I have labeled this book as young adult, but that certainly doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyed by adults as well. I have returned to this book time and again and love it now as much as I did when I was thirteen.
This book by Robin McKinley is a retelling of the classic Beauty and the Beast story, with some huge differences. Beauty is not beautiful. She’s rather homely, and is teased no end about her name. But she loves to read and to be out of doors. She is strong and determined, focused and intelligent. I like her so much better than the frilly little girl the other stories would have us believe her to be.
The story proceeds as tradition would have it. Beauty’s father goes off on a journey and brings home gifts for his daughters, but wasn’t able to find the rose seeds Beauty asks for. He takes a rest in an old castle, is treated very well, and on the way out, decides to bring home a rose for Beauty. We all know what happens next – the wrath of the owner of the castle, the dreadful promise that he must bring back a daughter, the whole bit.
But from there, the story changes. It’s so much richer and in depth than anything we’ve been shown before.
Let me share just this small passage. Beauty hasn’t been at the castle for long and is trying to adjust to her new life.
The Beast turned back to me. I could look at him fairly steadily this time. After a moment, he said, “I am very ugly, am I not?”
“You are certainly, uh, very hairy,” I said.
“You are being polite,” he said.
“Well, yes,” I conceded. “But then, you called me beautiful last night.”
He made a noise somewhere between a roar and a bark, and after an anxious minute, I decided it was probably a laugh. “You do not believe me then?” he inquired.
“Well — no,” I said hesitantly, wondering if this might anger him. “Any number of mirrors have told me otherwise.”
“You will find no mirrors here,” he said, “for I cannot bear them: nor any quiet water in ponds. And since I am the only one who sees you, why are you not then beautiful?”
This encounter turns into friendship, which then turns into a romance so tender and sweet, it makes me wish I could run out and find myself a beast. My husband does growl from time to time, so maybe that counts. Beauty and the Beast find that they have many things in common, in their love of books and nature, and their souls truly connect as they come to know each other.
I truly, earnestly, highly recommend this book and I think I just might sit down and read it again right now.
(This book was published by Simon and Schuster in 1978.)