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Beauties and Beasts
Presents several versions of "Beauty and the Beast" and "Cupid and Psyche," and provides several tales that reverse traditional gender roles. Includes commentary on each tale, activities, bibliographies, and a list of sources.
Contents: Beauty and the Beast (French) / The Enchanted Tsarevitch (Russian) / The Princess and the Pig (Turkish) / A Bunch of Laurel Blooms for a Present (Appalachian) / The Small-Tooth Dog (English) / The Fairy Serpent (Chinese) / Monkey Son-In-Law (Japanese) / The Lizard Husband (Indonesian) / Cupid and Psyche (Greco-Roman) / The Serpent and the Grape-Grower's Daughter (French) / The Singing, Soaring Lark (German) / East of the Sun and West of the Moon (Norwegian) / Whitebear Whittington (Appalachian) / The Three Daughters of King O'Hara (Irish) / The Black Bull of Norroway (Scottish) / Bull-of-All-the-Land (Jamaican) / Prince White Hog (Missouri French) / The Enchanted Prince (Spanish American) / The Story of Five Heads (African) / The Ten Serpents (Israeli) / Egle, Queen of Serpents (Lithuanian) / Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady (English) / The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heughs (Scottish) / Kemp Owyne (Scottish) / Pinto Smalto (Italian) / The Dough Prince (West Virginian) / Old Man Coyote, the Young Man and the Two Otter Sisters (Native American)
Contents: Beauty and the Beast (French) / The Enchanted Tsarevitch (Russian) / The Princess and the Pig (Turkish) / A Bunch of Laurel Blooms for a Present (Appalachian) / The Small-Tooth Dog (English) / The Fairy Serpent (Chinese) / Monkey Son-In-Law (Japanese) / The Lizard Husband (Indonesian) / Cupid and Psyche (Greco-Roman) / The Serpent and the Grape-Grower's Daughter (French) / The Singing, Soaring Lark (German) / East of the Sun and West of the Moon (Norwegian) / Whitebear Whittington (Appalachian) / The Three Daughters of King O'Hara (Irish) / The Black Bull of Norroway (Scottish) / Bull-of-All-the-Land (Jamaican) / Prince White Hog (Missouri French) / The Enchanted Prince (Spanish American) / The Story of Five Heads (African) / The Ten Serpents (Israeli) / Egle, Queen of Serpents (Lithuanian) / Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady (English) / The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heughs (Scottish) / Kemp Owyne (Scottish) / Pinto Smalto (Italian) / The Dough Prince (West Virginian) / Old Man Coyote, the Young Man and the Two Otter Sisters (Native American)
179 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1993
1 person is currently reading
88 people want to read
About the author
Betsy Hearne
27 books12 followersBetsy Hearne is the author of numerous articles and books, including Choosing Books for Children: A Commonsense Guide, the folktale anthology Beauties and Beasts, fiction for both children and young adults, and picture books—one of which, Seven Brave Women, won the Jane Addams Children's Book Award. The former children's book editor of Booklist and of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, she has reviewed books for almost forty years and contributes regularly to The Horn Book Magazine.
Hearne was the former Director of The Center for Children's Books and a professor emerita in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she taught children's literature and storytelling for many years.
Hearne was the former Director of The Center for Children's Books and a professor emerita in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she taught children's literature and storytelling for many years.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 4, 2019
Part of The Oryx Multicultural Folktale Series - which also includes
Cinderella
,
Tom Thumb
and
A Knock At The Door
- this collection of folklore from around the world contains twenty-seven tales, divided into three thematic sections: "Rescued Beasts," "Questing Beauties" and "Homely Women and Homemade Men." Although the title is taken from the famous French fairy-tale, La Belle et la Bête (which does indeed appear in the collection), the stories here are not so much variants of Beauty and the Beast, as they are Enchanted Spouse tales, of which Beauty and the Beast is but one (albeit famous) example.
A noted folklore and children's literature scholar, Betsy Hearne has also written a more academic history of this tale-type - Beauty and the Beast: Visions and Revisions of an Old Tale - so it should come as no surprise to the reader that she has included a brief preface, in which she sets out and explains the connections between some of her selections. Fans of the Aarne-Thompson system for classifying folktales - originally dreamt up by Finnish folklorist Antti Aarne, and modified by his American translator, Stith Thompson - will be interested to know that the vast majority of tales in Beauties and Beasts fall into types 425 ("The Search for a Lost Husband"), 425A ("The Monster or Animal as Bridegroom"), 425C ("The Beauty and the Beast"), and 402A ("The Quest for a Lost Bride").
The first section of tales, Rescued Beasts, opens with the titular French fairy-tale, Beauty and the Beast, taken from the best-known and most influential version of the story - that written by Mme. le Prince de Beaumont in 1756. There is, of course, an earlier (and considerably longer) La Belle et la Bête, written in 1740 by Mme. de Villeneuve. English translations of both can be found in Jack Zipes' Beauties, Beasts and Enchantments: Classic French Fairy Tales .
Other selections in this first grouping include the Russian story of The Enchanted Tsarevitch, in which a merchant's daughter finds herself wed to a snake; the Turkish tale of The Princess and the Pig, in which a young girl's desire for "Grapes that speak, Apples that smile, and apricots that tinkle in the breeze" leads to a most unexpected bridegroom; and the Appalachian A Bunch of Laurel Blooms for a Present, which sees its heroine living with a toad. Other beastly bridegrooms include dogs ( The Small-Tooth Dog , from England), serpents (The Fairy Serpent, from China), and lizards (The Lizard Husband, from Indonesia). Finally, as a means of contrast, the Japanese tale, Monkey Son-In-Law, is included, with its atypical unhappy ending, in which no transformation is effected.
The second, and by far longest section, Questing Beauties, opens with the famed Greco-Roman tale of Cupid and Psyche, originally found in Apuleius' second-century novel, The Golden Ass . The French tale of The Serpent and the Grape-Grower's Daughter follows, combining elements of Cupid and Psyche and Beauty and the Beast; while the German story of The Singing, Soaring Lark (from the Brothers Grimm), has closer ties to Cupid and Psyche. The classic Norwegian folktale, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, with its ursine husband, and heroine's quest for her lost love, is also included. The Appalachian Whitebear Whittington, with its bear spouse, and desperate quest to win back the husband, is clearly a variant of East of the Sun and West of the Moon; while the Irish tale of The Three Daughters of King O'Hara, with its incorporation of the fairy-world of Tir-na-Nog, seems quite unique.
The Black Bull of Norroway, from Scotland, reminded me of a number of Norwegian tales, also involving magical or enchanted bulls, and includes a lovely sing-song refrain towards the end. Other selections include: Bull-of-All-the-Land, a Jamaican variant of The Black Bull of Norroway; the rather gruesome Prince White Hog, from the Missouri French tradition, in which the enchanted groom eats his first two brides; and The Enchanted Prince, a Spanish-American tale involving an avian husband, and a bride from a family with nine daughters, each with a different number of eyes. This distinctive tale can also be found in the bilingual Pajaro Verde / The Green Bird . The final three selections, in this middle portion of the book, include The Story of Five Heads, from South Africa; The Ten Serpents, from Israel (which can be found in Dov Noy's Folktales of Israel ), and the Lithuanian Egle, Queen of Serpents.
The third and final section, Homely Women and Homemade Men, contains some of the less common examples of this tale-type, featuring wives as enchanted monsters, or husbands created by women. It opens with the Arthurian selection, Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady, in which the noble Sir Gawain must wed the hideously ugly Dame Ragnell, in order to save his king's life; and continues with the eighteenth-century Scots ballad, The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heughs, in which a princess is freed from the enchantment laid on her by a hostile stepmother, when her brother returns to Bambrough Castle. This last is itself an adaptation of the earlier ballad, also included, of Kemp Owyne. The Italian tale of Pinto Smalto, from Giambattista Basile's Pentamerone ; the West Virginian story of The Dough Prince, in which a husband is fashioned from dough; and the Native American (Crow) Old Man Coyote, the Young Man and Two Otter Sisters, round out the selections.
With its brief scholarly preface, its wealth of tales from around the world, and its extensive source notes and bibliography, Beauties and Beasts is a fantastic resource for anyone interested in this tale type! Comparative folklore enthusiasts will be in heaven! I myself feel inspired, not only to track down the other titles in this series, but to begin a Beauty and the Beast project. Simply outstanding!
A noted folklore and children's literature scholar, Betsy Hearne has also written a more academic history of this tale-type - Beauty and the Beast: Visions and Revisions of an Old Tale - so it should come as no surprise to the reader that she has included a brief preface, in which she sets out and explains the connections between some of her selections. Fans of the Aarne-Thompson system for classifying folktales - originally dreamt up by Finnish folklorist Antti Aarne, and modified by his American translator, Stith Thompson - will be interested to know that the vast majority of tales in Beauties and Beasts fall into types 425 ("The Search for a Lost Husband"), 425A ("The Monster or Animal as Bridegroom"), 425C ("The Beauty and the Beast"), and 402A ("The Quest for a Lost Bride").
The first section of tales, Rescued Beasts, opens with the titular French fairy-tale, Beauty and the Beast, taken from the best-known and most influential version of the story - that written by Mme. le Prince de Beaumont in 1756. There is, of course, an earlier (and considerably longer) La Belle et la Bête, written in 1740 by Mme. de Villeneuve. English translations of both can be found in Jack Zipes' Beauties, Beasts and Enchantments: Classic French Fairy Tales .
Other selections in this first grouping include the Russian story of The Enchanted Tsarevitch, in which a merchant's daughter finds herself wed to a snake; the Turkish tale of The Princess and the Pig, in which a young girl's desire for "Grapes that speak, Apples that smile, and apricots that tinkle in the breeze" leads to a most unexpected bridegroom; and the Appalachian A Bunch of Laurel Blooms for a Present, which sees its heroine living with a toad. Other beastly bridegrooms include dogs ( The Small-Tooth Dog , from England), serpents (The Fairy Serpent, from China), and lizards (The Lizard Husband, from Indonesia). Finally, as a means of contrast, the Japanese tale, Monkey Son-In-Law, is included, with its atypical unhappy ending, in which no transformation is effected.
The second, and by far longest section, Questing Beauties, opens with the famed Greco-Roman tale of Cupid and Psyche, originally found in Apuleius' second-century novel, The Golden Ass . The French tale of The Serpent and the Grape-Grower's Daughter follows, combining elements of Cupid and Psyche and Beauty and the Beast; while the German story of The Singing, Soaring Lark (from the Brothers Grimm), has closer ties to Cupid and Psyche. The classic Norwegian folktale, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, with its ursine husband, and heroine's quest for her lost love, is also included. The Appalachian Whitebear Whittington, with its bear spouse, and desperate quest to win back the husband, is clearly a variant of East of the Sun and West of the Moon; while the Irish tale of The Three Daughters of King O'Hara, with its incorporation of the fairy-world of Tir-na-Nog, seems quite unique.
The Black Bull of Norroway, from Scotland, reminded me of a number of Norwegian tales, also involving magical or enchanted bulls, and includes a lovely sing-song refrain towards the end. Other selections include: Bull-of-All-the-Land, a Jamaican variant of The Black Bull of Norroway; the rather gruesome Prince White Hog, from the Missouri French tradition, in which the enchanted groom eats his first two brides; and The Enchanted Prince, a Spanish-American tale involving an avian husband, and a bride from a family with nine daughters, each with a different number of eyes. This distinctive tale can also be found in the bilingual Pajaro Verde / The Green Bird . The final three selections, in this middle portion of the book, include The Story of Five Heads, from South Africa; The Ten Serpents, from Israel (which can be found in Dov Noy's Folktales of Israel ), and the Lithuanian Egle, Queen of Serpents.
The third and final section, Homely Women and Homemade Men, contains some of the less common examples of this tale-type, featuring wives as enchanted monsters, or husbands created by women. It opens with the Arthurian selection, Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady, in which the noble Sir Gawain must wed the hideously ugly Dame Ragnell, in order to save his king's life; and continues with the eighteenth-century Scots ballad, The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heughs, in which a princess is freed from the enchantment laid on her by a hostile stepmother, when her brother returns to Bambrough Castle. This last is itself an adaptation of the earlier ballad, also included, of Kemp Owyne. The Italian tale of Pinto Smalto, from Giambattista Basile's Pentamerone ; the West Virginian story of The Dough Prince, in which a husband is fashioned from dough; and the Native American (Crow) Old Man Coyote, the Young Man and Two Otter Sisters, round out the selections.
With its brief scholarly preface, its wealth of tales from around the world, and its extensive source notes and bibliography, Beauties and Beasts is a fantastic resource for anyone interested in this tale type! Comparative folklore enthusiasts will be in heaven! I myself feel inspired, not only to track down the other titles in this series, but to begin a Beauty and the Beast project. Simply outstanding!
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February 12, 2026review text for 1679
October 24, 2023
If Cinderella is my favorite fairy tale of all time, Beauty and the Beast comes in close second. I absolutely ADORE the message of the story of how to look past appearances and see the person beneath. (I'm not going to get into the metaphor of how being a young woman back in medieval times married off to a creepy older man with an ugly appearance really wasn't going all that bad.) Anyway, this story collection was just as good as the Oryx Cinderella book, with many variations on the fairy tale trope, including not only the traditional "cursed beast" variation but the "questing beauty" one where the woman accidentally disobeys her husband and traps him in a beast form which she then has to seek out over the course of many years.
I will admit it was a bit of surprise to see how many beauties and beasts were actually not very sympathetic in the tales! They fight, insult one another, and in one memorable case the cursed prince (in the form of a white pig) eats two sisters who become his brides when they fail to like him being a literal grubby pig and yet the third one still agrees to marry him!
Overall, though, this was a fun romp to read all the variations, and again this a great book for those of all ages, though the lack of pictures may be boring for younger readers. Admittedly, I too thought some gorgeous illustrations would have been fun to spice up some of the more fantastical descriptions of the beasts.
I will admit it was a bit of surprise to see how many beauties and beasts were actually not very sympathetic in the tales! They fight, insult one another, and in one memorable case the cursed prince (in the form of a white pig) eats two sisters who become his brides when they fail to like him being a literal grubby pig and yet the third one still agrees to marry him!
Overall, though, this was a fun romp to read all the variations, and again this a great book for those of all ages, though the lack of pictures may be boring for younger readers. Admittedly, I too thought some gorgeous illustrations would have been fun to spice up some of the more fantastical descriptions of the beasts.
November 24, 2009
Wow, this was a comprehensive book with all the different Beauty and the Beast stories out there. I had no idea there were so many! I would find this book useful if I were doing a unit on all the different variations out there. The book is divided into different "types" of Beauty and the Beast tales: rescued beasts, questing beauties, and homely women and homemade men.
April 27, 2010
It was very good, but the stories were a really a little repetitive. Defenitely not a story book for children more for a folk story student who was researching Beauty and the Beast and need to write a paper on it.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews