Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This plot summary may be too long or overly detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (June 2008) |
| Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty & the Beast | |
|---|---|
| Author | Robin McKinley |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy |
| Publication date | 25 October 1978 |
| Media type | Print () |
| ISBN | 978-0060241490 |
| OCLC Number | 4037372 |
| Dewey Decimal | 813/.5/4 398.2 |
| LC Classification | PZ8.M1793 Be 1978 |
Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty & the Beast was first published in 1978 by children's book author Robin McKinley. It was her first book, retelling the classic French fairy tale La Belle et La Bete. The book was the Phoenix Award honor book for 1998. It was the 1966-1988 Best of the Best Books for Young Adults (ALA). It is also on the 1979 Fanfare Honor List (The Horn Book), and on the 1979 Books for the Teen Age (NY Public Library).
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Beauty is the youngest of three daughters of a wealthy merchant, Roderick Huston. Her given name is Honour, but at five years old, she said that she'd rather be called "Beauty". The nickname stuck. As she grew older, she felt increasingly ill-named as her sisters, Grace and Hope, became lovelier and more socially adept and she stayed plain and bookish. Her two sisters were quickly engaged—Grace to one of her father's ship captains, Robert Tucker, and Hope to blacksmith Gervain Woodhouse. Robert was lost at sea only a few months after their engagement along with all the merchant's ships and with them, his fortune.
Destitute, the family relocated to Gervain's home town in the north to begin afresh. A few months later, one of Huston's ships limped back into port, and Huston returned to town to deal with the crew and selling the ship's cargo. He asked the three daughters if he could bring them any gifts; Grace and Hope, tongue in cheek, requested ropes of pearls and jewels and luxurious ball gowns, while Beauty asked only for rose seeds. The ship was not Robert's, and the proceeds from the sale of the cargo went largely to repay the merchant's debts. On the merchant's return from town, he was caught in a blizzard a few miles from home and lost his way in the forest, stumbling across a mysterious castle as he and his mount came to the end of their strength.
As he left the next day he plucked one rose from the garden to bring home to Beauty, who hoped to grow roses. The Beast appeared before him, ready to kill him, but he begged for his life, pleading that he had daughters to return to. The Beast decided to let him go if he returned in one month with one of his daughters. Although he demurred, Beauty insisted that she be the one to go in her father's place.
The Beast seemed kind, but Beauty was utterly terrified of him and could barely be around him for the first few days. The castle provided her with invisible servants and all the books and food she could want. She came to understand the enchantment on the castle and the Beast. One day, she overheard her servants saying that she was their last hope and that they hoped she could figure it out before it was too late. As the months passed, Beauty came to enjoy living in the castle. There were only two problems: she missed her family and every night the Beast asked Beauty to marry him. Every night she said no.
One night, she had a magically real dream of her family; the Beast revealed that he could send her 'dreams' of her family's life, and showed her his "mirror" through which he watched them—the contents of a special vial poured over a table which served as a distance viewer. Through this mirror, Beauty saw that Grace was planning to marry a local minister and that Robert was alive and had returned from sea. She begged the Beast to let her go to her family and tell them the news. He reluctantly agreed, but warned her that she could only stay a week, because he would die without her. Beauty was so excited to see her family that she ended up over-staying the week. During her stay, she realized what she had tried to ignore: she was in love with the Beast and he with her. On the eighth morning, Beauty dreamed that the Beast had died and hurried back to the castle. She found the Beast as he lay dying, and she confessed her love to him and said she would marry him. This broke the enchantment, and returned the Beast to his human form, that of a now middle-aged man. Beauty insisted that she could not marry him. "You should marry a queen or something, a duchess at least, not a dull drab little nothing like myself," she said. The ex-Beast showed Beauty her own reflection in a mirror; in the past year, she had transformed into beauty. She and the Beast had a triple wedding with Grace and Robert and her father and Melinda who he became close when Beauty was away.
[edit] Review
ALA Booklist has called it "a captivating novel," and Publishers Weekly has called it "a splendid story." [1]
