BookRank

Reading order

A Series of Unfortunate Events reading order

Daniel Handler

  1. The Bad Beginning1999
  2. The Reptile Room1999
  3. The Wide Window2000
  4. The Miserable Mill2000
  5. The Austere Academy2000
  6. The Ersatz Elevator2001
  7. The Vile Village2001
  8. The Hostile Hospital2001
  9. The Carnivorous Carnival2002
  10. The Slippery Slope2003
  11. The Grim Grotto2004
  12. The Penultimate Peril2005
  13. Every volume in order (13) ↓
13 volumes
Volumes
1999–2006
Published
about 60 h
Reading time
Completed
Status

Quick answer

The Bad Beginning
Start withThe Bad Beginning1999 · Volume 1 of 13
Open the volume →Buy the first volumeListen to the audiobook

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Publication order

13 volumes1999–2006Completed

  • Thirteen books, read in order, no exceptions: the Baudelaires lose something in every volume and the losses accumulate, the villains recur, and the questions Snicket raises in book one are still being answered in book thirteen — where they are mostly not answered at all, on purpose.
  • The two extras are for afterwards.
  • The Beatrice Letters is a puzzle box that assumes you have finished, and the Unauthorized Autobiography is a joke told at the expense of readers who have.

A plan for the whole series

13 volumes, 3,229 pages, about 60 hours. At 45 min a day that is about 3 months.

Stages

4 stages, with 3 short books from outside the series between them. You finish around February 1, 2027, 16 days later than in one go.

  1. Stage 118 habout 3 weeksby November 22, 2026
  2. Short breakThe Fire Next Time · James Baldwin · 120 pp. · score 8.82 h, by November 26, 2026. A short book from another shelf, so you come back to the series hungry.
  3. Stage 220 habout 4 weeksby December 23, 2026
  4. BreakMaus · Art Spiegelman · 295 pp. · score 9.05 h, by January 1, 2027. A short book from another shelf, so you come back to the series hungry.
  5. Stage 317 habout 3 weeksby January 23, 2027
  6. Short breakThe Emperor's Soul · Brandon Sanderson · 96 pp. · score 8.82 h, by January 26, 2027. A short book from another shelf, so you come back to the series hungry.
  7. Stage 45 h6 daysby February 1, 2027
  8. The end of the series
    February 1, 2027
In one goJanuary 16, 2027about 3 months
In stages, with breaksFebruary 1, 2027about 3 months · +9 h of other books

We count 1.1 min per page, the pace of an average novel reader. Faster? Move the slider.

≈ next to a page count: a volume with no page count in our data is counted at this series’s average.

How this plan is calculated

The plan comes from the pages and ratings of each volume: we split the series into stages of about three weeks’ reading, size each break to the stage before it, and read the chance of finishing from how many readers rate the last volume compared with the first. How we work out the plan →

Every volume in order

Read: 0 of 13

No volume in this series has enough ratings to enter a ranking yet, so the list carries no scores — the order and the volumes are still complete.

  1. The Bad Beginning
    The Bad Beginning1999Start here
    –Not ranked yet
  2. The Reptile Room
    The Reptile Room1999
    –Not ranked yet
  3. The Wide Window
    The Wide Window2000
    –Not ranked yet
  4. The Miserable Mill
    The Miserable Mill2000
    –Not ranked yet
  5. The Austere Academy
    The Austere Academy2000
    –Not ranked yet
  6. The Ersatz Elevator
    The Ersatz Elevator2001
    –Not ranked yet
  7. The Vile Village
    The Vile Village2001
    –Not ranked yet
  8. The Hostile Hospital
    The Hostile Hospital2001
    –Not ranked yet
  9. The Carnivorous Carnival
    The Carnivorous Carnival2002
    –Not ranked yet
  10. The Slippery Slope
    The Slippery Slope2003
    –Not ranked yet
  11. The Grim Grotto
    The Grim Grotto2004
    –Not ranked yet
  12. The Penultimate Peril
    The Penultimate Peril2005
    –Not ranked yet
  13. The End
    The End2006
    –Not ranked yet

Order checked by hand · Order and years: Wikidata (CC0). Spotted an error? Tell us. · Data updated October 28, 2026

Extras, short stories and spin-offs

Not needed to follow the main story — read them after the series or skip them.

  • The Beatrice Letters2006

Frequently asked questions

Which A Series of Unfortunate Events book is the longest?

“The Slippery Slope” is the longest at 337 pages; the shortest is “The Bad Beginning” with 162 pages.

What should I read after A Series of Unfortunate Events?

After the main series: The Beatrice Letters.