Customer Reviews

Beauty and the Beast

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A thousand words cannot begin to describe this book. Marianna Mayer took a story that all readers would be familiar with and without drastically changing it, gave us a breath of fresh air from our childhood. Her prose is outstanding but the true standout is the way she portrays emotion. In too many fairy tales, the characters are cool and aloof and the only human emotion portrayed is love. In this "Beauty and the Beast," the lucky reader can see the depth of Beauty and the Beast's despair and hope. As for the illustrations, they are breathtaking! Mercer Mayer's fairy tale work is incredible and full of detail. Beauty's rooms are rich and colorful. Beauty is gorgeous and the Beast is a tad scary. Unusual details include the Egyptian motifs scattered thourghout the castle, especially the sphinx off in a distant room. I highly recommend this book, no matter what your age. This book has an heirloom quality to it and the story is as beautiful and as timeless as the mountains outside Beauty's window.

The story is beautiful yet familiar. The drawings are heartachingly exquisite. Even the pictures in my mind's eye aren't as sumptuous as the illustrations in this book. Mercer Mayer outdid himself. Each time I read this book I discover something new in each painting. I am shocked that it did not receive a Caldicott. Mayer's fairytales have a distressing habit of going out of print- buy this one while you still can. I plan to pass my copy down through generations.

In a faithful re-telling of the French fairy tale, Marianna Mercer has successfully captured the essence of the story: that true love is blind to all appearances, and that ugliness from without does not necessarily denote ugliness from within. Mercer Mayer's beautiful and carefully done illustrations highlight the magic of the story, portraying both the loveliness of the heroine, Beauty, as well as the inner mean-spirited nature of her beautiful but scornful sisters. I particularly loved his illustrations of Beauty's father, the merchant, which went from despair and sorrow at the loss of his rich cargo ships, to the surprise at being caught by the Beast in the rose garden, to the joy at seeing his daughter again after her "captivity" in the Beast's castle. I first received this book in the early '80's for Christmas from a beloved brother; though my first copy was destroyed, I was lucky enough to be able to purchase another hardcover edition just a few years ago, and it is a favorite of mine which my children hear read to them very often. My advice is to get the hardcover edition, because the softcover may not last as long through all of the readings, but whatever edition you buy, do not miss out on this wonderful and relevant tale retold with skill and beauty.

Beauty and the Beast is a beautiful and timeless classic book for children which teach the need for kindness towards the less privileged in society. The book also teaches that being mean and unkind towards other people leads to unhappiness whilst love and kindness result in pleasant outcomes.

The story starts on a cold winter evening when a ragged old beggar bearing a rose turns up to the door of a castle asking for shelter. However, the spoiled prince turns her away. The old woman then suddenly turns into an enchantress and casts a spell over the castle and those residing there and turns the prince into an ugly beast. The rose she had offered the prince would bloom until the prince reached the age of 21. If the prince learned to love and if his love is returned before the rose petal fell, the spell would be broken.

The prince (now a beast) was angry and bitter and lost hope that anyone would ever love him. However, a chain of events developed that ultimately decided the fate of the ugly beast. Maurice, a famous inventor is lost in a forest and is chased by wild animals until he stumbles on an old castle. There he is held prisoner by the beast. Maurice's lovely daughter, Beauty, looks for him in the castle. She finds him in the dungeon of the castle and she pleads with the beast to release her father and take her prisoner instead. The beast agrees. However, eventually, when she runs away from the castle, she is attacked by a pack of wolves. The beast that was chasing her rescues Beauty from the wolves. Beauty and the beast become friends and learned to trust one another.

When Beauty was missing her father, the beast, out of kindness and sympathy, agrees to release Beauty so that she re-unites with her father. However, the villagers that Maurice was crazy when he related his story about being taken prisoner by a wild beast in a castle. Beauty showed the villagers the beast in the mirror. The village hunter sets off to kill the beast. The beast was badly wounded and Beauty rushed to help the beast and confessed that she loved it. This was just when the last petal was about to fall. With Beauty's love, the beast was changed into a handsome prince as the spell was broken. Love had transformed the prince's life forever.

The authors, Marianna and Mercer Mayer did a commendable job of coming up with a children's book with rousing images and excellent paintings that evoke mystery in people. The images and paintings expertly capture and portray emotion and feeling with detail and colour that is amazing and exciting.

I got this for my 4 year old daughter. She likes it, but it's hard for us to get through because there are facing pages without any pictures. She's a patient and attentive listener, so we made it through, and the illustrations are absolutely drool-worthy, which helps. I'd recommend for a slightly older child. Or for a mom, such as myself, who loves fairy tales.

I had this book as a child and loved it then, but forgot about it as I discovered novels. Years later I went back and read it again and saw a thousand things I had missed before. Do you notice that the castle has Egyptian architecture? Or that certain shade of blue-purple that connotes something out of the ordinary? Or the presence of roses in almost every picture? The words do a good job of telling the story, but the illustrations are what truly make this book special. For anyone remotely interested in myth or fairy tales, this is the best telling of Beauty and the Beast available.

This retelling of the old fairy tale adds deeper emotions to the story with gorgeous, jewel-toned paintings. The portrayal of the father as a broken man, the beast as a misunderstood animal, and Beauty as all that is selfless and good in pre-modern Europe follows the timeworn pattern. Although the text does not stand out among retellings, the framed, haunting oil paintings that accompany the words on each opening as love turns the beast into a prince make the text superfluous. The images are ageless, but the text I would recommend for ages eight and up.

It may be interesting to read and compare close to a dozen versions of the classic fable Beauty and the Beast and a couple of DVDs of the tale with each other. Accordingly, my next ten reviews will focus on this fable. This short edition by unknown needs no comment other than to point out that it is a brief account of the de Beaumont story, with small variations. The de Beaumont version will be my second review. The differences with de Beaumont are very minor, as if a person was orally retelling a written tale. Readers should note that most of the accounts roughly follow the following format:

* The tales focus on a young woman who is exceptionally beautiful.
* She is a virgin and has two sisters and sometimes one or more brothers, a father, and sometimes a mother.
* The father is either rich or poor at the outset of events, but is poor when the actions start.
* She has an opportunity to marry a suitor but is reluctant to do so because he is either ugly (a beast) or she thinks he is ugly.
* Different versions give different accounts or no account why he is ugly.
* She agrees to go or stay with her suitor, usually to aid her father or because he encourages her, but she usually refuses his offer to marry him.
* The suitor hides his true handsome face from her and warns her not to look at him.
* She breaks an agreement with him, either not to look at him or not to stay away on her visit home too long.
* She suffers for her disobedience, has to go through several trials/difficulties.
* She relents and agrees to marry him, generally because she recognizes that he is kind to her, and lives with her suitor happily.

The Beauty and the Beast stories that follow what we might call the classical version reflect the ancient tradition that marriages were arranged by parents frequently for financial reasons or for joining families. Girls were told that they should not seek beauty in their husbands who were frequently much older than them. The stories stress that girls must be obedient, reject any feelings about their own needs, and realize that love can come, perhaps not quickly, but as a result of gratitude. If they are kind to their husbands, they will be treated nicely, and this niceness will lead to love.

This is my favorite fairy tale, and I've looked high and low through every library I've ever lived near to see what editions they had, always looking for a new rendition to delight (or dissapoint) my mind and eyes. This is THE best I've ever found. It is a pity that Mercer Mayer has not done more fairy tales. His talent is immense. The actual story-telling is simple, with only slight variations to the original tale that to not take away from it's main moral. (Those looking for a non-illustrated "best" Should read "Beauty" or "Rose Daughter" by Robin McKinley)

The Mayers present a stunning edition of Beauty and the Beast in this picture book. Marianna's story is simply and beautifully told, and Mercer's illustrations are stunning, full of detail, and create the perfect mood for this classic fairy tale. I highly recommend this book.