Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast #1

by Barbara Hambly

Kidnapped and injured, a young woman awakens in a hidden world. Catherine meets Vincent and her life is changed forever.

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Beauty and The Beast, Fiction, Media Tie In, Fairy Tales, Retellings

242 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1989

About the author

aka Barbara Hamilton

Ranging from fantasy to historical fiction, Barbara Hambly has a masterful way of spinning a story. Her twisty plots involve memorable characters, lavish descriptions, scads of novel words, and interesting devices. Her work spans the Star Wars universe, antebellum New Orleans, and various fantasy worlds, sometimes linked with our own.


"I always wanted to be a writer but everyone kept telling me it was impossible to break into the field or make money. I've proven them wrong on both counts."
-Barbara Hambly

Reviews

[Francesca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ispirato all'omonima serie televisiva, non so valutare se aggiunga qualcosa, poiché non ricordo bene il telefilm, ma pare romanzare una parte delle vicende proposte in tv. Un libro, a mio avviso, discretamente scritto, una lettura gradevole di una storia fantastica raccontata in maniera coinvolgente e dominata dal fascino dei due personaggi principali, Catherine e Vincent.

[Leelan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent novelization of the twenty-year-old TV series. This book kept Vincent and Catherines fresh in my mind until the bean counters finally released the series on DVD.

If you love the old story of "Beauty and the Beast" and want to enjoy the tale set in our modern world then this book and series is for you. Catherine, a beautiful but lost corporate lawyer, is mugged leaving a party one night in New York. Her attackers slash her face and dump her barely alive in Central Park. A hooded figure finds her and takes her below into the abandoned steam tunnels beneath the city to save her life. Catherine awakens to find her face covered in bandages. She is alive and recovering but cannot see the man who tends her. All she knows is that he is kind, that he has a wonderful voice and that his name is Vincent. When she finally removes her bandages she is shocked to see what is left of her face --- but even more shocked to see see Vincent's face! He is not a man, or is he? His face is that of a beast, a lion. But his heart is more human and humane than any other that she has ever known.

Several episodes from the TV series are translated here. They are beautifully written by a lady who was evidently a fan of the show herself.

For anyone interested, several episodes were written by an author mentioned many times here, George R.R. Martin. So if you are a fan of his, or of Barbara Hambly or of the BatB TV show, then you should find this book and make it your own.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok guilty pleasure time ... This book (and please do not confuse it with the current re-imaging being aired on TV) is one of a number of guilty admissions (bracing myself for sarcastic comments) but let me try and explain. It was the year I finished school and was preparing to go to university. I was working at a grocery store where i was working as part of the twilight crew (thankfully no connecting to the books) where we basically went in to the store after hours to restock and resupply the store. No we didn't mend shoes on the side and we didn't help poor cobblers. But it meant that i didn't get home till 2 or 3 am. Throw in to this mix a hot summer in an old house with no cooling and i was up till all hours watching tv wondering when I could get some sleep. And on comes this series (along with Gerry Anderson's Dick Spanner who remembers that!) so i start watching it, ok by todays standards it will be painful but then it was mesmerising, after all Vincent was played by Ron Perlman who went on to do some of my favourite shows and films and Linda Hamilton went on to hunt terminators, and if you are still sniggering the TV series was part written by George R R Martin him of game on thrones no less. Anyway less name dropping - this book really retells the pilot story and when i stumbled across it some years later the memories all came flooding back and yes I still read it today.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, so maybe this isn't the most advanced or sophisticated literary work I could be reading right now...but I've been watching the old 80s TV show "Beauty and the Beast," and when I found the novelizations online, I couldn't resist. It's just a little of romantic fluff to read after the long days at work. I guess I still wish that fairy tales came true :-)

[David Read · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this mostly because it's by Barbara Hambly, who is one of my favorite authors. Nice, but not her best work.
I recommend it if you're a BATB fan, or a Barbara Hambly fan.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

(NOTE: This review is for "Beauty and the Beast" by Barbara Hambly, which novelized the pilot episode of the 1987 TV series of the same name. For some reason Goodreads has the third book, "Song of Orpheus," listed as an alternate edition of this book rather than a separate novel entirely. As of 03/27/2017, I have not read Books #2 or #3 of this series.)

I haven't seen the television series, but this book made me want to see the interaction and between Catherine and Vincent. Barbara Hambly's style evoked a beautiful fairy tale atmosphere while retaining the grit of a city. It was lovely to have such a proactive heroine and unusual hero. Very neat take on the story of Beauty and the Beast!

[A. P. Zacharová · Rating 2 out of 5]

...skoro steelovská ,,limonádka," ktorá síce hrá na struny presahu (tabu témy života chudobných či postihnutých) a romantiky, no toho prvého je skutočne literárneho pramálo a toho druhého ešte pomenej. Zostane tak iba akási rozprávková kostra a do nej bez hmoždiny našróbovaná červená knižnica a zdanlivá sociálna próza a zbytočné citové vydieranie...

[Marsha Ruppe Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the series, I believe this novel is a spectacular telling of episode one of the series

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you loved the series like I did, you will enjoy the book, because it goes further into the minds of the main characters, filling in some things that may have been missed in the production.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

overly dramatic and very 80s. the best part was the parts describing the underground world

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice expansion upon the early TV episode because it allows us to see the internal perspective of Catherine and Vincent.

[Jessica Ahlros · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review in Swedish coming om Swedish bookblog
http://ahlrosbokigahyllor.blogg.se/20...

misspelled authors name sorry!

[Michelle Llewellyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The year was 1996 BA (Before Amazon!) I had to special order this book through the mail from a bookseller who specialized in out-of-print/hard to find books. How happy I was when it finally arrived! As a die hard fan of the TV show thanks to VHS and cable reruns I HAD to own all the copies of the tie-in books and yes, I now own all 3 seasons on DVD. I first read this book at the library and found Masques at a used book store.

Beauty and the Beast is the novelization of the TV show's season one pilot, Once Upon a Time In The City of New York.

There's a break in the middle for a storyline about the tunnels flooding with water and Vincent helping the tunnel children swim to safety. This leads to Mouse's attempted robbery at a scrap metal yard and almost getting caught if not for Vincent. Scenes that never made it into the TV series, probably too expensive to shoot.

The story picks up again with Vincent visiting Catherine for the first time since her accident, then there's the climax at the brownstone with the final confrontation and Vincent saving the day.

If you enjoy getting inside the heads of your favorite characters from the show, especially Vincent and Catherine, read this book, you'll love it!

[Rhymerslog · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the beginning, I rolled my eyes a bit. But I must admit I was hooked to this pulp novel after the first few chapters. The author might not be a Nobel laureate, but she can spin a story, and she makes the characters much more believable than the actors did. I didn't watch the pilot until after I read the book, but in my opinion the book is a lot better, and I was disappointed to realize most of Vincent's story (which I enjoyed as much as Catherine's) wasn't filmed at all. I think if I had seen the show first, I wouldn't have picked up half of what was going on, and I prefer the book to the show. All in all, I give it 3 stars.

[Kagama-the Literaturevixen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
I was looking through my local libraries shelf as a teenager when I found this book. Of course I had sporadically watched the tv-show while it ran on tv but I was too young to completely grasp the story at the time.

I have to admit to re-reading this several times. It was what I was craving at the time,a 100% fairytale-esque romance book.

I wouldnt call it the greatest work of literature ever written,but it is a good one.

Recommends.

[Gabriel Mero · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, a novelizaion of the pilot of the TV series Beauty and the Beast, stays true to the series and even elaborates some of the behind the scenes action that we didn't get do see during the months that Catherine was recuperating. All in all, a good book, and a must-have for Beauty and the Beast fans,

[Lynne Stringer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful novelisation of the pilot of one of my favourite TV shows. I really loved the way it was done. It remained true to the characters, even when enlarging on what happened in the pilot. It also added some loved characters who appeared later in the series, which was appreciated.

[Arlene Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once upon a time, I did swear I was not going to read any more movie or tv tie-ins. Obviously, I lie. (But hey, this one was by Barbara Hambly! How could I resist?)