Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast

Synopsis

Robin McKinley’s acclaimed first novel is a brilliant reimagining of the classic French fairy tale

I was the youngest of three daughters. Our literal-minded mother named us Grace, Hope, and Honour....My father still likes to tell the story of how I acquired my odd nickname: I had come to him for further information when I first discovered that our names meant something besides you-come-here. He succeeded in explaining grace and hope, but he had some difficulty trying to make the concept of honour understandable to a five-year-old.... I said: ‘Huh! I’d rather be Beauty.’ .

By the time it was evident that I was going to let the family down by being plain, I’d been called Beauty for over six years... I wasn’t really very fond of my given name, Honour, either... as if ‘honourable’ were the best that could be said of me.

The sisters’ wealthy father loses all his money when his merchant fleet is drowned in a storm, and the family moves to a village far away. Then the old merchant hears what proves to be a false report that one of his ships had made it safe to harbor at last, and on his sad, disappointed way home again he becomes lost deep in the forest and has a terrifying encounter with a fierce Beast, who walks like a man and lives in a castle. The merchant’s life is forfeit, says the Beast, for trespass and the theft of a rose—but he will spare the old man’s life if he sends one of his daughters: “Your daughter would take no harm from me, nor from anything that lives in my lands.” When Beauty hears this story—for her father had picked the rose to bring to her—her sense of honor demands that she take up the Beast’s offer, for “cannot a Beast be tamed?” Kind Beauty grows to love the Beast at whose castle she is compelled to stay and through her love releases him from the spell which had turned him from a handsome prince into an ugly beast.

Copyright:

1978

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

Book Size:

328 Pages

ISBN-13:

9781497673700

Publisher:

Open Road Media

Date of Addition:

12/15/16

Copyrighted By:

Robin Mckinley

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Children's Books, Literature and Fiction, Science Fiction and Fantasy

Grade Levels:

Third grade, Fourth grade, Fifth grade, Sixth grade, Seventh grade

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.

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