Liz Warren | Storyteller

We learn from the very capable and scholarly duo Anna E. Altmann and Gail de Vos that Beauty and the Beast was originally a literary tale and then became an oral tale – the opposite of most folk & fairy tales. In their well researched book Tales, Then and Now they trace the history of Beauty and the Beast to its beginning: an almost 200 page story published in 1740 by French writer Gabrielle de Villeneuve, written for aristocratic and bourgeois adult readers. But the most influential version, written by another French female author, de Beaumont, was published 16 years later, slimmed down to 17 pages and aimed at girls age 12 – 18, a time in a girl's life when marriage and preparation for it was of great importance. Her version is the basis of the story as we know it today.