The Bad Beginning, A Multi-Voice Recording

A Series of Unfortunate Events #1

By: Lemony Snicket

Narrated by: Tim Curry, Full Cast

Length: 2 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Like a car alarm, bagpipe music, or a doorbell ringing in the middle of the night, hearing this all-new audio edition of The Bad Beginning will only upset you. This unique multi-voice recording brings the first book in Lemony Snicket's alarming A Series of Unfortunate Events to such terrible life that no one should really have to experience it. Unless you have an ear for such ghastly details as a tragic fire, a nefarious villain, itchy clothing, and cold porridge for breakfast, all narrated in chilly detail by the distinguished, and disturbed, Tim Curry with a team of talented readers, you would be better off listening to something else.

Don't miss the rest of A Series of Unfortunate Events or Audible's exclusive interview with Lemony Snicket!

©1999 Lemony Snicket (P)2004 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Critic reviews

Audie Award Finalist, Children's Titles for Ages 8+, 2005
Grammy Award Nominee, Best Spoken Word Album for Children, 2005
Book Sense Book of the Year Award Finalist, Children's Literature, 2001

"Tension-producing orchestral music, scene-setting sound effects, and most of all, Tim Curry's chocolate-voiced narration captivate the listener in this multicast production of the Lemony Snicket that started it all.... It's all good fun for listening children and their parents." (AudioFile)

A Great Listen

Where does The Bad Beginning, A Multi-Voice Recording rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This recording is one of the best recordings we have come across on Audible so far. The actors are great, and the quality of the production is top notch.

What did you like best about this story?

We loved the suspense and action that was woven throughout the story.

What does Tim Curry and Full Cast bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narrator and cast brought the story to life.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

We laughed a lot!

If you're in the mood, it's quite good

These are uncommonly well voiced by Tim Curry et. al., which was why I bought it in the first place. It has sound effects as well as voicing, but the sound effects enhance and don't get in the way of the story, and Tim Curry is a magnificent orator. I love the way that the more difficult vocabulary words were described for a reader/listener who were not familiar with them, and I enjoyed the pacing of the action. Just when they seem to be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, the train arrives to run them over again. The action is convoluted in just the right way for adolescent readers, so that they are able to see that creative teens can overcome great hardship, and that solutions often come inside books, not video games or TV sitcoms. I think that because I didn't have any adolescents with me to talk over the action as it was occurring, it became a bit depressing. But that's just me. If you like stories of unfortunate things happening to bright children with good attitudes and strong teeth, you will love these books.

Cleverly unique

A really fun listen that was different from everything else put out on pop culture today. Well-written, the narrator did an excellent job and overall, I was really impressed. Two thumbs up!

Great story and awesome narrator

Couldn't have picked a better person to narrate this story. Tim Curry brings the level of creepy you want when reading and listening about Count Olaf

Love it

Great book, great voice actors too! Count Olaf sounds exactly like I imagined, although Sunny sounded really odd, and Violet and Klaus's voices were a bit too similar to tell apart to me at first. Either way, very enjoyable!

Terrific performance

Impressive, quite a good performance from the original Netflix serie actors. I loved it :)

Very Very Good

Very good i like this series it is amazing i recommend this book i like it

Fabulous! Perfection with Full Cast!

Tim Curry did a sensational job of narration. I picked this one up because he is one of my favourite actors. Normally I don't care for full cast recordings because of the distracting background sounds and noise which makes it difficult for me to hear pieces of the dialogue. But this was very easy on the ears. It was clear and extremely well done. And the additional sound effects were tastefully placed. I just hope there are more from this series!

great reading

The reading was great, will listen again. The whole cast did wonderfully and brought the book to life.

Great Kids' Book

Read this one to keep up with my students. I really liked the multi-cast reading of this book and wish others in the series were similar. This would be a great road trip option for the 7-11 age group and I love how the author uses big words and defines them for the kids. Would recommend!