A series of unfortunate events...

[Beauregard]

I finished the first book just a little while ago, and, knowing that there are other S.of.U.E fans on this board, thought I'd place a few quires here.

Are all teh others so macabe? It is a trully depressing story, and just when you think it has an ok ending, it says, "Now if you want ahappy ending, stop now. If not, turn the next page..." Are they all like that? How many are in the series, and does teh last book have a happy ending?

Beau

 

[Don'tLiveonMoon]

I've been wanting to read the whole series but have never gotten around to it, but from what I understand they *are* all that depressing. Everything just keeps going wrong. I'm pretty sure the latest book isn't the last book in the series, either; I don't know how many books there are going to be in all.
Erin

 

[Lu775]

why there are going to be unlucky 13 books in the series, of course!
Hey, the name of the books is the "series of unfortunate events", and that's exactly what happens. If you're looking for something warm and fuzzy try to find the series of warm and fuzzy events. (Seriously though, I love this series of books. It filled the void for me between Harry Potter installments.)

 

[SaraJayne]

I've never heard of these books. Who is the author? What is the storyline? Fill me in please, it sounds interesting!

 

[Lu775]

The author writes as Lemony Snicket, and you can get a really good idea of his sense of humor by visiting his website: http://www.lemonysnicket.com/

 

[Beauregard]

They's pretty strange though. I mean having this guy marry a girl at fourteen in a children's book. Weird sence of humour, good job he didn't manage it, huh?

 

[Beebers]

These books are pretty controversial. There are two camps, those nutty about them, and those not. It depends on how you feel about the dark side of things. Lemony Snicket is in fact a guy writing as a woman, who never conducts promotional interviews, in order to jack up the mystery/suspense surrounding the books and him. Her. A publicist/minion is always sent out to do the promos. Publishing insiders freely acknowledge that much of "Snicket's" work/success feeds directly off the Potter books, i.e., readers have to wait so long for each Potter installment they fill in with other writers in the meantime. There's a whole subset of writers doing this since the first Potter appeared on the scene. ($$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.)
In Victorian times when women weren't allowed to do anything it was common for women to publish under a male surname. This is a new twist on that to cash in on Rowling's roll and they admit it. Whether one likes the stories or not is all a matter of personal taste/inclination.

 

[Beauregard]

Funny, I got the feel they were written by a women while I was reading them. I read teh naration in a lady's voice in my head. Hmmm. Guess I was wrong about that.

 

[Beebers]

I know. It's all a device. Everybody thinks it's a woman. It isn't that hard to do, if the writer is looking clearly at how other people did it. Women imitated men successfully in literature all the time, back in the anti-women's-options-ages.

There was a T.V. interview several months ago in which the interviewer, who is familiar with publishing tricks-of-trade, framed his questions in such a way that the minion was quickly tripped up and let it slip that Lemony is a guy. But this has been freely discussed in publishing circles forever, it's common knowledge amongst all but the readers. it would seem.

 

[Lu775]

Um, both Lemony (the persona) and Daniel Handler (the author) are men.
Daniel often does live appearences to talk about the books. It was never a secret.
Maybe you're thinking of a different author?