Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast by Gabrielle-Suzanna Barbot De Villeneuve first appeared in her collection of fairy tales La jeune américaine, et les contes marins (The Young American and Marine Tales) in 1740 and was abridged into a Christian moral tale by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756. As a fairy-tale classic, Beauty and the Beast has been retold around the globe and in several mediums, including books, film, theater, and opera. The most well-known adaptations are the Disney animated and live-action films (released in 1991 and 2017, respectively), both of which won Academy Awards.

Gabrielle-Suzanna Barbot De Villeneuve (c. 1685-1755) was a French novelist, who was heavily inspired by such authors as Madame d'Aulnoy and Charles Perrault. Barbot De Villeneuve was born into a prominent Protestant family and later married into nobility, only to request a separation of property from her husband within six months because he squandered much of their joint assets. She was widowed at age 26 and shortly thereafter became acquainted with royal literary censor and tragic author Crébillon père, who inspired her to write her own works. She published four novels, one novella, and two collections of fairy tales, the most prominent of which was La Jardinière de Vincennes (The Gardener of Vincennes, 1753).