Summary Of Lemony Snicket's The Bad Beginning

I chose the book The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket. The story takes place in a “busy” city that is never given a name in no particular era of time. Prior to the story the Baudelaire children live in a mansion in the middle of the city with their parents. They are a happy family. The story begins after the mansion burns, and their parents are killed in the fire. The Baudelaire children are now orphans who are forced to live with their uncle, Count Olaf. The children barely know this uncle, and he is not a good man. Count Olaf is after the fortune left to the children. Violet is the eldest Baudelaire child at 14 years of age. She is an inventor and right handed. She has a tendency to tie her hair up in a ribbon when she is thinking.
The other children know not to distract her when they see this. Klaus is the middle child. He is the only boy of the three. He enjoys reading. Despite only being 12 years old, he has read a great number of books. He does not have great vision, so he must wear glasses. Sunny is the youngest and only a baby. She is a small baby with four very big teeth. If she does not like you, she will bite you with those teeth. She only says a few words and shrieks a lot. She is a cute baby. Count Olaf is a tall, thin man. He dresses in a dark suit with stains all over it. He does not shave and has a unibrow. He has a tattoo of an eye on his ankle. He is a mean man. He does not care for the Baudelaire children at all. He only took the children in for their inheritance. Justice Strauss lives next door to Count Olaf. She lives in the prettiest house on the street. She is very kind to the children. She visits with them often. She initially does not figure out Count Olaf’s plan for the children. When she does realize the scheme, she is able to help them. Mr. Poe is a banker who handles the Baudelaire fortune. He always has a cough. He is not very good at deciding what is best for the children. He is a very busy man. The book begins with the Baudelaire children sitting on Briny beach on a calm day.
Mr. Poe finds them and gives them the news about the fire and the fate of their parents. The children live with Mr. Poe only until he finds Count Olaf, their distant uncle. The children had never even heard of this uncle. Count Olaf did not really want to care for the children, he just wanted their money. Count Olaf devised a very devious way to take the inheritance. Count Olaf was going to have the children participate in one of his plays. He would then marry Violet in the play, and it would also be a real marriage. Then he would get his hands on their fortune. The clever children figured out his scheme and devised one of their own. Violet would sign the marriage certificate with her left hand instead of her dominant right hand. This would then make the certificate invalid. I enjoyed reading this book. There are several good portions in this book. The main one is Justice Strauss. She was very kind to the children. She was the only one who really cared for them. Another good aspect was the children and their love for each other. The siblings always took care of each other and remained loyal. The book also has some bad aspects. It is never a good thing for parents to die and children to become orphans. It is also sad that the children have to live with a relative they barely know and who does not care for them at all. They are also being used by Olaf for their
inheritance. I would recommend this book to pre-teens and adolescents. Adults may enjoy it also. This is not a book for younger children due to the antics of Count Olaf. The children are intelligent and bold characters. Justice Strauss make the reader believe there is still hope. Count Olaf is a mean man, but he always seem to lose. This story is an adventure and very entertaining to read.