Beauty and the Beast

This week the live version of Disney's Beauty and the Beast opens in theaters. Since the animated version debuted in 1991, this has been my favorite fairy tale. Disney tales like Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty are based on stories by the Grimm brothers, but not this one. (Others are based on tales by Hans Christian Anderson or come from other cultures, like Mulan and Aladdin.)

So if not from the Grimm brothers or Hans Christian Anderson, where does the story of Beauty and the Beast originate?

"La Belle et La Bete" was a novel written by a French woman in 1740. Gabrielle-Suzanna Barbot de Villeneuve lived from 1685 to 1755, the daughter of a wealthy Protestant family. (I started to give detail about the Huguenot wars but I was getting off track. Suffice to say: being a rich Protestant in France was unusual.) She married an aristocrat, but she separated from him when he squandered their combined fortunes. She returned to Paris, where she met and lived with one of the foremost French playwrights of the day and began writing novels and fairy tales.

Barbot's fairy tale "La Belle et La Bete" is the oldest known variant of the Beauty and the Beast story. We're all familiar with the basic story line, but Barbot included the history of both Belle and the Beast, something most modern versions don't include. A year after Barbot's death, the story was abridged, rewritten, and published by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont, and because she did not give credit to Barbot, Le Prince is often given the accolades for creating the story. It is her shortened version that is the basis for most modern versions.

The list of works, both written and performed, based on Beauty and the Beast is extensive. But Disney's will likely always be my favorite, and I can't wait to see it on screen!