Customer Reviews

Beauty and the Beast: Visions and Revisions of an Old Tale

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This is by far the best book on the subject of 'Beauty and the Beast' ever written. Betsy Hearne takes an insightful look at the fairy tale and its many versions throughout the centuries. Unfortunately its time span is only from the 1700's to the early 1980's, thus excluding any discussion of the Ron Koslow television series or the 1991 Disney animated film. But even with this, the book is well worth several readings if you are at all interested in studying this 'tale as old as time.'

I found this book serveral years ago, and bought it becuae, well, I love Beauty and the Beast (with the possible exception of the Disney verson....) and this was reccomended as one of the better basic resources. It was originally writen as a thesis , so basically it's all that research available without the bother of looking it up yourself. She discusses the shift of the story from the folktales to the novels and other adaptations of today. Unfortunately it was written BEFORE Disney, but I found a review she did of the movie later. It was pretty funny. It has a copy of one of the oldest printed versions (Mme Le Prince du Beaumont) and a transcription of a French folk version as resources at the end. (I wish I could read French.)