Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast, illustrated by Hilary Knight.

Originally published in 1756, as part of her Magasin des enfants, ou dialogues entre une sage gouvernante et plusieurs de ses élèves, which was then translated into English in 1757 ("The Young Misses Magazine, or, Dialogues Between a Discreet Governess and Several Young Ladies of the First Rank Under Her Education"), Mme. Le Prince de Beaumont's Beauty and the Beast is the version of this popular story with which most modern readers are familiar. Although not the first written version of the tale - Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve published a much lengthier version in 1740, as part of her La jeune ameriquaine, et les contes marins (translations of both versions can be found in show more Jack Zipes' excellent Beauties, Beasts and Enchantments: Classic French Fairy Tales) - it was the one to survive in the popular mind, the one that was most influential, in the evolution of the story over time.

This picture-book contains the complete original story by Le Prince de Beaumont, translated by Richard Howard, and illustrated by the celebrated American artist, Hilary Knight. It also includes a brief afterword by French filmmaker Jean Cocteau, whose black and white film adaptation of this story is considered a classic of the genre. As always, I enjoyed the story, being struck, in the course of this reading, by the presence of Beauty's three loving brothers. I don't think I'd ever really considered them before (some retellings leave them out altogether), but suddenly I found myself wondering about them, and whether any revisionist take had ever concentrated on them...

In any case, despite my enjoyment of the text - not the best translation ever, but readable enough - I wasn't that taken with Knight's illustrations. I was surprised by this, as I did appreciate his retelling of Cinderella, but somehow, this artwork just wasn't for me. I found the Beast here interesting - he had a sort of horned, "Green Man" appearance - but I can't say that the rest of it, from human figures to background settings, appealed to me greatly. In fact, I found some scenes rather repellent - not so much because they were grotesque, but because they departed so thoroughly from my own internal vision of the tale. Still, tastes vary, so fans of the illustrator might still want to peruse this particular illustrated edition. They might also want to seek out the versions (also fairly faithful to the original narrative) illustrated by Diane Goode or Binette Schroeder, to see how other artists have dealt with the same themes. show less

Beauty and the Beast, illustrated by Diane Goode

A little more than a year ago, inspired by scholar Betsy Hearne's Beauties and Beasts - a fabulous collection of twenty-seven folktales from around the world, drawn predominantly from tales types 425 ("The Search for a Lost Husband"), 425A ("The Monster or Animal as Bridegroom"), 425C ("The Beauty and the Beast"), and 402A ("The Quest for a Lost Bride") in the Aarne-Thompson folklore classification system - I decided to track down as many picture-book retellings of this classic fairy-tale (and all its variants) that I could. Naturally (this being me), I was soon distracted by other projects, and got sidetracked for a time. But now here I am, with at least ten Beauty and the Beast show more retellings lined up to read, poised to finally begin again...

This picture-book retelling by Diane Goode presents a fairly faithful translation of Mme. Leprince de Beaumont's original La Belle et la Bête, first published in 1756 (itself a revision of a lengthier tale, by the same name, published by Mme. de Villeneuve in 1740), together with Goode's full-page illustrations, mostly in color, but a few in black and white. I don't think I would have stumbled upon it casually, since it is long out of print, and not on my local library's shelves, but as it was listed in Hearne's appendices, I requested it from another branch. Hurray for cooperative library systems!

I love this story, and am always happy to see a full translation of the Leprince de Beaumont text - the version of the story that is "the" Beauty and the Beast we currently know - so I enjoyed reading Goode's book. The artwork, on the other hand, was something of a mixed bag for me. I loved the black and white pencil drawings, particularly the two-page spread in which Beauty's father is riding through the snowy woods, and the portrait of Beauty herself, in profile, looking into her mirror, but some of the color illustrations weren't quite as successful. The eyes, in particularly, seemed awkwardly done, and I found it rather distracting. Still, this is a solid retelling of the tale, one I would recommend to readers interested in a fairly faithful retelling, with the full Leprince de Beaumont text. show less

This is perhaps the best-known version of La Belle et la Bête (and the only version I could find on Hoopla). It’s a much shorter adaptation of the original story by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. It was sweet in places, and moving, but also it felt a bit rushed at times. I’m curious as to what was cut out, and while this version is decent in its own right, my overwhelming feeling upon finishing was simply a strong desire to read the original.

A quick read. The point seemed to be that good things happen to kind hard working young women especially if they seek out ugly dull men (or, at least, men not overcome with their own beauty and wit) with kind hearts, good temperments and being a little overdramatic about the actions of others. Threatening to kill, no, promising to kill a man for taking a rose, unless that man gave up a daughter to die in his place. Later starving himself because the woman he kind of likes is late returning by three days.

Written in another era, Beast would be seen as an overly dramatic overly emotional bully. Emo.

Beauty being overly selfless, intelligent, hard working young woman.

A match made in heaven, I'm sure.

A quick read. The point seemed to be that good things happen to kind hard working young women especially if they seek out ugly dull men (or, at least, men not overcome with their own beauty and wit) with kind hearts, good temperments and being a little overdramatic about the actions of others. Threatening to kill, no, promising to kill a man for taking a rose, unless that man gave up a daughter to die in his place. Later starving himself because the woman he kind of likes is late returning by three days.

Written in another era, Beast would be seen as an overly dramatic overly emotional bully. Emo.

Beauty being overly selfless, intelligent, hard working young woman.

A match made in heaven, I'm sure.

I love the fairy tale of Beauty of the Beast and I have read a number of variations on it, but I have never read the original story. So, I was eager to do so and since it was available for free on my Kindle I thought, why not? It is a good story, although pretty bare bones compared to some of the modern retellings I have had.

Everyone should know the basic story so I am not going to provide a synopsis. Many parts of this story are represented in Disney's Beauty and the Beast; although Disney did change some of the things and add some. For example Belle's father is a merchant and Gaston is a figment of Disney's imagination.

The basic parts of the fairy tale that I know and loved were present though. Belle is kind hearted and loves books. show more The Beast is kind but volatile. They both fall in love with each other for who they are and not what they look like. All in all it is a very romantic fairy tale and I enjoyed finally being able to read the original.

I recommend reading this if you are a fairy tale fan or a fan of Beauty and the Beast; it is always wonderful to see where these stories came from. If you are a big Beauty and the Beast fan I also recommend Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley and by Alex Finn, both are excellent retellings of this wonderful fairy tale. show less

This is the classic 18th century version of this classic fairy tale, which forms the basis to almost all more recent adaptations. In fact the author adapted it from a longer version published slightly earlier by another female French author Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, which contains a whole new back story for both characters after Beauty kisses the Beast and he turns into a prince. Apparently, folklorists have shown that the original version may date back some 4,000 years as there are similar versions in different cultures all over the world. This version is accompanied by some lovely colour pictures in a woodcut style.