Beauty and the Beast – All Four Versions by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont

Beauty and the Beast – All Four Versions Reviews

• 
  Marquise

  Another very lovely book I got that collects the four most popular and known Beauty and the Beast versions in existence, namely the original by Villeneuve (my personal favourite despite its flaws by the end), the later shortened version by Beaumont, the German equivalent by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm (which I see has little resemblance to the French ones, but does fit in the category nonetheless), and finally the version by Lang, who seems to have shared my dissatisfaction and "solved" it by taking the good bits from Villeneuve and splattering them all over Beamont. Heh, clever chap!
  
  This edition also has gorgeous reproductions of classic illustrations for all these four versions, by greats such as Crane, Mayer, Dulac, etc., which should appeal to collectors as well as delight fans of this tale that want to compare and contrast each interpretation. If you like tales, do yourself a favour and grab this edition for your collection!
• 
  Vaishali

  Also called The Lady and The Lion. Full of magic, woe, and sacrifice. So ambitious that it adopts the breadth and tone of the Sanskrit and Greek epics. A phenomenal, faithful heroine.
• 
  Newly Wardell

  The original version of this story was just all over the place. The basic premise : Breathe takingly beautiful girl must sacrifice her life for her father. Father of the millennium take the money and leave his favorite to be devoured in his stead. (in EVERY version of the story!.) She is totally isolated and left to her own devices everyday except for an hour when the Beast comes and talks to her. She has no interaction with any other human being. She eventually gets bored and wants top go home to see her family. (they think she's dead) The Beast guilts her over wanting to see a human being but lets her go. She come back late and catches him right before he kills himself (via starvation) and consents to marriage. Presto change-o spell breaks and he's a prince in disguise. Except in the Grimms' version, she just marries a Beast and sleep all day because he's only a monster if the light touches him.
• 
  Tiffany Michele

  It was good to read all four versions as I am writing a retelling of this and another fairytale. Fairytales are wild rides, friends. Wild wild rides. And 2 of these were just so strange and everything that could happen did. Enjoy~
• 
  Steve Cran

  Definitely one of the most popular faery tales, it has been made into a movie or tv series countless times. Disney made a carton movie out of it, later on the French made a movie out of it and now there is a new version out. The TV series makes further twists on the plot. When it comes to faery versions there are basically four major ones. The first one is just a regular faery tale, the second is a condensed version of the first, The Grimm Brother version is much different while the fourth is written by Andrew Lang.
  The first version is the most complete of all. In fact it is so complete that the ending part which explains everything in great detail becomes rather long and painful. Sometimes I got lost while reading the ending part because in reality it goes into the backstory rather in depth, something which the other three don’t. Most versions of the story start out with a wealthy business man who loses everything after a fire burns his house and his fleet of boats get drowned in a storm. With very little money let the merchant takes his sons and daughters to a country villa where they have to do their own chores now. Further in the tale the father gets word that one of his ship made it. Expecting great fortune the kids all want expensive gifts, everyone except beauty who wants just a rose. Well his partners thought he was dead and split everything up. On the way home with almost nothing to show for his endeavors , the merchant gets caught in the snow it is during a snow storm that he finds relief in a castle. He is well fed and well rested and spying on a rose, he takes one that is when he is confronted by a beast. The beast threatens to kil him in retaliation for taking his rose after receiving such great hospitality. In return for letting the merchant live his daughter must take his place. She must stay there forever and she is expecting to die. The beast , however, kills her with kindness. He tries to woo her and get her to fall in love. When she wants to go home for a week or month or two months depending on the version the beast lets her and he gives her magiac so she can get back quickly. When she takes too long he starves himself almost until the point of death. At this point she realizes her love for him and agrees to marry him. The Beat turns into a prince and a handsome one at that. The second version pretty much ends there while the fourth version, written by, Andrew Lang, explains that then a wicked faery turned him into the beast for spurning her. He would have to have a virgin fall in love with him. The first version goes into even more detail. It notes that the princes mother wants him to marry royalty. Good thing that Beauty was an adopted child by her merchant father. Her real father is a king. There is also a good faery who teaches them how into counter the wicked faery’s spell. The wicked faery helped the prince’s mother capture land and maintain her kingdom. It goes a bit into faery politics.
  The Grimm version is much much different. In this version the beast is a lion and instead of a rose the man takes a bird. There is a sojourn back home and the revived lion gets well and marries her. When she wants to go home with him for a celebration he warns her that if he is touched by candle light he will turn into a dove for seven years. Well he gets touched by candle light and she has to pursue the dove for seven years. She asks the winds for help as well as the sun and the moon. They each give her gifts which she will need. It ends up that the lion has resumed his form and is fighting a dragon who happens to be a queen. Magic makes them resume human form an away he goes with the queen leaving his beloved behind. She follows him to the kingdom but he has forgotten her. Twice she triks the evil queen into letting her sleep in the same room as her husband. Eventually she wins him back. Fun read an very informative to see how different versions of a story play out.
  
• 
  Natalie

  Confession: I like Disney's version better than any of these. Belle was my spirit animal while I was growing up. Pretty sure it had to do with her love of books. And the Beast was hot because he gave her the best library ever.
  
  So in this collection we have four kinda sorta different versions of Beauty and the Beast, none of which are the Disney version.
  
  Version 1 - The Story of Beauty and the Beast by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve
  At over 80 pages, this was so long that it became a chore to read. Being concise was not a strength of our buddy Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve.
  
  I almost quit a couple pages in when I read this line:
  Quite as much alive to the reverses that had just overwhelmed her family as either of her sisters, by a strength of mind which is not common in her sex, she concealed her sorrow, and rose superior to her misfortunes.
  
  
  
  But I pushed on (with a strength of mind which is not common to my sex).
  
  This version involves a merchant and his twelve children. He has money and then loses his money. Then he tries to take a rose back to Beauty and makes the Beast mad. He is offered the chance to live if one of his daughters will willingly take his place and live forever and ever with the Beast. He is allowed to go home for a month and run this proposition past his fam. And he shouldn't even think about not returning or trying to pull a fast one on the Beast because the Beast is as scary (and raspy voiced) as Liam Neeson.
  
  
  
  So as you can guess, Beauty agrees to take her place and be gulped down by the Beast because she is so good hearted and loving and has no real self-worth. Luckily, it turns out he just wants a woman for love and not as a meal. The Beast is ugly and dim-witted and turns up once a day just to ask Beauty if she will marry him. She says over and over that she will not marry him.
  
  Dude. NO MEANS NO.
  
  At night she dreams of the most handsomest prince ever, which causes her to really double-down on saying "hell no!" to the Beast's marriage requests. She passes her time getting anything she wants within the castle walls, including birds and window views of various theatre productions. She also visits home but not without a guilt trip that the Beast will die if she leaves him all alone. Then as we all know, she saves the Beast with her affection at the very last second and he turns back into the prince. Happily Ever After and The End!
  
  But wait, actually no, it's not the end. Because we are treated to a few dozen more pages where we meet the prince's mom, who is a bit of a snob, and a Fairy and another special guest appearance that I won't spoil. And we are treated to highly detailed backstories of how all that came to be came to be. It was sometimes interesting but often tedious.
  
  Version 2- Beauty and the Beast by Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont
  Similar to Version 1 but far shorter. Father is still a merchant but only has half as many children. Daughters still hate Beauty because they're jealous of how perfect she is. Luckily this version cuts to the chase much more quickly and doesn't include the pages and pages of backstory. My favorite part in this one?
  
  These wicked creatures rubbed their eyes with an onion to force some tears when they parted with their sister, but her brothers were really concerned.
  
  Very clever, ladies.
  
  Version 3- The Singing, Springing Lark by the Brothers Grimm
  This was possibly my favorite of the mix because it was so different and out there. The Beast is a lion who turns back into a man at night, so he and Beauty work around these hours much like a couple that works third shift. Adorable. However, the Prince then turns into a dove who has to fly around the world for seven years because a candle ray touched him. Obviously. Beauty, who I believe is just referred to as "she" in this one, becomes a shell of a woman and a stage five clinger who follows him all around the world only to have him jet off with another woman. Luckily, she was given gifts that lead her back to him and finds out he only abandoned her after all those years of loyalty because the other woman bewitched him. Of course she did.
  
  Happily ever after in this one would have been "she" leaving his sorry butt.
  
  Version 4- Beauty and the Beast by Andrew Lang
  Mash-up of Version 1 and Version 2. My man Andy did it right. Perfect length and amount of details. The prince's mom also appeared in this one very briefly but was thankful for Beauty's help rather than a snob trying to work through her class issues.
  
  3 Stars because the story had to start somewhere for me to have my beloved Disney version
• 
  Paul

  Very interesting. Quite a bit different than the Disney version. No Gaston! No singing candlesticks! And there are wicked sisters!
  The four versions were written by different authors, including the Brothers Grimm. Three of the versions date from 1783 through 1889. One is very long, and the other two are shortened versions of the first.
  The long version is 3/4 of the book - and it doesn't need to be. Sometimes it reads like the "One Thousand and One Nights", and you almost expect Aladdin to drop in. Other times it reads like Dumas. The problem is at the end, after the Beast has been transformed, where one of the Fairies goes off into a long-winded explanation of what was happening in the background, that takes up almost a quarter of the book. The second and third versions are basically the same story, without the speech at the end.
  The fourth is a Brothers Grimm story that is similar, but not quite the same, with a lion instead of the Beast, and there is a dragon and other things.
  All in all, it was interesting.
• 
  alyssa smith

  always reading for class and never just for fun HAHA
• 
  Sumru

  Lovely story
• 
  Erica

  I didn't so much enjoy the Grimm fairy tale part of the original stories, but the rest of them were very enchanting.
  
  I enjoyed the original story up until after he had changed and then the story seemed to drag on a bit too much, dwelling on the fairy and what she did to the Prince, dwelling on why he did what he did and what was behind it all I just feel like that was more than enough information. Other than this I greatly enjoyed it.
  
  The second story I believe was my favorite. Aside from the Beast asking Beauty to marry him every night the story gave a more clear picture of how their love for each other developed into a real experience.
  
  The third was the Grimm fairy tale about the Beast as a lion and I couldn't seem to grasp where they were going with it. It wasn't my cup of tea.
  
  The fourth story was very much similar l the second only shorter, even less detail. I loved it still more as a quick story I could read through when I want to read.
  
  All in all these books were good and if you're a fan of the story of Beauty and the Beast at all, I would highly recommend trying out the original stories it's made a fan like me very glad to have read them.
• 
  Amber

  2.5/5
  I love the disney Beauty and The Beast, I also have a few of the Disney twisted tales on my kindle, and I have never read the original, or any version of the story. So, I thought before I dive into the twisted tales I wanted to read the original and subsequent versions.
  Here are my quick and dirty thoughts about each version:
  
  The original, The Story of Beauty and the Beast By Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve Translated by James Robinson Planché - trash, I think that it's a translation problem more than a story problem, but even the story was kind of boring, it took me FOREVER to get through and it was only 80, or so, pages. But it did had the wildest Beast description.
  
  The abridged version, Beauty and the Beast By Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont- better, but too short, there wasn't even time to describe what the beast looked like.
  
  The Singing, Springing Lark by The Brothers Grimm- Lions and Dragons and Griffins, oh my! This one was the least like the the disney version we all know, but it was a wild ride!
  
  Beauty and The Beast by Andrew Lang- the best version of the collection
• 
  Gina

  [Read the Andrew Lang version for Hillsdale College's "Classic Children's Literature" online course]
• 
  Anna

  A long but interesting origin story
  
  The story we know only seems half the plot of the long original. It drags a bit but it was interesting to see how involved the original was
• 
  Newly Wardell

  Okay, so Beauty and the Beast is wild. Started out so convoluted.
• 
  abe

  Read to baby