Beauty and the Beast

Popularized by Disney movies, "Beauty and the Beast" was first written by Gabrielle Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve in France. As noted in Wikipedia, this story is written in a writing style known as précieuse. This style of writing arose from the desire of the women of Paris to escape the political intrigues of the day. Ladies of the day would gather in various salons throughout the city of Paris. To escape the political intrigue of the day, they would engage in lively conversations and word plays. This was the basis of "Beauty and the Beast". The first version of the story was more than 100 pages in length but it was later revised and published by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. This is the version that is read most commonly.

This fairy tale is available in its completeness online. The following link will take you to the text version of the story. On this page you will be given the option of reading it online or downloading it to your computer. Beauty and the Beast


A short biography of Gabrielle Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve can be found at the following link: Villeneuve author bio


The following link will take you to a picture of Ms Villeneuve. picture

This is a link for a short biography of the publishing author: Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont