Tale Summary
This tale is a simplified retelling of the Beauty and the Beast narrative arc. Beauty, despite her jealous sisters, finds happiness with a prince doomed to live as a beast. When her troubled merchant father goes on a journey, Beauty requests a rose. Unknowingly on the way back, he regrettably picks the prettiest rose in the Beast’s garden where the Beast threatens his life if the merchant doesn’t bring back one of his daughters. Beauty willingly goes to live in the Beast’s palace and gets treated like a queen (waited on by monkeys) and is asked every night if she will marry the Beast. After begging the Beast, Beauty is granted a ring that she can use to travel home carrying gifts and stay for 2 months. After a while, and despite her brothers’ and father’s begging, she returns to the Beast who she finds dying on the ground in the garden. She confesses her love, breaking the magician’s spell, and Beauty and the Beast marry.
Fairy Tale Title
Beauty and the Beast
Fairy Tale Author(s)/Editor(s)
Walter Crane
Fairy Tale Illustrator(s)
Walter Crane
Common Tale Type
Beauty and the Beast
Tale Classification
ATU 425C
Page Range of Tale
pp. 1-24
Full Citation of Tale
Crane, Walter. Beauty and the Beast. London and New York: George Routledge and Sons, 1875.
Original Source of the Tale
Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve
Tale Notes
Part of the Walter Crane’s Toy Books Shilling Series, this edition of Beauty and the Beast is a simplified tale with light colorful images that caters toward young readers. It is a very light and simple read with many magical and delightful elements. In this version, the prince is put under a spell by a magician and doomed to live as a beast, until a beautiful girl loves him despite his ugliness.
Research and Curation
Jessica Young Bae, 2020
Book Title
Beauty and the Beast
Book Author/Editor(s)
Walter Crane
Illustrator(s)
Walter Crane
Publisher
George Routledge and Sons
Date Published
1875
Decade Published
1870-1879
Publisher City
London and New York
Publisher Country
England and US
Language
English
Rights
Public Domain
Digital Copy
Available on the Internet Archive
Book Notes
None
More like this tale
“Beauty and the Beast.” The Book of Fables and Folk Stories, Horace Elisha Scudder, Boston: Houghton Mifflin; 1919, pp. 112-126.
Crane, Walter. Beauty and the Beast. London and New York: George Routledge and Sons, 1875.
The History of Beauty and the Beast. Devonport, England: Samuel and John Keys, [c. 1840].
“Beauty and the Beast.” The Blue Fairy Book, edited by Andrew Lang, London and New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1889, pp. 100-119.
Beauty and the Beast. New York: McLoughlin Bro's, 1891.
“Beauty and the Beast.” Europa’s Fairy Book, Joseph Jacobs, New York, London: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1916, pp. 34-41.
Chisholm, Louey. “Beauty and the Beast.” In Fairyland: Tales Told Again, illustrated by Katharine Cameron, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904, pp. 191-198.
