“Once upon a time, in a faraway land, a young prince lived in a shining
castle. Although he had everything his heart desired, the prince was
spoiled, selfish, and unkind. But then, one winter’s night, an old
beggar woman came to the castle and offered him a single rose in return
for shelter from the bitter cold. Repulsed by her haggard appearance,
the prince sneered at the gift and turned the old woman away. But she
warned him not to be deceived by appearances, for beauty is found
within. And when he dismissed her again, the old woman’s ugliness melted
away to reveal a beautiful enchantress. The prince tried to apologize,
but it was too late, for she had seen that there was no love in his
heart. And as punishment, she transformed him into a hideous beast and
placed a powerful spell on the castle and all who lived there…”happy birthday samantha!!! @montescos
Tag: la belle et la bête
A path of roses | La Belle et la Bête
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Beauty and the Beast (French: La Belle et la Bête) is a traditional fairy tale written by French novelist Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont and published in 1756.Variants of the tale are known across Europe. In France, for example, Zémire et Azor is an operatic version of the story, written by Marmontel and composed by Grétry in 1771, which had enormous success well into the 19th century; it is based on the second version of the tale. Amour pour amour, by Nivelle de la Chaussée, is a 1742 play based on Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve’s version.
Villeneuve’s tale includes several elements that Beaumont’s omits. Chiefly, the back-story of both Belle and the Beast is given. The Beast was a prince who lost his father at a young age, and whose mother had to wage war to defend his kingdom. The queen left him in care of an evil fairy, who tried to seduce him when he became an adult; when he refused, she transformed him into a beast. Belle’s story reveals that she is not really a merchant’s daughter but the offspring of a king and a good fairy. The wicked fairy had tried to murder Belle so she could marry her father the king, and Belle was put in the place of the merchant’s dead daughter to protect her. She also gave the castle elaborate magic, which obscured the more vital pieces of it. Beaumont greatly pared down the cast of characters and simplified the tale to an almost archetypal simplicity.
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