrupt the story. This stylistic habit of Mr. Snicket also means that my child is learning a lot of new words -- and that the books are not written DOWN to children but respect their intelligence. Also, the iconoclastic nature of this new genre of book makes them truly fun to read and easy to relish. Children don't really like goody-goody books -- mine, at least (and I bet yours), see at once they are being condescended to. Lemony Snicket's works are both fun, genre-breaking, and, (thus undermining my word "both") terrific reads.

Great series; terrible box set. One of the main reasons I purchased this box set is because I remember the beautiful pictures that adorn the cover of each book. Unfortunately, the box set comes with these big ugly Netflix stickers plastered not only on the box, but on each one of the books as well. When the Netflix stickers are removed, they take with them a layer of the books' outer sheen, leaving an ugly circular dull spot on the picture of all three front covers.

I too, like many other readers was a MASSIVE Harry Potter fan before picking up the Lemony Snicket books. Although not as engaging or engrossing (or nearly as long!) as the Potter books, the Snicket series is quite enjoyable.
I love how the sentences are manipulated throughout these books. Mr. Snicket uses Nabokovian wordplay and ideas that children may miss, but adults will love. The name of the playwright of "The Marvelous Marriage" in "The Bad Beginning" is an anagram of Count Olaf (and I am guessing Lemony Snicket is an anagram of the author's true name), the whole setup of the play as skewed reality (much like Clare Quilty's "Enchanted Hunters") and the hilarious juxtapositions to describe the "bigger " words and ideas are wonderful.
My favorite is: "The Baudelaires thought of grammar-the way the thought of banana bread: fine, but nothing to make a fuss about."
The gothic almost Dickensian feeling from the first few pages of the first book-a misty beach and bad news-really intrigued me. I love the dark aspects of these books - the archetypal villain that follows the children throughout the series, good vs. evil, Mr. Poe, the weak, but well-meaning adult, probably slowly dying of consumption.
All three orphans are relatable to different children - Violet, the eldest girl, reminds me of a Charles Addams character - wonderful, intelligent and slightly spooky. Klaus is the bookworm, who looks a little like Mr. Potter in the wonderful drawings that pepper the book and Sunny is the comic relief younger sister, who bites anything that she pleases. Mr. Snicket's "translations" of her baby talk are quite charming as well.
The small thing that bothered me is that it seems Mr. Snicket is unsure as to whether to set these books in Victorian times (as I feel they are), or put them modern. Up until the 3rd book, I thought they were set in an earlier period until Violet suddenly mentions that they can "Fax" Mr. Poe. Bothersome, but not horrid.
All in all, an enjoyable read. Most adult readers will get through one book per 2 hour sitting. There are a lot of "adult" jokes sprinkled in with the story so both parent and child alike can enjoy them.

You know about happy people that are in happy books and have happy endings and want a happy series? WEll please do not even come close to these books. These books have a unhappy beggining, seldom happy parts in the middle, and a very very unhappy ending. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire have been orphaned just like that. Their overseer for which family they go to, Mr. Poe, is not helpful at all and you can only bet all you have that he has a terrible cough. Their first foster parent is a nasty old mean grouch named Count Olaf. You might as well stop here because the reason why these books are so unhappy and miserable and unfortunate accuring is because of Count olaf. He wants to steal the Baudelaire fortune from Violet, Klaus and Sunny the mometn he hears about it. Before you even think of moving your mouse to the direction of the "Shopping Cart" button I do warn you, if you are expecting a happy book with fuzzy bunies (personal experiences) please do not buy this book. Yet if you insist, go ahead.

I had heard the hype about these books and decided to read them myself. I expected to read about events that are sheer bad luck, or harmlessly unfortuante. I was appalled by the violence, cruelty and utter evil that takes place in these books. Are murder, contemplation of poisoning, deceit and child abuse values that we desire to instill in our children?? Although the writing style is intriguing and the inclusion of definitions of vocabulary words is potentially beneficial, I would strongly urge parents to read these books prior to allowing their children to read them. I'll stick with JK Rowlings any day. At least she has good triumph over evil.

I am 14 years old and i am still fasinated with Lemony Snicket's books. They are so much better than Harry Potter. In The series of Unfortunate Events it teaches children to use thier God-given tallents to solve thier problems. In Harry Potter it teaches children to solve thier problems using magic and whitchcraft.I would and always will reccommend these books to children of all ages... 8 yrs-99yrs. I will NEVER reccommend the Harry Potter books to anyone. Lemony Snicket does a great job making reading fun and interesting not to mention educational.

If you crave some good postmodernism in children's arts and lit, watch the Simpsons.

If you want to avoid some truly useless postmodernism for tots, don't waste your time on these books.

Actually, many parents keep their youngest ones away from the Simpsons, and for good reason. That brilliant cartoon series is loaded with adult humor. But many of those same cautious parents would read to their kids this series of creepy books. Just because some crafty marketing person at Harper compared them to Harry Potter.

Note: I wouldn't mind knowing what J K Rowlings thinks of Lemony Snicket's work.

People who want their kids to hear tales of adventure and of triumph over adversity, can go to any number of classic children's books. What sets apart diverse classics such as A Wrinkle in Time and Rapunzel, from the likes of A Series of Unfortunate Events, is the uplifting magic of wrongs truly righted, and of puzzles terminatedly solved.

The series in review simply offer no hope at all to the reader. At every bend in the road, Snicket (I'd hide behind a pseudonym, too, if I were the creator of these books) invokes woe and hopelessness. It can drive you batty, all the too-bad-we-weren't-there-to-warn-them's. It's just a downer, all the way, as unrelentingly awful as the Chuckie series of horror movies. (Child's Play, I believe, is the series... and let us not forget what part that evil-can't-be-overcome movie played in the horrific murder enacted by two young boys in the UK last decade).

I can see that there are a few kids who liked the books and have reported as much at this site. But I would imagine they are of a certain age (not sure which age, exactly) and certain fortitude. That doesn't mean these books are appropriate for most kids. Why take the chance of depressing your kids, when there's so much great adventure to be enjoyed in other books?

I still have the books lying around... think I'll move 'em over towards the fireplace.