|Beauty and the Beast|
Beauty releases the prince from his beastly curse. Artwork from Europa's Fairy Book, by John Batten
|Name||Beauty and the Beast|
|Also known as||Die Schöne und das Biest|
|Aarne-Thompson grouping||ATU 425C (Beauty and the Beast)|
|Published in||La jeune américaine, et les contes marins (1740), by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve; Magasin des enfants (1756), by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont|
|Related||Cupid and Psyche|
Beauty and the Beast (French: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins (The Young American and Marine Tales). Its lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and published first by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756 in Magasin des enfants (Children's Collection) and by Andrew Lang in the Blue Fairy Book of his Fairy Book series in 1889, to produce the version(s) most commonly retold. It was influenced by some earlier Ancient Greek stories, such as "Cupid and Psyche", The Golden Ass written by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis in the 2nd century AD, and The Pig King, an Italian fairytale published by Giovanni Francesco Straparola in The Facetious Nights of Straparola around 1550.
Variants of the tale are known across Europe. In France, for example, Zémire and Azor is an operatic version of the story, written by Marmontel and composed by Grétry in 1771, which had enormous success well into the 19th century; it is based on the second version of the tale. Amour pour amour (Love for love), by Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée, a 1742 play based on de Villeneuve's version. According to researchers at universities in Durham and Lisbon, the story originated around 4,000 years ago.
A widower merchant lives in a mansion with his twelve children (six sons and six daughters). All three of his daughters are very beautiful, but the youngest, Beauty, is the most lovely, as well as kind, well-read, and pure of heart; while the two elder sisters, in contrast, are cruel, selfish, vain, and spoiled. On a dark and stormy night at sea, all of his wealth was robbed by pirates, who sink most of his merchant fleet, and forces the entire family to live in a small barn to work for a living. While Beauty makes a firm resolution to adjust to rural life with a cheerful disposition, her sisters do not and mistake her firmness for insensibility, forcing her into doing household work in an effort to make enough money to buy back their former home.
A year later, the merchant hears from one of his crewmembers that one of the trade ships he had sent has arrived back in port, having escaped the destruction of its companions. Before leaving, he asks his children if they wish for him to bring any gifts back for them. The sons ask for weaponry and horses to hunt with, whereas the oldest daughters ask for clothing, jewels, and the finest dresses possible as they think his wealth has returned. Beauty asks for nothing but her father to be safe, but when he insists on buying her a present, she is satisfied with the promise of a rose after none of those grew last spring. However, to his dismay, the merchant finds that his ship's cargo has been seized to pay his debts, leaving him penniless and unable to buy his children's presents.
On his way back, the merchant becomes caught in a terrible storm. Desperately seeking shelter, he comes upon a mysterious palace. Seeing that no one is home, the merchant sneaks in and finds tables inside laden with food and drinks, which seem to have been left for him by the palace's invisible owner. The merchant accepts this gift and spends the night there. The next morning, the merchant has come to view the palace as his own possession and is about to leave when he sees a rose garden and recalls that Beauty had desired a rose. Without warning, the merchant quickly plucked the loveliest rose he can find, and was about to pluck more to create a bouquet, only to end up being confronted by a hideous "Beast" who warns him that theft of his property, i.e. a rose (after accepting his hospitality), is a charge punishable by death. Realizing his deadly mistake, the merchant begs for forgiveness, revealing that he had only picked the rose as a gift for his youngest daughter. After listening to his story, the Beast reluctantly agrees to let him give the rose to Beauty, but only if the merchant brings Beauty to him in exchange without deception; he makes it clear that Beauty must agree to take his place to the point where he will then treat her as his fiancée, and not his prisoner, while under no illusions about her predicament. Otherwise, the Beast will threateningly destroy his entire family.
At first, the merchant is hesitantly upset about Beauty being abducted into marrying him, but he reluctantly accepts this condition. The Beast sends him on his way atop a magical horse, along with wealth, jewels and fine clothes for his sons and daughters, but stresses that Beauty must never know about his deal. The merchant, upon arriving home, tries to hide the secret from his children, but Beauty pries it from him on purpose. Reacting swiftly, the brothers suggest if they could go to the castle and fight the Beast together, while the older sisters place blame on Beauty for dooming the entire family. The merchant dissuades his children, forbidding them from ever going near the Beast. Eventually, Beauty sneaks away from home later that night against her father's orders to face the Beast alone.
Once she arrives at his palace, the Beast becomes excited to meet her face to face, so he throws a welcome ceremony by treating her to an amazing cabaret show. He gives her lavish clothing and food and carries on lengthy conversations with her and she notes that he is inclined to stupidity rather than savagery. Every night, the Beast asks Beauty to sleep with him, only to be refused each time. After each refusal, Beauty dreams of a handsome "Prince" whom she dances with. Suddenly, a fairy appears and pleads with Beauty to answer why she keeps refusing him, to which she replies that she doesn't know how to love the Beast because she loves him only as a friend and not a seducer. Despite the apparition of the fairy urging her not to be deceived by appearances, she does not make the connection between a "prince" and a "beast" and becomes convinced that the Beast is holding the Prince captive somewhere in his castle. She searches and discovers many enchanted rooms containing sources of entertainment ranging from libraries to aviaries to enchanted windows allowing her to attend the theater. She also comes across many live furniture and other live objects which act as servants, but never the Prince from her dreams.
Throughout an entire month, Beauty lives a life of luxury at the Beast's palace, having every whim catered to, with no end of riches to amuse her and an endless supply of exquisite finery to wear. Eventually, she becomes homesick and begs the Beast to allow her to go see her family again. He allows it on the condition that she returns in exactly one week. Beauty agrees to this and is presented with an enchanted ring which allows her to wake up in her family's new home in an instant when turned three times around her finger. The rest of her family is surprised to find her well fed and dressed in finery. Beauty tries to share the magnificent gowns and jewels the Beast gave her with her older sisters, but they turn into rags at her sisters' touch, and are restored to their splendor when returned to Beauty, as the Beast meant them only for her. Her sisters are envious when they hear of her happy life at the castle, and, overhearing that she must return to the Beast on a certain day, try to persuade her to steer clear of the Beast, even her father threatens to disown Beauty if she refuses to marry his younger and wealthier cousin next week, a wedding which was arranged for his youngest daughter instead, snatching the ring away from her to prevent her from going back to the Beast's castle. When she then pleads for the marriage with the merchant's cousin to be delayed, her brothers reject her, believing she knows too much about the Beast. Beauty is now shaken by her family's overprotection, and she reluctantly agrees to make it official, even if she stays with her family a lot longer.
A week has passed and she begins hallucinating about the Beast lying dead in his quarters back at his castle and hastens to return; she immediately steals back the ring from her father and uses it to return to the Beast. Once she is back in the castle, Beauty's fears are confirmed as she finds the Beast murdered in cold blood at the hands of an angry mob sent by her father in an effort to keep his children, even Beauty, away from him. Now completely devastated over her sins, Beauty bursts into tears and laments that she should have learned how to love the Beast in the first place, screaming "I am sorry! This was all my fault!". Suddenly, when she says those magic words, the Beast is transformed into the handsome prince from Beauty's dreams. The Prince informs her that long ago, a powerful witch turned him into a hideous beast for his selfishness after trying to seduce him and that only by finding true love, despite his ugliness, could the curse be broken. He and Beauty are married and they live happily ever after together.
Beaumont greatly pared down the cast of characters and simplified the tale to an almost archetypal simplicity. The story begins in much the same way, although now the merchant has only six children: three sons and three daughters of which Beauty is one. The circumstances leading to her arrival at the Beast's castle unfolds in a similar manner and on this arrival she is informed that she is mistress there and he will obey her. Beaumont strips most of the detail and lavish descriptions present on Beauty's exploration of the palace in Villeneuve's versions and quickly jumps to her return home. She is given leave to remain there for a week and when she arrives her sisters plot to feign fondness for her to entice her to remain another week in hopes that the Beast will devour her in his anger. Again, she returns to him dying and restores him to life. They then marry and live happily ever after and this ends Beaumont's tale as she omits the background information given on both the Prince and his family and Beauty and hers.
The tale has become one of the most popular in oral tradition.
Emmanuel Cosquin collected a version with a tragic ending from Lorraine, in northeastern France, titled The White Wolf (Le Loup blanc) in which the youngest daughter asks her father to bring her a singing rose when he returns. Because the man cannot find a singing rose for his youngest daughter he refuses to return home until he finds one. When he finally finds singing roses, is in the castle of the titular white wolf, who initially wants to kill him for daring to steal his roses, but when he hears about his daughters he changes his mind and agrees to spare him his life, with the condition he must give him the first living being that greets him when he returns home, who turns out to be his youngest daughter. In the castle the girl discovers the white wolf is enchanted and can turn into a human at night, but she must not tell anyone about it. Unfortunately the girl is later visited by her two elder sisters, who pressure her to tell them what is happening. After she finally does it, the castle crumbles and the wolf dies.
Henri Pourrat collected a version from Auvergne, in south-central France, titled Belle Rose (sometimes translated in English as Lovely Rose). In this version the heroine and her sisters are the daughters of a poor peasant and named after flowers, with the protagonist being called Rose and her sisters Marguerite (Daisy) and Julianne respectively. The Beast is described having a mastiff jaw, lizard legs and a salamander's body. The ending is closer to Villeneuve's and Beaumont's versions, with Rose rushing back to the beast castle and finds the Beast lying besides a fountain, dying. When the Beast asks her if she knows that he can't live without her Rose answers yes, and the Beast turn back into a human, explaining to Rose that he was a prince cursed for mocking a beggar, who could only be disenchanted by a poor but kind-hearted maiden. Unlike in Beaumont's version it is not mentioned that the protagonist's sisters are punished at the end.
The tale is surprisingly popular in the Italian oral tradition. Christian Schneller collected a variant from Trentino titled The Singing, Dancing and Music-making Leaf (German: Vom singenden, tanzenden und musicirenden Blatte Italian: La foglia, che canta, che balla e che suona) in which the Beast takes the form of a snake. Instead of going to visit her family alone the heroine can only go to her sister's wedding if she agrees to let the snake go with her. During the wedding they dance together, and when the girl kicks the snake's tail it turns into a beautiful youth, who's the son of a count. Sicilian folklorist Giuseppe Pitrè collected a variant from Palermo titled Rusina 'Mperatrici (The Empress Rosina). Domenico Comparetti included a variant from Montale titled Bellindia, in which Bellindia is the heroine's name, while her two eldest sisters are called Carolina and Assunta. Vittorio Imbriani included a version titled Zelinda and the Monster (Zelinda e il Mostro), in which the heroine, called Zelinda, asks for a rose in January. Instead of going to visit her family, staying longer than she promised and then returning to the Monster's castle to find him dying on the ground, here the Monster shows Zelinda her father dying on a magic mirror and says the only way she can save him is saying that she loves him. Zelinda does as aid, and the Monster turns into a human, who tells her he is the son of the King of the Oranges. Both Comparetti's and Imbriani's versions were included in Sessanta novelle popolari montalesi by Gherardo Nerucci. British folklorist Rachel Harriette Busk collected a version from Rome titled The Enchanted Rose-Tree where the heroine does not have any sisters. Antonio De Nino collected a variant from Abruzzo, in eastern Italy, that he also titled Bellindia, in which instead of a rose the heroine asks for a golden carnation. Instead of a seeing it on a magic mirror, or knowing about it because the Beast tells her, here Bellinda knows what happens in her father's house because in the garden there is a tree called the Tree of Weeping and Laughter, whose leaves turn upwards when there is joy in her family, and they drop when there is sorrow. Francesco Mango collected a Sardianian version titled The Bear and the Three Sisters (S'urzu i is tres sorris), in which the Beast has the form of a bear.
Italo Calvino included a version on Italian Folktales titled Bellinda and the Monster, inspired mostly from Comparetti's version, but adding some elements from De Nino's, like the Tree of Weeping and Laughter.
Manuel Milá y Fontanals collected an interesting version titled The King's Son, Disenchanted (El hijo del rey, desencantado). In that one when the father asks his three daughters what they want him to bring them the youngest asks for the hand of the king's son in marriage, and everybody thinks she's haughty for wanting such thing. The father orders his servants to kill her, but they spare him and she hides in the woods, where she meets a wolf that brings her to a castle, where they lived together. To break the spell the girl must kill the wolf and throw the body into the fire after opening it. From the body comes out a pigeon, and from the pigeon an egg. When the girl breaks the egg, the king's son comes out. Francisco Maspons y Labrós extended and translated the tale to Catalan, and included it in the second volume of Lo Rondallayre. Maspons y Labrós also collected another variant from Catalonia, titled Lo trist. Instead of roses or any other kind of flowers here the youngest daughter asks for a coral necklace. Every time one of her family members is sick the heroine is warned by elements from the garden like a spring with muddy waters or a tree with withered leaves. When she goes to visit her family, she must return with the beast every time she hears a bell ringing. After her third visit to her family, the heroine returns to the garden where she finds her favorite rosebush withered. When she plucks a rose the beast appears, turning into a beautiful youth.
A version from Extremadura collected by Sergio Hernández de Soto titled The Bear Prince (El príncipe oso) starts similar to Beaumont's and Villeneuve's versions, with the heroine's father losing his fortune after a shipwreck. When he has the chance to recover his wealth, the father asks his daughters what they want him to bring home from his travel, and the heroine asks for a lily instead of a rose. When the merchant finally finds a lily a bear appears, saying that the merchant's youngest daughter must come to the garden, because she's the only one who can repair the damage the merchant has caused. The youngest daughter goes and finds the bear lying on the ground, wounded. The only way to heal him is restoring the lily the father took, and when the girl restores it the bear is turned into a prince. The tale was translated to English by Elsie Spicer Eells and retitled The Lily and the Bear. Aurelio Macedonio Espinosa Sr. collected a version from Almenar de Soria titled The Beast of the Rose Bush (La fiera del rosal), in which the heroine is the daughter of a king instead of a merchant. Aurelio Macedonio Espinosa Jr. published a version from Sepúlveda, Segovia titled The Beast of the Garden (La fiera del jardín). In this version the heroine has a stepmother and two stepsisters, and asks for an unspecified white flower.
In a Portuguese version collected by Zófimo Consiglieri Pedroso, the heroine asks for a slice of roach off a green meadow, after her father insists she must ask for something too like her elder sisters did. The father finally finds a slice of roack off a green meadow in a castle where he doesn't see anyone living there, but hears a voice saying he must bring his youngest daughter to the palace. Instead of a magic mirror the heroine knows what happens in her father's house every time she asks the voice why a bird she hears sing. She visits her family three times, the first two because her sisters are getting married, and the third because her father is dying. To know when she must return to the castle a horse is sent, and the heroine must go after hearing him three times. The third time she goes to visit her family her father dies, and after the funeral she's so tired that she oversleeps, so she doesn't hear the horse arriving, neighing three times and leaving. When she finally returns to the castle she finds the beast dying, and with his last breath he curses her and her entire family. The heroine dies a few days after, and her sisters spent the rest of their lives in poverty. Another Portuguese version from Ourilhe, collected by Francisco Adolfo Coelho and titled A Bella-menina, is closer to Beaumont's tale, with a happy ending in which the beast is revived and disenchanted.
Belgium and the Netherlands
In a Flemish version from Veurne titled Rose without Thorns (Roosken zonder Doornen) the way the prince is disenchanted is quite different to Beaumont's and Villeneuve's versions. The heroine and the monster go to each of the weddings of the heroine's elder sisters, and to break the spell the heroine has to give a toast for the beast. In the first wedding the heroine forgets to do it, but in the second she remembers it, and the beast turns into a human. Another Flemish version from Wuustwezel collected by Victor de Meyere is closer to Beaumont's plot, with the merchant's youngest daughter staying one day more at her family's home, and soon after returning to the Beast's palace when she fears something bad must have happened to him. This one is one of the few versions where the merchant accompanies her daughter in her return to the Beast's castle. Even closer to Beaumont's plot is a Dutch version from Driebergen titled Rozina.
Germany and Central Europe
The brothers Grimm originally collected a variant of the story. Titled The Summer and Winter Garden (Von dem Sommer- und Wintergarten): here the youngest daughter asks for a rose when it is winter, so the father cannot find a rose anywhere except a garden with one half where it is always winter and another half where it is always summer. After making the deal with the beast the father does not tell anything to her daughters, so eight days later the beast appears in the merchant's house and takes the youngest daughter away. Here when the heroine's return is not enough to heal her sick father, who dies. The merchant's daughter stays longer because of her father's funeral, and when she finally returns she finds the beast lying underneath a heap of cabbages heads. After reviving him pouring water, the beast turns into a handsome prince. The tale appeared in their collection's first edition, in 1812, but because they judged the tale too similar to its French counterpart they omitted it in the next editions.
Despite that several other folklorists collected variants from German speaking territories. Ludwig Bechstein published two versions. In the first one, Little Broomstick (Besenstielchen), the heroine, called here Nettchen, has a best friend who's called Little Broomstick because her father's broommaker. Like in The Summer and Winter Garden Nettchen asks for roses in the middle of winter, that her father can only found in the Beast's garden. When a carriage comes to bring Nettchen to the Beast's castle Nettchen's father sends intead Little Broomstick pretending to be Nettchen. Despite that the Beast discovers the scheme, sends Little Broomstick back home and Nettchen has to go to the Beast's castle. Here the prince's disenchantment happens before Nettchen's visit to her family, to cure her father using the sap of a plant from the prince's garden. Jealous of their youngest sister's fortune Nettchen's sisters kill her drowning her on the bath, but Nettchen is revived by the same sorceress that cursed the prince. Because Nettchen's eldest sisters are too dangerous, but Nettchen doesn't want them dead, the sorceress turns them into stone statues. In the second, The Little Nut Twig (Das Nußzweiglein) the heroine asks for the titular twig. When the father finally finds it he has to make a deal with a bear, promising him the first creature that he meets when he arrives at home, that turns out to be his youngest daughter. Like in Little Broomstick the merchant tries to deceive the bear sending another girl pretending to be his daughter, but the bear discovers it and the merchant's daughter has to go with the bear. After crossing together twelve rooms full of disgusting creatures the bear turns into a prince.
Carl and Theodor Colshorn collected two versions from Hannover. In the first one, The Clinking Clanking Lowesleaf (Vom klinkesklanken Löwesblatt), the heroine is the daughter of a king instead of a merchant. She asks for the titular leaf, that the king only gets after making a deal with a black poodle, promising to give him in a year and a day the first that greets him when he arrives home. Turning out to be the king's youngest daughter, like in Bechstein's version they tried to trick the poodle giving him other girls pretending to be the princess, but the poddle always discovers the mischief. Finally the princess goes with the poodle, who brings her to a cabin in the middle of the woods, where the princess feels so alone that the princess wishes for company, even if it was an old beggar woman. In that same instant an old beggar woman appears, and she tells the princess how to break the spell in exchange for inviting her to the princess' wedding. The princess keeps her promise, and her mother and sisters, who expressed disgust at the sight of the old beggar woman, become crooked and lame. In the second, The Cursed Frog (Der verwunschene Frosch), the heroine is a merchant's daughter like in Beaumont's and Villeneuve's versions. The enchanted prince has the form of a frog, and she asks for a three-colored rose. Ernst Meier collected a version from Swabia, in southwestern Germany, in which the heroine has only one sister instead of two.
Ignaz and Josef Zingerle collected an Austrian variant from Tannheim titled The Bear (Der Bär) in which, unlike in mosts versions, the heroine is the eldest of the merchant's three daughters instead of the youngest. Like in The Summer and Winter Garden and Little Broomstick the protagonist asks for a rose in the middle of winter. Like in Zingerle's version the Beast has the form of a bear in the Swiss variant The Bear Prince (Der Bärenprinz), collected by Otto Sutermeister. Instead of flowers the youngest daughter asks for grapes.
Evald Tang Kristensen collected a Danish version that follows Beaumont's version pretty close. The most significant difference is that the enchanted prince has the form of a horse. In a version from the Faroe Islands the youngest daughter asks for an apple instead of a rose.
Russia and Eastern Europe
Alexander Afanasyev collected a Russian version, The Enchanted Tsarevich (Заклятый царевич) in which the youngest daughter draws the flower she wants her father to bring her. The beast here is a three-headed winged snake. In a Ukrainian version both of the heroine's parents are dead. The Beast, who has the form of a snake, gives her a magic people to revive them, rubbing it against them. An apple also plays a relevant role when the heroine goes to visit her family in a Polish version from Mazovia, in this case to warn the heroine she's staying longer than she promised. In another Polish version from Kraków the heroine is called Basia, and has a stepmother and two stepsisters. In a Czech variant is not the heroine's father but the mother who plucks the flower and mades the deal with the Beast, that here has the form of a basilisk, that the heroine has to behead later to break the spell. In a Moravian version the youngest daughter asks for three white roses, and the Beast has the form of a dog; while in another version, also from Moravia, she asks for a single red rose and the Beast has the form of a bear. The Beast also has the form of a bear in a Slovakian variant titled The Three Roses (Trojruža) collected by Pavol Dobšinský, in which the youngest daughter asks for three roses on the same stem; and in a Slovenian version from Livek titled The Enchanted Bear and the Castle (Začaran grad in medved), where the heroine breaks the spell reading about the fate of the enchanted castle in an old dusty book. In a Hungarian version titled The Speaking Grapes, the Smiling Apple and the Tinkling Apricot (Szóló szőlő, mosolygó alma, csengő barack) the Beast has the form of a pig, and the king agrees to give him his youngest daughter's hand in marriage if the pig is capable of moving the king's carriage, that's stuck in the mud.
Greece and Mediterranean Area
A version from the island of Zakynthos, in western Greece, the prince is turned into a snake by a nereid who he rejected. The prince is also turned into a snake in a version from Cyprus, where he's cursed by an orphan who was his lover. Similar to Beaumont's version at the end the heroine's elder sisters are turned into stone pillars.
North American missionary Adele M. Fielde collected a version from China titled The Fairy Serpent in which the heroine's family is visited by wasps until she goes with the serpent. One day the well she usually fetchs water is dry, and she has to go to a spring to fetch water. When she returns she finds the snake dying and she revives him pluggin him in the water. After that he turns into a human. In a second Chinese variant, The King of the Snakes, the Prince of Snakes sees an old man plucking flowers in the Prince's gardens and, irritated, demands the old man sends one of his daughters to the Prince. The youngest, Almond Blossom, being the "most devotedly filial", offers to go in her father's place. In a third variant, also reportedly from China, Pearl of the Sea, the youngest daughter of rich Chinese merchant Pekoe, asks for a chip of The Great Wall of China, based on a dream she had. Her father does so and is threatened by an army of Tatars who work for their master. In reality, the Tatar master is her uncle Chang, who has been enchanted prior to the story, and could only be released from his curse until a woman consented to live with him in the Great Wall.
William Wells Newell published in the Journal of American Folklore an Irish American veriant simply titled Rose, in which the Beast takes the form of a lion. Marie Campbell collected a version from the Appalachian Mountains titled A Bunch of Laurela Blooms for a Present, in which the prince was turned into a frog like in one of the versions collected by the Colshorn brothers. Joseph Médard Carrière collected a version in which the Beast is described having a lion's head, horse legs, a bull's body and a snake's tail. Like at the end of Beaumont's version Beauty's sisters are turned into stone statues.
South and Central America
Lindolfo Gomes collected a Brazilian version titled A Bela e a Fera in which the deal also consists in the father promising to give the Beast the first living creature that greets him when he arrives at home, and the heroine goes to visit her family because her eldest sister is getting married. Mexican linguist Pablo González Casanova collected a version from the Nahuatl titled La doncella y la fiera, in which after returning to her family's home the heroine finds the beast lying on the ground dead. The girl falls asleep by his side, and she dreams of the beast, who tells her to cut a specific flower and spray the water inside of it on his face. The heroine does as bidden, and the beast turns into a beautiful young man.
Harris identifies the two most popular strands of fairy tale in the 18th century as the fantastical romance for adults and the didactic tale for children. Beauty and the Beast is interesting as it bridges this gap, with Villeneuve's version being written as a salon tale for adults and Beaumont's being written as a didactic tale for children.
Tatar (2017) compares the tale to the theme of "animal brides and grooms" found in folklore throughout the world, pointing out that the French tale was specifically intended for the preparation of young girls in 18th century France for arranged marriages. The urban opening is unusual in fairy tales, as is the social class of the characters, neither royal nor peasants; it may reflect the social changes occurring at the time of its first writing.
Hamburger (2015) points out that the design of the Beast in the 1946 film adaptation by Jean Cocteau was inspired by the portrait of Petrus Gonsalvus, a native of Tenerife who suffered from hypertrichosis, causing an abnormal growth of hair on his face and other parts, and who came under the protection of the French king and married a beautiful Parisian woman named Catherine.
Modern uses and adaptations
The tale has been notably adapted for screen, stage, prose, and television over the years.
- The Scarlet Flower (1858), a Russian fairy tale by Sergey Aksakov.
- Beauty and the Beast ... The Story Retold (1886), by Laura E. Richards.
- Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast (1978), by Robin McKinley.
- Rose Daughter (1997), by Robin McKinley.
- The Courtship of Mr. Lyon (1979), from Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, based on Madame Le Prince de Beaumont's version.
- Beauty (1983), a short story by Tanith Lee, a science fiction retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
- Fashion Beast, a 1985 screenplay by Alan Moore, adapted into a graphic novel in 2012.
- A Grain of Truth (1993), a short story by Andrzej Sapkowski in The Last Wish.
- Lord of Scoundrels (1995), by Loretta Chase, a Regency romance and retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
- The Fire Rose (1995), by Mercedes Lackey.
- The Quantum Rose, by Catherine Asaro, a science fiction retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
- Beastly (2007), by Alex Flinn, a version that sets the story in modern-day Manhattan.
- Bryony and Roses (2015), by T. Kingfisher (pen name of Ursula Vernon)
- Belle: An Amish Retelling of Beauty and the Beast (2017), by Sarah Price
- A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015), by Sarah J. Maas
- A Curse So Dark and Lonely (2019), by Brigid Kemmerer
- La Belle et la Bête (1946), directed by Jean Cocteau, starring Jean Marais as the Beast and Josette Day as Beauty.
- The Scarlet Flower (1952), an animated feature film directed by Lev Atamanov and produced at the Soyuzmultfilm.
- Beauty and the Beast (1962), directed by Edward L. Cahn, starring Joyce Taylor and Mark Damon.
- Panna a netvor (1978), a Czech film directed by Juraj Herz.
- Beauty and the Beast (1987), a musical live-action version directed by Eugene Marner, starring John Savage as Beast, and Rebecca De Mornay as Beauty.
- Beauty and the Beast (1991), an animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and directed by Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale, with a screenplay by Linda Woolverton, and songs by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman.
- Blood of Beasts (2005), a Viking period film directed by David Lister alternately known as Beauty and the Beast.
- Spike (2008), directed by Robert Beaucage, a dark version of the fairy tale updated to modern times.
- Beastly (2011), directed by Daniel Barnz and starring Alex Pettyfer as the beast (named Kyle) and Vanessa Hudgens as the love interest.
- Beauty and the Beast, (2014), a French-German film.
- Beauty and the Beast (2017), a Disney live-action adaptation of the 1991 animated film, starring Emma Watson and Dan Stevens.
- Beauty and the Beast (1976), a made-for-television movie starring George C. Scott and Trish Van Devere.
- Beauty and the Beast (1984), an episode of Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre, starring Klaus Kinski and Susan Sarandon.
- Beauty and the Beast (1987), a television series which centers around the relationship between Catherine (played by Linda Hamilton), an attorney who lives in New York City, and Vincent (played by Ron Perlman), a gentle but lion-faced "beast" who dwells in the tunnels beneath the city.
- Beauty & the Beast (2012), a reworking of the 1987 TV series starring Jay Ryan and Kristin Kreuk.
- Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics episode "Beauty and the Beast" (The Story of the Summer Garden and the Winter Garden) (1988), in which the Beast has an ogre-like appearance.
- Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child (1995), episode "Beauty and the Beast", featuring the voices of Vanessa L. Williams and Gregory Hines. The Beast is depicted as having a rhinoceros head, a lion-like mane and tail, a humanoid body, and a camel-like hump.
- Stories from My Childhood, episode "Beauty and the Beast (A Tale of the Crimson Flower" (1998), featuring the voices of Amy Irving as the Beauty, Tim Curry as the Beast, and Robert Loggia as Beauty's father.
- Once Upon a Time episode "Skin Deep" (2012), starring Emilie de Ravin and Robert Carlyle.
- Sofia the First episode "Beauty is the Beast" (2016), in which Princess Charlotte of Isleworth (voiced by Megan Hilty) is turned into a beast (a cross between a human and a wild boar with a wolf-like tail) by a powerful enchantress.
- La Belle et la Bête (1994), an opera by Philip Glass based on Cocteau's film. Glass's composition follows the film scene by scene, effectively providing a new original soundtrack for the movie.
- Beauty and the Beast (1994), a musical adaptation of the Disney film by Linda Woolverton and Alan Menken, with additional lyrics by Tim Rice.
- Beauty and the Beast (2011), a ballet by choreographed by David Nixon for Northern Ballet, including compositions by Bizet and Poulenc.
- A hidden object game, Mystery Legends: Beauty and the Beast, was released in 2012.
- The hidden object game series Dark Parables based the main story of 9th game (The Queen of Sands) on the tale.
- The narrative of the Sierra Entertainment adventure game King's Quest VI follows several fairy tales, and Beauty and the Beast is the focus of one multiple part quest.
- Stevie Nicks recorded "Beauty and the Beast" for her 1983 solo album, The Wild Heart.
- Real Life based the video for their signature hit "Send Me an Angel" on the fairy story.
- Disco producer Alec R. Costandinos released a twelve inch by his side project Love & Kisses with the theme of the fairy-tale set to a disco melody in 1978.
- The interactive fiction work, Bronze by Emily Short, is a puzzle-oriented adaptation of Beauty and the Beast.
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- Andreas Hamburger in: Andreas Hamburger (ed.) Women and Images of Men in Cinema: Gender Construction in La Belle et La Bete by Jean Cocteauchapter 3 (2015). see also: "La Bella y la Bestia": Una historia real inspirada por un hombre de carne y hueso (difundir.org 2016)
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- Mystery Legends: Beauty and the Beast Collector's Edition (PC DVD)
- KQ6 Game Play video
- Bronze homepage, including background information and download links
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Beauty and Beast.|
|Wikisource has original text related to this article:|
- "Beauty and the Beast: folktales of Aarne-Thompson type 425C
- Cinderella Bibliography – includes an exhaustive list of B&tB productions in books, TV and recordings
- Original version and psychological analysis of Beauty and the Beast (Archive on Wayback Machine)
- (in French) La Belle et la Bête, audio version