i'm so happy-go-lucky that lucky and happy people are going to beat me with sticks out of pure, unbridled jealousy! (p. 277, the grim grotto)

lemony snicket, you are a masterful prosewright. i've completed book the eleventh, so there are only two more to go.

it's a curious series of books. the first few are more simple plot-based action tales, but the last few are morality tales. clearly, the series took on more depth with its increased popularity. one wonders if mr snicket had written the outline for all 13 volumes in advance, or if he made them up as he went along, or employed some combination of the two approaches. at any rate, the later books have a different feel that the early books.

all the books contain humor, random descriptions & dialog, fanciful situations, and the basic concept of orphans banding together to overcome hardship, but the early books contain more blatant satire while the later books contain more subtle teaching. the groundwork of a dichotomy [good v. evil] is laid from the beginning, and the comprehension of good & evil is later expanded to allow room for that gray area between the two. as the hook-handed man says, on p. 223 of the grim grotto: "people aren't either wicked or noble. they're like chef's salads, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict."