La Belle et la Bête
A wealthy merchant lives happily with his six daughters and six sons. Live is pleasant for the large family until tragedy struck. The man becomes bankrupt. His ships are sea are lost, his business partners are dishonest, and his house burns. The family is forced to move to a small cottage. Belle, the youngest child of 16 years of age, was the only one of the children who was able to adjust to the vast social and financial change, which earned the scorn of her siblings.
Good news arrives to the family, however, when one of the father's ships was reported to have survived the sea and landed at port. The children give their father lists of gifts they wish to receive upon his return, but Belle only asks for a safe journey and a single rose. The merchant arrives to port only to discover that his creditors had already sold the cargo and taken the profits. Filled with sadness, he returns home only to be caught in a blizzard. He seeks refuge in a large castle filled with statues, but no living creatures. He eats the meal provided and warms himself by the fire and stays there for the night. In the morning, the merchant happens upon the garden and plucks a rose for his daughter.
He is attacked by a trunked beast who threatens to kill him. He can be saved, however, if one of his daughters willingly comes to live with the Beast in his palace. The merchant agrees and travels home. Belle hears the tale of her father and immediately steps in to take the blame and offers herself to go. The father is rewarded handsomely by the Beast with Belle instructing her father to take gold and jewels as payment.
References:
Beauty and the Beast by Russell A. Peck
http://d.lib.rochester.edu/cinderella/text/beauty-and-the-beast
Beauty and the Beast vs La Belle et la Bête by Okapina via WordPress.com
https://dettoldisney.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/beauty-and-the-beast-vs-la-belle-et-la-
bete/
La belle et la Bête by Madame Gabrielle-Susanne Barbot de Gallon de Villeneuve
http://d.lib.rochester.edu/cinderella/text/beauty-and-the-beast
La Belle et la Bête et autres contes by Madame Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont
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| An illustration from an early copy of Beauty and the Beast |
As Belle lives there, she has dreams of a handsome young man who speaks kindly two her, saying that she shouldn't be deceived by appearances. She discovers he appears in incredible likeness to the portrait of the man in the castle. A woman also appears in her dreams that begins to give her advice. At this point Belle begins to be suspicious of both the Beast and the man from her dreams.
Belle soon begins to miss her family and receives permission to go home. She finds her father ill and poor again. Her sister's convince Belle to stay longer than intended and the dreams of the young man disappear. The dreams of the woman, however urge her to return to the Beast who is dying. As he lies dying, he speaks eloquently to her upon her arrival and she confesses her desire to marry him. In a burst of light and fireworks the Beast is transformed into a prince, the young man in Belle's dreams.
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| Beauty and the Beast - Credit: H.J. Ford |
The couple is then visited by two women: a queen and a fairy. Belle recognizes the fairy as the women from her dreams. The past of both Belle and the prince are revealed. Belle, was in fact, not the child of the merchant but rather the daughter of the fairy's sister and a human King, the brother of the prince's mother. A jealous fairy, the Mother of Time, who wanted the King of herself and threw the sister fairy into prison for breaking fairy law. She then cursed Belle to marry a monster and attempted to have her killed. The good fairy took the child and switched her with the last born child of the merchant who was sickly and dying, unbeknownst to him. The King thought his daughter was eaten by wild beasts and refused the Mother of Time when she tried to seduce him.
The prince's father died when he was a child and his mother was a warrior queen. He was cursed by the same evil fairy, the Mother of Time, to be a hideous, dumb beast when he refused after she attempted to seduce him like she had with the King. He would only be able to break the curse if he could find someone who would love him enough to marry him.
The good fairy then wanted to help restore both the prince and Belle to their rightful places. Therefore, she made it so that Belle would come to the castle. The prince had attempted to make coherent contact with Belle via her dreams, but the good fairy warned him to not to reveal the truth too soon or it would ruin everything. In the end everything worked out for the best and the evil fairy had been imprisoned.
Belle's "family" is brought to the castle to celebrate and the merchant is both happy and saddened to hear the news. The prince and Belle are married and fly away on a magical horse and live happily ever after.
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A mere sixteen years later, Madame Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont revised and shortened the Villeneuve version of Beauty and the Beast into her book La Belle et la Bête et autres contes (The Beauty and the Beast and other tales). The story line is essentially the same with a few tweaks here and there with no elaborate subplots or extraneous character backgrounds, which is where most modern variations draw from.
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| La Bella et la Bête http://fairytalereview.com/tag/la-belle-et-la-bete/ |
Word Counter: 953
Beauty and the Beast by Russell A. Peck
http://d.lib.rochester.edu/cinderella/text/beauty-and-the-beast
Beauty and the Beast vs La Belle et la Bête by Okapina via WordPress.com
https://dettoldisney.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/beauty-and-the-beast-vs-la-belle-et-la-
bete/
La belle et la Bête by Madame Gabrielle-Susanne Barbot de Gallon de Villeneuve
http://d.lib.rochester.edu/cinderella/text/beauty-and-the-beast
La Belle et la Bête et autres contes by Madame Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont
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