by Alex Flinn
In Cupid and Psyche, Psyche, when she leaves Cupid, must go on a quest to get him back. This occurs in several other stories, and I have incorporated it into my story.
The version most familiar to American audiences was written in eighteenth-century France by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont (though sometimes credited to Charles Perrault of Cinderella fame), adapted from an earlier novel by Gabrielle Susan Barbot de Gallan de Villeneuve. In this version, a traveler stumbles into the garden of a Beast, steals a rose for his youngest daughter, a beautiful but bookish girl, and is going to be killed until he promises to return. The daughter returns in his stead to become the Beast’s prisoner. In the Beaumont and Villeneuve versions, unlike most others, the fairy who placed the curse takes a somewhat active role in the courtship of Beauty and Beast, appearing to Beauty in a dream and reassuring her, then returning after the curse is broken, to congratulate them on their prosperous love. It is from this I conceived Kendra’s continued involvement in the plot of the book, though in this case, her involvement is with the Beast himself.
As a writer, I write about what disturbs me, and what disturbed me about many versions of Beauty and the Beast was that beloved as Beauty is said to be, in each case, her father gives her over willingly to the Beast, in order to save his own life (the Disney movie version is a gentler version of the tale, in which Belle’s father has no choice in the matter). Thinking of this led me to think about the Beast himself, how he was alone in the castle, possibly abandoned by his own family, the circumstances of which are unexplained in most versions. So the romance is really the story of two abandoned teens who find each other. As a young adult writer, I hear often of the negative portrayals of parents in my genre, but I am convinced that YA has nothing on fairy tales for evil parents (see, e.g., Hansel and Gretel, Snow White). This was how I conceived my story—unsugarcoated, though still with a happily ever after.
Readers interested in other Beauty and the Beast stories may wish to check out Beauties and Beasts by Betsy Hearne, which contains stories from different countries, and The Dragon Prince: A Chinese Beauty & the Beast Tale by Laurence Yep. Young adult versions include Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty & the Beast by Robin McKinley, Beast by Donna Jo Napoli, and The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold by Francesca Lia Block, which contains various fairy-tale retellings, including a short Beast tale. The Rumpel-stiltskin Problem is a book by Vivian Vande Velde, conceived because the author was disturbed, as I was, by inconsistencies in a traditional tale.
Readers are probably familiar with the Disney movie version of Beauty and the Beast. But they may wish to watch the movie version of the tale, La Belle et la bête, directed by Jean Cocteau (in French, with English subtitles). It is, admittedly, this version of the Beast I visualized when creating Adrian.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to my daughter Meredith
for listening to numerous versions of
Beauty and the Beast, often without pictures.
About the Author
ALEX FLINN loves fairy tales and made her two daughters sit through several dozen versions of “Beauty and the Beast” while she wrote this book…then quizzed them on how they thought a beast would meet girls in New York City. She is the author of five previous books, including BREATHING UNDERWATER, an American Library Association Top 10 Best Book for Young Adults; BREAKING POINT, a 2003 ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers; NOTHING TO LOSE, a 2005 ALA Best Book for Young Adults; FADE TO BLACK, a 2006 ALA Best Book for Young Adults nominee; and DIVA. She lives in Miami. Visit Alex on the web at www.alexflinn.com.
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Also by
ALEX FLINN
BREATHING UNDERWATER
BREAKING POINT
NOTHING TO LOSE
FADE TO BLACK
DIVA
Credits
Cover art © 2007 by The Heads of State
Cover design by Sasha Illingworth
Copyright
BEASTLY. Copyright © 2007 by Alex Flinn. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub © Edition DECEMBER 2008 ISBN: 9780061972539
Version 12072012
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