How many writers can explain the work of Richard Wright in terms most ten-year-olds can understand? I only know of one. I never even *attempted* Wright until my Junior year in High School despite consistently, without ever a single exception in twelve years of mandatory standardized evaluations, placing at *least* three years above my grade level (unless maybe you count the last few years, when the scales no longer went high enough), and I found him one heck of a challenge, and that didn't even include Native Son (which Mr. Handler aka Snicket decodes with such smooth apparent ease you'd think it were Richard Scarry instead).
On to the book itself... in this volume Our Heroes the young Beaudelaires give us that particular pleasure that comes from re-encountering nearly *all* of the vile villains, rotten rapscallions, and heartless hooligans they've escaped through clever collaboration and endless effort (despite their lousy luck) since their parents perished in that colossal conflagration (a phrase which here means something like "pernicious plot perpetrated by avaricious, arsonous actors") nearly eleven editions ago. Among the hindering hallways of the Hotél Denouement the reader can learn the Dewey Decimal system, the onerous obligations (and occasional opportunities) of a common conciérge, what "Justice is Blind" does NOT mean, and how to persist despite regular reminders that one's best brain-work still might very well be completely "WRONGGGG!". We are also reminded that not all siblings with the same age and birth-date are twins, not all reflections are illusions, that a sauna has more merits than one, that a picnic can be just the thing when enemies are everywhere and menacing misfortunes mount, and that athletic tap-dancing cow-poke pirates are not necessarily as formidable as they first seem. And, in perhaps the least-liked lesson of all, we learn that when fighting fires, sometimes the most effective tool is another fire.
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From the Publisher
A Series of Unfortunate Events #1: The Bad Beginning
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A Series of Unfortunate Events #2: The Reptile Room
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A Series of Unfortunate Events #3: The Wide Window
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A Series of Unfortunate Events #4: The Miserable Mill
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A Series of Unfortunate Events #5: The Austere Academy
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A Series of Unfortunate Events #6: The Ersatz Elevator
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| Customer Reviews |
9,616
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4,569
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| Price | $9.49 | $8.25 | $8.65 | $9.03 | $8.54 | $12.42 |
| Wretched books from miserable author Lemony Snicket | In the tradition of great storytellers, from Dickens to Dahl, comes an exquisitely dark comedy that is both literary and irreverent, hilarious and deftly crafted. | Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are intelligent children. They are charming, and resourceful, and have pleasant facial features. Unfortunately, they are exceptionally unlucky. | If you haven't got the stomach for a story that includes a hurricane, a signalling device, hungry leeches, cold cucumber soup, a horrible villain, and a doll named Pretty Penny, then this book will probably fill you with despair. | The pages of this book, I'm sorry to inform you, contain such unpleasantries as a giant pincher machine, a bad casserole, a man with a cloud of smoke where his head should be, a hypnotist, a terrible accident resulting in injury, and coupons. | As the three Baudelaire orphans warily approach their new home Prufrock Preparatory School, they can't help but notice the enormous stone arch bearing the school's motto Memento Mori or "Remember you will die." | In their most daring misadventure, the Baudelaire orphans are adopted by very, very rich people, whose penthouse apartment is located mysteriously close to the place where all their misfortune began. |
A Series of Unfortunate Events #7: The Vile Village
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A Series of Unfortunate Events #8: The Hostile Hospital
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A Series of Unfortunate Events #9: The Carnivorous Carnival
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A Series of Unfortunate Events #10: The Slippery Slope
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A Series of Unfortunate Events #11: The Grim Grotto
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A Series of Unfortunate Events #12: The Penultimate Peril
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| Customer Reviews |
1,902
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1,772
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1,706
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1,719
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| Price | $8.87 | $8.99 | $8.64 | $8.93 | $9.91 | $8.13 |
| I can think of no single reason why anyone would want to open a book containing such unpleasant matters as migrating crows, an angry mob, a newspaper headline, the arrest of innocent people, the Deluxe Cell, and some very strange hats. | The Baudelaires need a safe place to stay—somewhere far away from terrible villains and local police. A quiet refuge where misfortune never visits. Might Heimlich Hospital be just the place? | For the Baudelaire orphans, their time at the carnival turns out to be yet another episode in a now unbearable series of unfortunate events. In fact, in this installment, the siblings must confront a terrible lie, a caravan, and Chabo the wolf baby. | The tenth book in this outrageous publishing effort features more than the usual dose of distressing details, such as snow gnats, an organised troupe of youngsters, and an evil villain with a dastardly plan. | The intrepid siblings delve further into the dark mystery surrounding the death of their parents and the baffling VFD organisation. | Lemony Snicket returns with the last book before the last book of his bestselling A Series of Unfortunate Events. Scream and run away before the secrets of the series are revealed! |
A Series of Unfortunate Events #13: The End
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The Unauthorized Biography
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A Series of Unfortunate Events Box: The Complete Wreck (Books 1-13)
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The Composer is Dead
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The Lump of Coal
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2,393
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| Price | $6.67 | $6.39 | $97.33 | $15.99 | $6.64 |
| The thirteenth and final installment in the groundbreaking series will answer readers' most burning questions: Will Count Olaf prevail? Will the Baudelaires survive? Will the series end happily? | Answers questions about Lemony Snicket, author of the distressing serial concerning the trials of the charming but unlucky Baudelaire orphans. | Some boxes should never be opened. For the first time, the complete A Series of Unfortunate Events is available in one awful package! | In this perplexing murder mystery from New York Times bestselling author Lemony Snicket, everyone seems to have a motive, everyone has an alibi, and nearly everyone is a musical instrument. But the composer is still dead. | This is a story about a lump of coal who can think, talk, and move itself around. Is there a more charming holiday tale to behold? Probably, but Lemony Snicket has not written one. |
About the author
Used and defective
This book is dirty, written in, and a botched copy. The pages are cut at a poor angle and do not fit the book. The cover is glued on crooked.
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- Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2014
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Top reviews from other countries
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Susy Blanco AlvarezReviewed in Mexico on July 21, 2019
Los recomiendo altamente excelente calidad del libro
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