#The Bad Beginning

[quotespile]

The way sadness works is one of the strange riddles of the world. If you are stricken with a great sadness, you may feel as if you have been set aflame, not only because of the enormous pain, but also because your sadness may spread over your life, like smoke from an enormous fire. You might find it difficult to see anything but your own sadness, the way smoke can cover a landscape so that all anyone can see is black. You may find that if someone pours water all over you, you are damp and distracted, but not cured of your sadness, the way a fire department can douse a fire but never recover what has been burnt down.

Lemony Snicket, The Bad Beginning

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

[melodysbookhaven]

“….you know that a good, long session of weeping can often make you feel better, even if your circumstances have not changed one bit.”

Lemony Snicket, The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #1)

[beatricebidelaire]

highlights mine

lemony snicket has been frequently at art galleries when he’s on the lam. also, art dealers would not leave him alone. without the second fact he could just be passing by, maybe hiding in there sometimes because maybe art galleries are a good place to hide and you can pretend to just be a tourist or something. or maybe thats a hobby he managed to keep while on the run - visiting galleries.

but if the art dealers will not leave him alone ………. does that mean he has art in his possession that the art dealers want to sell?

[paperpoetryandpetrichor]

Lemony Snicket, The Bad Beginning

[baudelairevioletfan]

Violet Baudelaire | The Bad Beginning [Part 1]

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

The bad beginning: All different book covers (not including the ones with the same cover art but just the title being in another font)

Which one is your favorite?

[louisetaylor]

Klaus Baudelaire (in The Vile Village): Violet didn't murder Jacques Snicket! The pink hair ribbon found at the scene wasn't hers, because she hates the color pink!

Me: wait, doesn't Violet wear pink in episode 1 on Briny Beach?

Me:

Me: ohhh...Violet was wearing pink when she became an orphan

[unfortunatetheorist]

*Joint Theory 4: @unfortunatetheorist with @snicketstrange* :

Liar, Liar? Quag's on Fire? - (BCT & NCT)

We're back! This time, to discuss the apparent contradiction surrounding the Quagmire fire:

How did Duncan and Isadora get out of the Orphans Shack if their parents were already dead when they got there?

But perhaps, more importantly, When did the Quagmire fire occur?

Well, there are some key excerpts that further our understanding:

The letter to the editor found in TAA indicates that the Baudelaires stayed a half-term (half-semester) at Prufrock-Prep.

According to Nero, for a child to live in the good apartments of Prufrock-Prep, a signature from a parent or guardian would be required. It could not be Mr. Poe, who was in charge of their inheritance.

TAA - Chapter 3: "My sister and I went through the experience of a terrible fire, and we know what it's like. Did your father die in the fire?" "Our parents also died in a fire. It's horrible to miss your parents, isn't it?" "For a long time," Duncan confessed, "I was afraid of any kind of fire. I didn't even like to look at heaters or fireplaces." "Duncan and I had to live there for three terms because we needed a father or mother or a guardian to sign our authorization pass, and we had no one."

According to Quigley's account in TSS, the fire occurred after the events in TRR.

Brett Helquist's Letter to Lemony from Ch 11 of LSTUA:

Note: There was a Quagmire case that Lemony Snicket was accused of being involved in that PRECEDED the Baudelaire mansion fire. (Mr. Helquist arrived at the mansion while it was still on fire, and made the drawing that can be found in TBB).

Quigley's speech from Ch 8 of TSS:

You can verify that the Quagmire fire, according to Quigley, happened after the events described in TRR, that is, after the Baudelaire mansion was destroyed.

And all the main events described from TBB until Ch 13 of The End, take place within a MAXIMUM of 1 year. We know this because Violet and Klaus start the story at 14 and 12 years old, respectively, and have birthdays during the story: Klaus in TVV and Violet in TGG, and when they arrive on the island they are 15 and 13 years old respectively.

Actually, this is something the showrunners of the Netflix series picked up on - and SOLVED:

THEORY: The Quagmire parents faked their deaths. This means the children would've been sent to the Orphans' Shack before the revelation of Mr & Mrs Quagmire being alive allowed Isadora and Duncan to live in the apartment section of Prufrock Prep - they would've been alive to sign the necessary paperwork, and thus get out of the Shack. Then they died for REAL, meaning that the two triplets went back to Prufrock, but they STAYED at the dormitory because the papers had already been signed.

Netflix clears a lot of it up [hence 'BCT & NCT'], answering the questions we posed earlier:

Q: How did Duncan and Isadora get out of the Orphans Shack if their parents were already dead when they got there?

A: They were sent to the Orphans' Shack during the time when their parents' deaths were faked. The problem was that they didn't have someone to sign the paperwork. The Orphans' Shack is a temporary location until the parents can sign the paperwork. They only managed to get out of there, because their parents weren't really dead, and they signed the papers. When their parents actually died, they had already signed the papers.

Q: When did the Quagmire fire occur?

A: As Netflix states it, during the events of TMM.

¬ Th3r3534rch1ngr4ph & @snicketstrange,

Unfortunate Theorists/Snicketologists

[ben-alsyght]

Got these for Christmas

[fakeoldmanfucker]

Lemony Snicket I am shaking you. Why did you include this? What are you trying to say????

[bookfirstlinetourney]

Round 1

If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book. In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle. This is because not very many happy things happened in the lives of the three Baudelaire youngsters.

-The Bad Beginning, Lemony Snicket

It was the day my grandmother exploded.

-The Crow Road, Iain Banks

You are, of course, an unmitigated asshole.

-Purple and Black, K.J. Parker

[melodysbookhaven]

“They didn't understand it, but like so many unfortunate events in life, just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it isn't so.”

Lemony Snicket, The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #1)

[beatricebidelaire]

continue to enjoy how L calls famous people in history his associates

[zithergiltscorner]

"I'm sure you, in your life, have occationally wished to be raised by different people than the ones who are raising you, but knew in your heart that the chances were very slim."

Lemony Snicket, marry me.

[alley-cat777]

Book Review: The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events #1) by: Lemony Snicket

The way sadness works is one of the strange riddles of the world. If you are stricken with a great sadness, you may feel as if you have been set aflame, not only because of the enormous pain, but also because your sadness may spread over your life, like smoke from an enormous fire. You might find it difficult to see anything but your own sadness, the way smoke can cover a landscape so that all…