Beauty and the Beast

'Beauty and the Beast' is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. Her lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and published by French novelist Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont—which is the version shown in this current publication. Beaumont greatly pared down the cast of characters and pruned the tale to an almost archetypal simplicity. The story begins in...