The Bad Beginning

The Bad Beginning is the first novel of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. It was later released in paperback under the name The Bad Beginning; or, Orphans! The novel tells the story of three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who are orphaned by an arsonous fire and sent to live with their distant and conniving cousin Count Olaf. The book was published on September 30, 1999 by Scholastic Inc. and illustrated by Brett Helquist.