''Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography'' is a fictional "autobiography" of ''

A Series of Unfortunate Events ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'' is a series of thirteen Children's literature, children's novels written by American author Daniel Handler under the pen name Lemony Snicket. The books follow the turbulent lives of orphaned siblings List of A ...

'' author and character

Lemony Snicket Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American author Daniel Handler and a fictional character of his creation. Handler has published various children's books under the name, including ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'', which has sold over 60 millio ...

. It was published on May 1, 2002.

Synopsis and style

Although it is labeled "Unauthorized" for humor, the book is in fact official. Beginning with a multi-layered

introduction Introduction, The Introduction, Intro, or The Intro may refer to: General use * Introduction (music), an opening section of a piece of music * Introduction (writing), a beginning section to a book, article or essay which states its purpose and g ...

Daniel Handler Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970) is an American author, musician, screenwriter, television writer, and television producer. He is best known for his children's book series ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'' and '' All the Wrong Question ...

that encompasses twelve of the book's thirteen chapters, the book is largely made up of

facsimile A facsimile (from Latin ''fac simile'', "to make alike") is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from other forms of r ...

documents, such as old newspaper excerpts and letters, as well as excerpts from other books. The book also uses a mixture of

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

photography by Meredith Heuer and Julie Blattberg and 1930s photography gathered from an archive of photographs originally used for other purposes. It has a reversible cover, making it possible to disguise the autobiography as ''The Luckiest Kids in the World: The Pony Party'' by Loney M. Setnick (an anagram for Lemony Snicket). The reversible cover also includes a back cover summary which describes the book as "delightfully appropriate". The book helps clear up some loose ends from the series, but it also introduces many more mysteries, as well as elucidates details which readers might have missed in previous books. It also answers and raises many questions about the mysterious V.F.D. organization, a key player in ''

''.

Reception

This book sold 139,000 paperback copies in the United States in 2003. Karen Valby of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'' scored the book a B, saying, "...the whole thing is a bit of a vanity project, a bizarre exercise in style and trickery, but it will whet the appetites of fans as they wait for the ninth book. Newcomers, though, should start with ''

The Bad Beginning ''Book the First: The Bad Beginning'' is the first novel of the children's novel series ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'' by Lemony Snicket. The novel tells the story of three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who become orphans f ...

''".

Synopsis and style

Reception

References

See also