Dear reader, think again! Perhaps you should not peek under the cover of Lemony Snicket's book? For you will not find joyful and carefree stories within. On the contrary: you and the young heroes of the tales, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, will face all thirty-three misfortunes. One unremarkable, but very tragic day, the children learn that their parents have died. There are plenty of people who want to take the orphans in, but the worst among them is the cynical villain Count Olaf. He pursues the Baudelaires wherever they go. Troubles rain upon the children's heads like confetti from a party popper. Only their strength of spirit and mutual assistance help Violet, Klaus, and Sunny repeatedly extricate themselves from misfortune.
The darkly humorous stories about the adventures of the Baudelaire children have become so popular worldwide that they inspired the movie "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events," featuring Jim Carrey, Jude Law, and Meryl Streep. Recently, a Netflix series of the same name was released. The main roles were played by Neil Patrick Harris, Malina Weissman, and Louis Hynes.
The first volume "The Catastrophes Begin" includes four tales from the series: "The Bad Beginning," "The Reptile Room," "The Wide Window," and "The Hostile Hospital."