Book review BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

 

BOOK REVIEW

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Title:   Beauty and the beast.

Writer:  Gabrielle-Suzanne barbot de Villeneuve.

Originally Published: 1790 A.D.

Genre: Fairy Tale. romantic fantasy

Theme: inner beauty vs outer beauty; a gentle and beautiful young woman Belle who is taken to live with the Beast in return for a favour.

 

About the Book: Beauty and the Beast is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins (The Young American and Marine Tales).

The book tell us a story of a Prince who is transformed into a beast when mysterious enchantress  cursed him.

 

About the Author: Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve was born and died in Paris. She belonged to a powerful Protestant family from La Rochelle and was a descendant of Amos Barbot, a Peer of France and a deputy in the Estates General in 1614. Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve published both fairy tales and novels.

Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve is particularly noted for her original story of La Belle et la Bête, which was published in her La jeune américaine, et les contes marins in 1740, and is the oldest known modern variant of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast.

 

Book Summary: A cruel and selfish young prince is visited by an old beggar woman who offers him a rose in exchange for shelter. However, disgusted by the woman's haggard appearance, the prince instead sneers at the rose and shuns her, despite her warning him not to judge people by appearances, since beauty is found within. After the prince blows her off again, the woman reveals herself to be a magical enchantress. The prince attempts to apologize, but it is too late to do so, because she had already found out that he had no love inside him. As punishment for his actions, she transforms the prince into a horrible beast and casts a spell on his castle and his servants,  whilst the rose she offered him is revealed to be an enchanted rose that will bloom until his 21st birthday. The enchantress tells the prince that the spell will be broken, only if he learns to love another and have that person love him back before the last petal on the rose had fallen; if not, he will remain a beast for life. As years went by, he fell into despair and became hopeless, believing that no one could ever love him. A decade later, in a small town, a beautiful bookworm girl named Belle is seen as strange by the townsfolk. The popular town hunter, Gaston lusts after her, but Belle tries to avoid him because of his arrogance. Belle's dad, Maurice is also an outcast among the townsfolk due to his erratic inventions. When Maurice leaves to go to a fair, he ends up getting lost and stumbles upon the Beast's castle where he is greeted by the castle's inhabitants who have transformed into anthropomorphic household objects:

 

 Cogsworth, the uptight butler who ended up being cursed as a mantle clock; Lumiere, a kind-hearted maître d’ who ended up becoming a candelabra; Mrs. Potts, the housekeeper who was changed into a teapot, and her son Chip and his brothers, now teacups, along with a whole bunch of others. With the exception of Cogsworth, the enchanted servants provide hospitality to Maurice, but the Beast comes to lock him up in the dungeon for trespassing into his castle.

Maurice's horse comes back and takes Belle to the castle where she soon finds Maurice in the dungeon, but she soon meets the Beast. In exchange for her dad's freedom, Belle offers to be the Beast's prisoner in his stead. The Beast agrees and lets Maurice go and he and his servants plan to make Belle try to fall for him in order to revoke the curse, which is hampered when the Beast's nasty temper makes Belle spurn coming to dinner with him. Back at the village at Gaston's tavern, Gaston is still reeling from Belle's rejection, but his spirits are lifted when his lackey, LeFou, and the townspeople sing about how no man measures up to him. Maurice bursts in and frantically seeks assistance to save Belle from the Beast at the castle, which earns him nothing more than ridicule and rejection by the townsfolk, who simply dismiss him as "crazy old Maurice".

Belle curiously decides to explore around the castle where she meets the servants and at her request, they give her some dinner despite the Beast’s orders against it. She soon enters the West Wing, which is the one section of the castle the Beast ordered her not to, and she happens upon the enchanted rose. But before she touches it, the Beast arrives and frightens her out of the West Wing and out of the castle. Belle tries to escape to the forest, but she is confronted by a pack of wolves (who earlier tried to kill Maurice). Before she is eaten by them, however, the Beast intervenes and saves her, but is wounded by the wolves in the process.  She returns with him to the castle where their relationship begins to slowly improve as the Beast begins acting more selfless, even giving Belle access to a library where she can read all of the books she wants. Meanwhile, inspired by Maurice's 'crazy' story about the Beast, Gaston bribes the head warden of the local insane asylum, Monsieur D'Arque, to incarcerate Maurice unless Belle concurs to wed him. When they go to Belle's cottage, they find it empty as Maurice just left before they arrive, so he forces LeFou to stay at the house until they return.

After sharing a romantic dance, the Beast lets Belle use a magic mirror to see her father and discover that he's lost in the woods. Seeing her worried, the Beast decides to let Belle leave the castle to save her father. The servants are horrified when Cogsworth tells them this news, fearing that their one chance to be human again was squandered. When Belle gets Maurice back home, they soon find that Chip has stowed away into Belle's bag. They are soon interrupted by the villagers, led by Gaston, who arrived to send Maurice to the asylum. After rejecting Gaston again, Belle proves that her father is telling the truth by showing everyone the Beast with the magic mirror, which the Beast let her take with her. Seeing that Belle has feelings for the Beast, Gaston twists the truth that the Beast is a monstrous creature and convinces the villagers to attack him, and they lock Belle and Maurice in the cottage den to prevent them from interfering. Luckily, Belle and Maurice are soon freed by Chip, who uses Maurice's invention that he was going to take to the fair earlier.

At the castle, the servants discover the mob trying to storm the castle and soon get the jump on them when they break open the castle doors. While the servants battle and chase off the entire townsfolk, Gaston soon finds the depressed Beast in the West Wing. They have a fight outside in the rain, where Gaston taunts the Beast for his feelings to Belle. When he sees Belle has returned to the castle, he finds the strength to defend himself and threatens to drop Gaston off the rooftops, but he becomes merciful and relents. As the Beast attempts to reunite with Belle, Gaston stabs Beast in the back, but then he loses his footing and topples from the balcony to his demise. The Beast dies in Belle’s arms as she tearfully proclaims her love for him. This causes the curse to finally be lifted and revive the Beast and return him and all of his servants into their human forms. Belle and the now human Beast have a dance In celebration of the event.

Moral:. The moral of Beauty and the Beast is that we should value inward characteristics such as kindness over other superficial qualities, such as wit and appearance. This moral is presented by showing that Belle valued the inward characteristics of Beast, and fell in love with him despite his outward appearances.

Conclusion: This book is really awesome. One can learn from this book a lot. i.e.

Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.

Handsome is not important, and outer beauty doesn’t matter the thing that matters is the inner beauty.