Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are intelligent children.

They are charming, and resourceful, and have pleasant facial features. Unfortunately, they are exceptionally unlucky. In The Hostile Hospital the siblings face a suspicious shopkeeper, unnecessary surgery, heart-shaped balloons, and some very startling news about a fire. In the tradition of great storytellers, from Dickens to Dahl, comes an exquisitely dark comedy that is both literary and irreverent, hilarious and deftly crafted.

Despite their wretched contents, 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' has sold 60 million copies worldwide and been made into a Hollywood film starring Jim Carrey. And in the future things are poised to get much worse, thanks to the forthcoming Netflix series directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. You have been warned.