beauty and the beast and other fairy tales charles perrault

One day he learns that one of his ships has been recovered and journeys to town to claim what’s rightfully his. Beauty’s father has lost everything he has to pirates.

This version, while different from the Disney movie we all love, is still quite magical. Each page of text is framed by roses and leaves, and the periodic full-page illustrations are very detailed. What better way to kick off A Week of Beauty and the Beast in honor of the upcoming release of Disney’s live action version of the story than to start at the very beginning with the 18th Century original tale? I’ve lived my life loving the animated Disney movie, so I was excited to read the story that inspired it all. My copy of this story is illustrated by Walter Crane, and it looks like an illuminated manuscript. The new abridged version became more successful, and Madame de Beaumont is regarded now as the author of the classic story. Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont simplified and shortened the Villeneuve’s work and published it in a magazine for young ladies. The best-known version of the tale appeared sixteen years later.

It was a novel-length story intended for adult readers and addressing the issues of the marriage system of the day in which women had no right to choose their husband or to refuse to marry. Its first published version was written by French author Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve in the middle 18th century. Beauty and the Beast by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumontīeauty and the Beast is a traditional fairy tale.

Beauty and the beast and other fairy tales charles perrault