This book follows the traditional, non-Disney, tale, with the downfall of the merchant, the encounters with the Beast, etc. However, there are a few varying differences.




Beauty's father is a rich merchant, and she and her sisters, Hope and Grace, are fairly spoiled. Hope becomes engaged to a young sailor working on one of their father's ships, and is going to marry him after the few years he is away at sea. During the time he is away, a storm comes up, completely ruining the family business. They are forced to sell all they have and move to the country, with Grace's husband-to-be. Hope is devistated, because the ship her fiancee was on has been presumed lost at sea.




In the country, the girls work hard in the house. Grace's husband is the finest of all blacksmiths in the area, and their father does carpentry. Beauty helps out where she can, doing odd jobs with her big, strong horse Grayheart.




About 2 years later, the family (who now has twins, Mercy and Richard) receives news that one of the father's ships has returned to port. So he travels back to the city, only to find that his friends, thinking he was dead, had split the earnings amongst themselves. Worse, the ship is not that which Hope's lover is on. Devestated, the father returns home, loosing himself in a blizzard.




When he does return home, he has a terrible story to tell. When he was lost in the blizzard, he came upon a castle which he stayed the night in. Mysterious servants fed his horse and he, and in the morning he was sent off. In the gardens before he left, he saw the most perfect rose, and wished to get it for Beauty. When he picked it, though, a horrible monster jumped out at him, demanding either one of his daughters (who would not be hurt if she should go) or his life....




And I'm gonna end there, cause I don't want to spoil the WHOLE book for you.

The description, and many of the events, especially in part two, after she faints.

McKinley did not name the prince at the end of the book, which was sort of a cop-out if you ask me (especially since he could remember where mirrors used to be, but couldn't remember his own name). And, she never did say WHY he was turned into a beast exactly, so...

Read it again! So I did! About 3 times in one week!

Also wrote another Beauty and the Beast tale, Rose Daughter, though popular consensus votes it not as good as this book.

It's one of my favorites, and a good read.

I noticed a lot of similarities between the book and the Disney animation. (Note, the book was published before Disney got their hands on the story.) Not that that's a bad thing, just something I found interesting.

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Created Dec 15, 2001 at 9:12pm • Submit your own review...