In 1999, Lemony Snicket crept onto the scene with what was to be a 13-book series "A Series of Unfortunate Events" about the Baudelaire orphans, their wicked "uncle" and various other characters-- friends, foes and depressingly tongue-in-cheek adventures. (The movie did not capture the spirit of the books very well... surprise, surprise.)I liked these books a lot, not because the stories were uplifting-- they're not, and not because the adventures are unique, though they are, and not even because the characters are charming, though many of them are. I liked them mostly because of the way Lemony Snicket (a.k.a. Daniel Handler) plays with the English language.
