This book is the only one I’ve ever discovered of its kind. It is the retelling of a book already written by Robin McKinley twenty years previously. In her words from the author’s note:
“It’s almost a pity I’d said all I had to say about Beauty and the Beast. There was so much about roses I’d left out, because I didn’t know any better.
. . . “Rose Daughter” shot out onto the page in about six months. I’ve never had a story burst so fully and extravagantly straight onto the page, like Athena from the head of Zeus.
“I’ve long said books “happen” to me. They tend to blast in from nowhere, seize me by the throat, and howl, Write me! Write me now! But they rarely stand still long enough for me to see what and who they are, before they hurdle away again, and so I spend a lot of my time running after them, like a thrown rider after an escaped horse, saying Wait for me! And waving my notebook in the air. “Rose Daughter” happened, but it bolted away with me. Writing it was quite like riding a not-quite-runaway horse, who is willing to listen to you, as long as you let it run.”
The basic elements of plot between “Rose Daughter” and “Beauty” are the same, but that is to be expected because they follow the plot elements found in the fairy tale. A rich merchant has three daughters who are raised without a mother. His business falls apart and plunges them into poverty. They learn to cook, clean, and care for themselves, as they have never had to do before. One day the merchant receives a letter saying that one of his ships has come in safely, and he is to go and take care of the goods on board. He asks his daughters what they would like him to bring home, and the youngest says, “A rose.”
On his way home, the merchant is lost in a snowstorm, finds refuge in a magic castle, takes a rose on his way out, and angers the master of the castle, who is a beast. He demands that the merchant bring his youngest daughter to live with him, she breaks a spell, and they all live happily ever after.
That, however, is the extent to which the two books are the same. In “Rose Daughter,” Beauty has a special touch with flowers, especially roses, and she is brought to the beast’s castle to bring his garden back to life. This book is told in a more literary fashion, almost in the form of obscure poetry, at times, and is not as straightforward as “Beauty,” but McKinley delves deep into the care and keeping of the roses, and how their wellbeing is connected with Beauty’s own.
The answer to the riddle of the spell is also very different, but I’ll let you read the book for yourself to see how. I will say just this – one person’s idea of “happily ever after” is not necessarily another’s, and the things you think will bring you joy often do not.
Overall, I enjoyed “Beauty” quite a bit more than “Rose Daughter.” The relationship between Beauty and the Beast was more detailed in “Beauty,” and in “Rose Daughter,” it wasn’t explored enough for me. But “Rose Daughter” had a great deal of merit and was a very pleasant read.
(This book was published in 1997 by Ace Books.)