Beauty: A retelling of the story of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley

Published 2004 by Corgi Books (first published October 25th 1978)

edition language

English

original title

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

characters

Beast (Beauty), Beauty/Honour Huston, Grace Huston, Molly Honeybourne, Hope Huston-Woodhouse Hope Huston-Woodhouse, Lydia (Beauty), Bessie (Beauty), Mercy Woodhouse, Richard Woodhouse, Ruth (Beauty), Lady Marguerite, Robert Tucker, Gervain Woodhouse, Roderick Huston, Tom Black, Greatheart, Tom Bradley, Melinda Honeybourne, Ferdy (Beauty), Pat Lawrey, Nick Callaway, John Honeybourne, Cider (Beauty), Frewen (Beauty), Orpheus/Phooey, Odysseus (Beauty) 

When the family business collapses, Beauty and her two sisters are forced to leave the city and begin a new life in the countryside. However, when their father accepts hospitality from the elusive and magical Beast, he is forced to make a terrible promise - to send one daughter to the Beast's castle, with no guarantee that she will be seen again. Beauty accepts the challenge, and there begins an extraordinary story of magic and love that overcomes all boundaries. This is another spellbinding and emotional tale embroidered around a fairytale from Robin McKinley, an award-winning American author

My Review
Beauty and the Beast is one of my all time favorite Disney tales, and so its always a pleasure to read a new tale based on the original. I did like this story because it was very much connected to the Disney version that I know all to well, but at the same time it had this sense of originality to it, in that it was modern, expressive and seemed to have a very sort of true nature to it. At the same time though the imagery that the novel provided, gave you this sense of the olden times where females wore nothing but skirts and dresses, and it was unseen and unheard of for them to wear trousers. I liked the story for its simplicity. It was an easy and yet an enjoyable read that seemed to make the reader think about the perception of love. So many of us believe that love is about the way in which we look and how others look to us. But in this book, the message is painted clearly, love is about the person that we get to know within, the soul that this person has.

I felt myself connecting to Beauty in this novel and did find myself chuckling at bits and pieces, like the stubborn argument over the dress that did not want to be worn. I just felt that with this book the author has put a lot of imagination and creativity into her words, whilst also making sure to stick to the basic outline. I do feel that the ending was a little rushed though, in that you don't get to see what really happens with the beast is transformed. In the film I remember there being this sort of huge flash of light and the change was slow and dramatic. But in the book it seemed to be quick and rushed and I feel that perhaps this could have been drawn out a fair bit.

I also felt that perhaps it would have been nice to have got to known the servants that were within the books. Were they invisble, what did they look like. It would have been nice to have seen Beauty connect with them, to let them know that she could hear them but not see them. Perhaps this would have added more adventure and mystery to the novel? Or perhaps I am just being picky and wanting the disney version back. It is a good novel, and I did enjoy it, but I think I will stick to my disney for now

My rating