书名：The Bad Beginning悲惨的开始
难度：Lexile蓝思阅读指数1010L
作者：Lemony Snicket
出版社名称：HarperCollins
出版时间：2007
语种：英文
ISBN：9780061146305
商品尺寸：13 x 0.9 x 19.4 cm
包装：平装
页数：176
★好故事陪伴孩子成长，喜欢“查理九世”系列的读者不可错过！
★电影、美剧《雷蒙·斯尼奇不幸历险》的原著小说
★世界销量超过6500万册，被翻译成41种语言
★位居《纽约时报》儿童类畅销书榜超过130周
★《时代》杂志、Goodreads网站100部青少年图书之一

“波特莱尔大冒险”是美国作家雷蒙尼·斯尼科特的系列小说作品，The Bad Beginning《波特莱尔大冒险1：悲惨的开始》为其中的第1部。不幸全面蔓延，所有你不想、不敢、不愿、不忍看到的孤儿悲惨境遇与冒险经历，都在其中！读这本书，可以培养克服困难的勇气，学习可用于应对危机的观察力与应变力，形成独立人格，享受自信！

“波特莱尔大冒险”刻意营造神秘氛围，书中字汇丰富，充满揶揄、嘲讽意味，和一般儿童文学大不相同。你如果喜欢冒险故事，千万不可错过这一系列！

媒体评论：
这一系列图书已经成为一种文学现象。在销量和主人公形象上，可与“哈利·波特”系列相比。——《泰晤士报》

罗纳德·达尔和菲利普·阿德的综合体。——评论人布鲁斯·巴特

令人兴奋，幽默，黑暗程度刚刚好。——凯瑟琳·佩洛西，《童书评论》

“波特莱尔大冒险”系列持续在竞争激烈的儿童文学市场火热发烧。
——陶德·李奥帕德，CNN

“波特莱尔大冒险”系列在儿童文学读物领域掀起一股骚动。——《纽约时报》

“波特莱尔大冒险”系列吸引了大批热情的书迷。——《美国新闻世界报道》

“波特莱尔大冒险”系列是“哈利·波特”系列的挑战者。——《新闻周刊》

有趣……读者们有福了，波特莱尔孤儿三姐弟的冒险看来还没结束。——《出版人周刊》

“波特莱尔大冒险”系列是“哈利·波特”系列之后有趣味的儿童文学作品……这一系列趣味盎然的儿童小说，已经打破魔法男孩施的魔咒。——《娱乐周刊》

“波特莱尔大冒险”系列就像餐会上味道重的调料，每个客人都会抱怨其味道，但先尝的都是它，吃完后还想知道做法。——罗伯特·戴维斯，《华盛顿邮报》

危险，好读，有趣。——《科克斯评论》

情节曲折，词汇丰富，对文学、流行文化和政治均有指涉。而对堕落的资本主义、非理性流行甚至是主体餐厅的讽刺则大快人心。——《旧金山纪事报》

雷蒙尼·斯尼科特让读者在黑暗中发笑。——《人民》

Dear Reader,
Im sorry to say that the book you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant. It tells an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children. Even though they are charming and clever, the Baudelaire siblings lead lives filled with misery and woe. From the very first page of this book when the children are at the beach and receive terrible news, continuing on through the entire story, disaster lurks at their heels. One might say they are magnets for misfortune.
In this short book alone, the three youngsters encounter a greedy and repulsive villain, itchy clothing, a disastrous fire, a plot to steal their fortune, and cold porridge for breakfast.
It is my sad duty to write down these unpleasant tales, but there is nothing stopping you from putting this book down at once and reading something happy, if you prefer that sort of thing.
With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket

Praise for A Series of Unfortunate Events:
“Hilarious. Luckily for fans, the woes of the Baudelaires are far from over.” (Publishers Weekly)

“Those who enjoy a little poison in their porridge will find it wicked good fun.”
(Kirkus Reviews)

“Irrepressible, brave and charming.”(New York Times Book Review)

“With a cast of unforgettable characters, a distinctly literary air, and plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, this is a great match for dark comedy fans.” (Brightly)
奥薇特是个十四岁的聪明女生，脑筋总在吱吱转动。她动脑筋时会用丝带把头发绑起来，避免眼前飘荡的发丝让自己分心。这个喜欢用右手打水漂的小女生，本来也许会成为伟大的发明家，可是在那个阴沉的早晨，她得知父母突然死亡的消息，人生从此改变……

克劳斯是奥薇特的弟弟，戴眼镜，喜欢看书，可惜他所有的书都在夺走父母生命和家里豪宅的那场大火里化为灰烬。他原本以为，可以在书里找到所有问题的答案，可是在经历了一连串的不幸后，他不再那么确定了，尤其是在碰到脚踝上有眼睛刺青的伯爵时……

桑妮是家中的老幺，还只是个婴儿，但你可别小看她，要是被她那口尖牙咬到，你可受不了。桑妮遇到危险时，会拿尖牙当武器。可惜，这件别出心裁的武器在欧拉夫伯爵面前毫无用处。她如果不是只能咿咿呀呀，肯定会告诉你，他们在这本书里有很多不幸，但这只是“悲惨的开始”……
雷蒙尼·斯尼科特是作家丹尼尔·汉德勒的笔名，也是“波特莱尔大冒险”系列13部及相关衍生书中的叙述者。汉德勒生于1970年，1999年出版“波特莱尔大冒险”系列之《悲惨的开始》，讲述孤儿三姐弟的冒险故事，一炮而红，成为美国第1位将“哈利·波特”系列挤下《纽约时报》畅销书前列的作家。

Lemony Snicket claims he was nowhere near the scene of the crime. He is the author of several other unpleasant stories, including those in the bestselling A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Lump of Coal.
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. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire were intelligent children, and they were charming, and resourceful, and had pleasant facial features, but they were extremely unlucky, and most everything that happened to them was rife with misfortune, misery, and despair. I’m sorry to tell you this, but that is how the story goes.
Their misfortune began one day at Briny Beach. The three Baudelaire children lived with their parents in an enormous mansion at the heart of a dirty and busy city, and occasionally their parents gave them permission to take a rickety trolley—the word “rickets” you probably know, here means “unsteady” or “likely to collapse”— alone to the seashore, where they would spend the day as a sort of vacation as long as they were home for dinner. This particular morning it was gray and cloudy, which didn’t bother the Baudelaire youngsters one bit. When it was hot and sunny, Briny Beach was crowded with tourists and it was impossible to find a good place to lay one’s blanket. On gray and cloudy days, the Baudelaires had the beach to themselves to do what they liked.
Violet Baudelaire, the eldest, liked to skip rocks. Like most fourteen-year-olds, she was right-handed, so the rocks skipped farther across the murky water when Violet used her right hand than when she used her left. As she skipped rocks, she was looking out at the horizon and thinking about an invention she wanted to build. Anyone who knew Violet well could tell she was thinking hard, because her long hair was tied up in a ribbon to keep it out of her eyes. Violet had a real knack for inventing and building strange devices, so her brain was often filled with images of pulleys, levers, and gears, and she never wanted to be distracted by something as trivial as her hair. This morning she was thinking about how to construct a device that could retrieve a rock after you had skipped it into the ocean.