40 Fun Facts About The Bad Beginning

How does Violet Baudelaire sign the wedding document on stage in The Bad Beginning, spoiling Count Olaf's scheme?

With her left hand: Violet is right-handed, and the law said the document must be signed in her own hand. That technicality canceled the wedding on the spot.

In The Bad Beginning, what does Count Olaf dangle baby Sunny inside to force Violet and Klaus to obey him?

A birdcage, hung outside a high window of Count Olaf's house, kept Sunny hostage. Olaf threatened her life unless her brother and sister went along with his plan.

Which disaster kills the Baudelaire parents and destroys their mansion at the start of The Bad Beginning?

A fire destroyed the mansion while the three children were away for the day, and they spend the rest of the series trying to learn the truth about it.

What image is tattooed on Count Olaf's ankle and repeated all over his house in The Bad Beginning?

An eye is inked on Count Olaf's ankle, and later books reveal it as the badge of a secret society called V.F.D.

Which star played Count Olaf in the 2004 film that adapted The Bad Beginning and two of its sequels?

Jim Carrey was cast as Count Olaf in 2002, when the film was still being planned as a musical.

What device does Violet Baudelaire invent in The Bad Beginning to climb up to her captive baby sister?

A grappling hook got Violet all the way up the wall, but one of Count Olaf's henchmen was waiting at the top and locked her in.

Which feature of baby Sunny Baudelaire does The Bad Beginning describe as unusually large and sharp?

Her teeth, four of them, are Sunny's great talent: she loves to bite things, a skill that gets her family out of trouble more than once in later books.

Where are the Baudelaire children when Mr. Poe brings them terrible news at the start of The Bad Beginning?

Briny Beach is the last place the three children are happy: Arthur Poe's news there sends them to stay at his own home and then on to Count Olaf's.

Which San Francisco author published The Bad Beginning under the pen name Lemony Snicket?

Daniel Handler invented the name Lemony Snicket while researching his first novel, so he could request material from organizations without giving his real name.

How is Count Olaf said to be connected to the Baudelaire orphans when Mr. Poe sends them to live with him?

A distant relative is all Count Olaf claims to be, a cousin many times removed, and the children had never even heard of him before moving in.

Which Italian pasta sauce do the Baudelaires cook for Count Olaf's theater troupe in The Bad Beginning?

Puttanesca, a sauce from Naples made with tomatoes, olives, capers, anchovies and garlic, is the recipe the children pick out of a borrowed cookbook.

What does Count Olaf angrily demand for dinner after the Baudelaires have already cooked pasta for his troupe?

Roast beef was never on the menu, because Count Olaf had not asked for it. When the children said so, he lost his temper and hoisted Sunny into the air.

Which kindly next-door neighbor of Count Olaf lets the Baudelaires use her library in The Bad Beginning?

Justice Strauss is the one adult who is kind to the children, and a law book from her shelves is what lets Klaus work out Count Olaf's plan.

What is the title of the play Count Olaf forces the Baudelaire children to perform in The Bad Beginning?

The Marvelous Marriage looks like a harmless show, but its wedding scene is real: Count Olaf plans to become Violet's husband on stage and take control of the family fortune.

Which name, an anagram of Count Olaf, is credited as the author of his play in The Bad Beginning?

Al Funcoot is the first of many such puzzles: in later books Count Olaf's henchmen hide behind more rearrangements of his name.

What does Violet Baudelaire tie her hair up with whenever she is concentrating on a new invention?

A ribbon keeps the hair out of Violet's face so she can think clearly, and the habit stays her trademark through the whole series.

Why does Mr. Poe refuse the neighbor's offer to adopt the Baudelaires at the end of The Bad Beginning?

The will forbids it, at least as Arthur Poe interprets the parents' wishes, so the three orphans are driven away to wait for a new guardian.

Which part of Count Olaf's filthy house are the Baudelaire orphans forbidden to enter in The Bad Beginning?

The tower is off limits from the first day, which makes it the natural place for Count Olaf to hide a hostage later in the story.

What is the profession of Mr. Poe, who manages the Baudelaire fortune in The Bad Beginning?

Banker Arthur Poe also has the job of finding the orphans a guardian, and he is so slow to spot danger that Count Olaf fools him in book after book.

Who plays Count Olaf in the Netflix series whose first two episodes adapt The Bad Beginning?

Neil Patrick Harris also sings the show's opening theme, a song called Look Away.

Which constant habit of Mr. Poe keeps interrupting his own sentences throughout The Bad Beginning?

Coughing into a white handkerchief is Arthur Poe's trademark across the whole series, and the children learn it is the one thing about him they can count on.

Besides one small bed, what does Count Olaf give the three Baudelaire children for their room in The Bad Beginning?

A pile of rocks is Count Olaf's idea of toys, a measure of how little he cares for the three children he has agreed to raise.

How does Count Olaf escape arrest in the theater at the end of The Bad Beginning, once his scheme is exposed?

The lights go out when one of his troupe flips the switch, and in the darkness Count Olaf whispers a threat to Violet before slipping away.

Which animal appears beside a lamppost in the last illustration of The Bad Beginning, as a clue to the next book?

A snake points ahead to The Reptile Room, and the sequels keep up the trick, each hiding a hint at the next book in its final picture.

The Baudelaire fortune in The Bad Beginning cannot be used until Violet Baudelaire reaches which milestone?

Coming of age means turning eighteen for Violet, four years away when the story opens, which is why Count Olaf goes looking for a shortcut.

Two women in Count Olaf's theater troupe in The Bad Beginning always keep their faces covered in what?

White powder is all that identifies the pair, who are never given names; the books simply call them the white-faced women.

To which lost love, later revealed as the Baudelaires' mother, does Lemony Snicket dedicate The Bad Beginning?

Beatrice is named in a short, mournful dedication at the front of every book in the series, and each one makes plain that she has died.

Which habit of narrator Lemony Snicket recurs in The Bad Beginning whenever he uses an unfamiliar word?

Pausing to define it is a running joke, because the meanings he gives often fit only the scene at hand and would never appear in a dictionary.

Which old-fashioned label, printed in place of a plain volume number, marks The Bad Beginning as the series opener?

Book the First starts a pattern the sequels keep up, counting on as Book the Second, Book the Third and so on to the end of the series.

What does narrator Lemony Snicket keep advising readers of The Bad Beginning to do, even in its blurb?

Stop reading the book and pick something cheerful is his constant advice, a warning that returns in the blurb of every sequel.

Which Latin phrase does Mr. Poe use to tell the Baudelaires that Count Olaf may raise them as he sees fit?

In loco parentis means in the place of a parent, and Arthur Poe uses it to wave away the children's complaints about their new guardian's cruelty.

What are the first names of Mr. Poe's two sons, whom the Baudelaires briefly live with in The Bad Beginning?

Edgar and Albert, together with their surname, look like a nod to Edgar Allan Poe, one of many literary in-jokes hidden in the characters' names.

How does Count Olaf respond at dinner when Klaus Baudelaire complains that the three siblings have only one bed?

Slaps him hard across the cheek while the troupe looks on, and the next day the children go to Arthur Poe for help that he declines to give.

Which American illustrator drew the cover and pictures for The Bad Beginning and every later book in the series?

Brett Helquist studied engineering before switching to art, and his drawings for the series later spread to its audiobook covers and calendars.

Besides Roald Dahl, which American writer and artist does the author of The Bad Beginning credit as an influence?

Edward Gorey wrote the first book the future Lemony Snicket ever bought as a child, a tale called The Blue Aspic.

The paperback retitled The Bad Beginning; or, Orphans! was designed to imitate which kind of Victorian publication?

A penny dreadful was a cheap serial of lurid stories, so the edition added new pictures and the opening part of a comic strip told in installments.

Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire are believed to be named after which couple from a notorious criminal case?

The von Bülows were Claus, who was accused of trying to kill his wife, and Sunny, the wife herself: a dark joke hidden in a children's book.

Which British actor narrates the original audiobook of The Bad Beginning?

Tim Curry voiced most of the series; the author himself read books three to five, found the work very hard and handed the job back.

The 2004 film based on The Bad Beginning and two sequels won its only Academy Award in which category?

Best Makeup rewarded the work of turning the film's star into Count Olaf and his disguises; its other three nominations all came up empty.

Which director, first hired for the 2004 film, later directed both Netflix episodes of The Bad Beginning?

Barry Sonnenfeld quit the film over its budget before shooting, then got a second chance at the story more than a decade later on television.