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A review by missposabule
The Beauty and the Beast by Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve
5.0
Reading the original "La Belle et la Bete" was a trip. I read it in English because I'm a dumb American and only speak one language. Whomp whomp - maybe it's more exquisite in the original French? I'll never know because learning French to read a single book is not on my to-do list.
The story itself was not what I expected. In most versions of Beauty and the Beast, the story concludes after Beauty agrees to marry the Beast and he transforms back into a prince. In Villeneuve's version, once Beauty agrees to marry the Beast, we are only at the halfway point. The next half of the book is entirely exposition.
And there is a lot of exposition.
The topics included in this "ending": are how an evil, ugly fairy transformed the prince into a beast, the story of the prince's mother, the truth behind Beauty's parentage, how her real parents met, and the course of their relationship, political drama on her true father's island, and the rules of fairies.
It is extensive and somewhat confusing, but the stories within the ending were engaging. Unfortunately, the book's pacing suffers due to all of this expository story. It's not fun to read a fairy tale and then read all of the machinations behind it (especially if those descriptions are more detailed than the actual story). I am glad to have read the original story because it contains an impressive roster of characters and has an interesting message.
I think that message is "appearances are deceiving" and "trust someone by their actions, not their fancy words or good looks," but it did get a bit lost in the massive tons of exposition towards the end of the story.
The story itself was not what I expected. In most versions of Beauty and the Beast, the story concludes after Beauty agrees to marry the Beast and he transforms back into a prince. In Villeneuve's version, once Beauty agrees to marry the Beast, we are only at the halfway point. The next half of the book is entirely exposition.
And there is a lot of exposition.
The topics included in this "ending": are how an evil, ugly fairy transformed the prince into a beast, the story of the prince's mother, the truth behind Beauty's parentage, how her real parents met, and the course of their relationship, political drama on her true father's island, and the rules of fairies.
It is extensive and somewhat confusing, but the stories within the ending were engaging. Unfortunately, the book's pacing suffers due to all of this expository story. It's not fun to read a fairy tale and then read all of the machinations behind it (especially if those descriptions are more detailed than the actual story). I am glad to have read the original story because it contains an impressive roster of characters and has an interesting message.
I think that message is "appearances are deceiving" and "trust someone by their actions, not their fancy words or good looks," but it did get a bit lost in the massive tons of exposition towards the end of the story.