A Series of Unfortunate Events

[Seymour Glass]

Has anyone read the Series of Unfortunate Events series by Lemony Snicket (pen name for Daniel Handler.) What do you think of them?

I have all thirteen titles and have enjoyed them. I do admit that the series does get very repetitive but I like the dark humour and the absurdity of the situations that the characters find themselves in and I like the writing style.

For those who don't know, the series chronicles the lives of the three Baudelaire orphans, Violet, Klaus and Sunny. In the first book, The Bad Beginning, they receive the news that their home has been destroyed in a fire and that their parents have both died. They are sent to live with Count Olaf, a distant relative, who is desperate to get his hands on the Baudelaire fortune and will stop at nothing to get it. Up to the seventh book, the series is taken up with the children being shunted from guardian to guardian (Count Olaf tracks them down every time.) At the end of the seventh book the orphans are forced to go on the run themselves after being framed for murder.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I've read all the books too, Seymour, and I enjoyed the absurd and surreal elements and the way Lemony Snicket plays around with language. I think my favourite is The Slippery Slope because of the setting. At times during the course of the thirteen titles I felt the plot was being spun out and seemed repetitive (as you said) but the mixture of wit, intrigue and poignancy kept me going. I like the way that seemingly incidental happenings and references early in the series turn out to be highly significant later on and I love the "Alice in Wonderland" aspects.

Anita

[Judith Crabb]

Has anyone read David Handler's and Lisa Brown's delightful contribution in that wonderful collection 'A Velocity of Being. Letters to Young Readers' (and isn't that all of us?). The book is a superb marriage of text and picture. published last year in aid of the New York Public Library. Remarkable humans indicate that they are what they are because they are readers.