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Beauty and the Beast
Despite his fearsome appearance, an ugly beast wins the heart of a tenderhearted and beautiful girl and, in turn, breaks the evil spell that had transformed him into a beast.
Hardcover
First published June 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 15, 2022
VERSION: Beaumont.
ADAPTATION: 3 stars.
ARTWORK: 4 stars. Painterly style, oil on canvas-like, warm autumnal palette.
BEAUTY: Redhead.
BEAST: Lion.
CURSE: "A wicked fairy did it," the reason is implicit.
THE Rs: Gentled down and sped up due to the summation.
KEY ELEMENT CHANGED: The family: Beauty has only two sisters, no brothers, and they're not punished but forgiven. The prince's parents are still alive. The merchant: when the surviving ship returns, the cargo isn't used to pay debts but is stolen.
FAVOURITE SCENE:
This seems to have been made for a younger audience, at least that's what I think for two characterisitcs: first, the small size of the book, hardly bigger than those miniature picture books for children, which is so very cute but also so frustratingly tiny for Sanderson's art, which deserves to be displayed on a bigger page size.
The second reason I think this might've been produced with young children in mind is the gentling of the story. The fairy tale by Beaumont is gentle already, compared to Villeneuve's original, but Samantha Easton made it even gentler by smoothing out some scenes that aren't exactly kind and changing others for the sake of taking the high road. For example, the sisters aren't as horrible here, and in fact don't want Beauty to be eaten up by the Beast but just for him to be angry at her and forbid her going out again. And as there's no fairy here to punish them for what they've done, they get no comeuppance but Beauty forgives them implicitly if not obviously because she goes to give them and their father notice of her happily ever after.
That's well and good, but the result is that the textual adaptation is a bit dull because it's so very summed up that it goes by too quickly. The relationship between Beauty and Beast goes by quickly, and there's an element I didn't particularly care for: Beast asks Beauty if she loves him the first time they have dinner together. That's rushed and ridiculous. He's supposed to ask her if she'd marry him because it's part of the curse, but he doesn't ask for love right away. Both of them are way gentler than in the fairy tale, too, and I missed the fright and the bite.
As for the art, this picture book has some of the most beautiful illustrations I've ever seen for this tale, all done by Ruth Sanderson. They don't look like drawings but like actual oil paintings, and are a pleasure to look at. It reminds me a bit of Scott Gustafson, with warmer colours and a dreamier atmosphere, and Marc Fishman as well.
The drawings are the best thing in this book and would get 5 stars if not for the fact that, as I've said before, the depiction of Beast makes or break an adaptation for me. I love Sanderson's style, her palette is my favourite type and her painterly style too, but I wasn't all that impressed by her Beast. He needed more of that imposing ferocity the tale tells about, and with that lion appearance Sanderson chose, he could've been imposing indeed and he isn't. And, what's more, when he turns back into the prince, he's . . . well, rather amusing. He looks like Sonny Bono, as Phair said. Not an important detail, of course, but personal observations. So overall it's 3.5 stars for this book.
ADAPTATION: 3 stars.
ARTWORK: 4 stars. Painterly style, oil on canvas-like, warm autumnal palette.
BEAUTY: Redhead.
BEAST: Lion.
CURSE: "A wicked fairy did it," the reason is implicit.
THE Rs: Gentled down and sped up due to the summation.
KEY ELEMENT CHANGED: The family: Beauty has only two sisters, no brothers, and they're not punished but forgiven. The prince's parents are still alive. The merchant: when the surviving ship returns, the cargo isn't used to pay debts but is stolen.
FAVOURITE SCENE:
This seems to have been made for a younger audience, at least that's what I think for two characterisitcs: first, the small size of the book, hardly bigger than those miniature picture books for children, which is so very cute but also so frustratingly tiny for Sanderson's art, which deserves to be displayed on a bigger page size.
The second reason I think this might've been produced with young children in mind is the gentling of the story. The fairy tale by Beaumont is gentle already, compared to Villeneuve's original, but Samantha Easton made it even gentler by smoothing out some scenes that aren't exactly kind and changing others for the sake of taking the high road. For example, the sisters aren't as horrible here, and in fact don't want Beauty to be eaten up by the Beast but just for him to be angry at her and forbid her going out again. And as there's no fairy here to punish them for what they've done, they get no comeuppance but Beauty forgives them implicitly if not obviously because she goes to give them and their father notice of her happily ever after.
That's well and good, but the result is that the textual adaptation is a bit dull because it's so very summed up that it goes by too quickly. The relationship between Beauty and Beast goes by quickly, and there's an element I didn't particularly care for: Beast asks Beauty if she loves him the first time they have dinner together. That's rushed and ridiculous. He's supposed to ask her if she'd marry him because it's part of the curse, but he doesn't ask for love right away. Both of them are way gentler than in the fairy tale, too, and I missed the fright and the bite.
As for the art, this picture book has some of the most beautiful illustrations I've ever seen for this tale, all done by Ruth Sanderson. They don't look like drawings but like actual oil paintings, and are a pleasure to look at. It reminds me a bit of Scott Gustafson, with warmer colours and a dreamier atmosphere, and Marc Fishman as well.
The drawings are the best thing in this book and would get 5 stars if not for the fact that, as I've said before, the depiction of Beast makes or break an adaptation for me. I love Sanderson's style, her palette is my favourite type and her painterly style too, but I wasn't all that impressed by her Beast. He needed more of that imposing ferocity the tale tells about, and with that lion appearance Sanderson chose, he could've been imposing indeed and he isn't. And, what's more, when he turns back into the prince, he's . . . well, rather amusing. He looks like Sonny Bono, as Phair said. Not an important detail, of course, but personal observations. So overall it's 3.5 stars for this book.
March 26, 2017
The bookworms favorite princess! and the most envied bookworm too :D
Re-reading it was a moment of pleasure.
"Les grands classiques ne se démodent jamais"
_Shenzi, Le Roi Lion.
I added the fourth star so that I won't be murdered by Maryame my friend!
Re-reading it was a moment of pleasure.
"Les grands classiques ne se démodent jamais"
_Shenzi, Le Roi Lion.
I added the fourth star so that I won't be murdered by Maryame my friend!
September 13, 2021
This rating is for the edition adapted by Samantha Easton and illustrated by Ruth Sanderson.
April 24, 2019
Barndomsminnen🌟❤
May 19, 2025
The illustrations are 10/10✨ But the story… helll naaaah. It’s to short. That’s why I didn’t feel anything in this book.
October 21, 2023
Very, very short book. This retelling was almost like a bullet point version of beauty and the beast, even shorter than Jeanne-Marie Le Prince Du Beaumont's version. It doesnt really show Beauty learning to love the Beast and pretty much compleatly eliminated the moral that beauty is found within. This book was so lacking I did plan on giving it only 2 stars, I decided however as the illustrations by Ruth Sanderson were rather lovely to give it an aditional star, they were nice to look at afterall. This book isnt bad but there are much better options available.
October 14, 2024
🦁🤴🧚👰👩🦰
March 21, 2016
Here the Beast is a straight-up lion with a man's body. The story harkens back a touch more to the Cupid and Psyche rendition in places, and the illustrations by Ruth Sanderson appear somewhat Medieval or Renaissance in appearance. The odd thing is the book's size. It's really quite small, about 5x7, which seems odd as it makes the illustrations too tiny to be appreciated very well. Had this been a slightly physically larger edition, I think it would have worked better.
March 29, 2010
A beautiful, small format version. Richly warm illustrations full of golds and reds on almost every other page. Beast is a full-maned lion although with hands & body of a human. The story is the standard version. My only criticism is that the transformed prince at the end look rather like Sonny Bono! I also have a jigsaw puzzle of the cover illustration.
May 6, 2015
I enjoyed reading this book. Learning how beauty is on the inside instead of what is on the outside. I liked when Beauty was talking about how she only wanted the simplest things, and found happiness in it. It was a good book
October 17, 2012
A very cute book with wonderful illustrations.
June 23, 2016
Great basic retelling of the French classic... Perfect for those fans of classic fairy tales.
March 23, 2017
Meilleure que la première version mais toujours moins enchanteresse que celle livrée par Disney
February 3, 2024
Beauty and the Beast by Ruth Sanderson, Samantha Easton – A truly stunning picture book version of my favorite fairy tale! Happy Reading!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews