The Bad Beginning
- Author Lemony Snicket, Illustrated by Brett Helquist
- Narrator To Be Confirmed
- Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
- Publish Date 26 February 2026
- Run Time 5 hours and 7 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Children’s / Teenage fiction: Classic fiction, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Crime and mystery fiction, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Family and home stories, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Fantasy, Children’s / Teenage fiction: General fiction, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Horror and ghost stories, chillers, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Humorous stories.
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What to expect
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
Critics Review
‘Perhaps A Series of Unfortunate Events is so special simply because Handler saw children as people. He took his readers seriously' – Guardian
n‘Lemony Snicket is the new Harry Potter’ – Entertainment Weekly
n‘Deliciously wicked and wonderful’ – The Times
n‘Lemony Snicket is a publishing phenomenon’ – Independent
n‘Harry Potter’s worst nightmare’ – Evening Standard
nMore from the same
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