The Bad Beginning is a children novel written by Daniel Handler, written under the pen name of Lemony Snicket, and was published on September 30, 1999, by Scholastic Inc. The book is the first of his thirteen-novel series, A Series of Unfortunate Events.
The book explores the lives of the Baudelaire children after they are left orphans when their parents tragically die in a fire. They are shipped off to stay with their Count Olaf, a cruel man who abuses them and only cares for their fortune. The best way of inheriting their wealth is by getting rid of them, and so the story entails following the children in their adventures in escaping Count Olaf.
A film adaptation was releases in 2004, with a large ensemble cast of Jim Carrey (as Count Olaf), Emily Browning (as Violet Baudelaire) and Timothy Spall (as Mr. Poe) to name a few. The film was a commercial success and earned $211.5 million at the global box office. It was most recently rebooted as a Netflix series from 2017-2019 and stars Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf.
