#beauty a retelling of the story of beauty and the beast

[rumbelle-scream]

taking notes rn 🤭

Things From Beauty I wish I Could Put in Rumbelle Fic

Beauty, by Robin McKinley is one of my top-three best Beauty and the Beast adaptations and probably my favorite novel version of the story. I recently re-read it and had some thoughts. Thoughts which I have compiled into a numbered list.

1 The whole thing about Beauty being ugly

So in this book, Beauty has two older sisters who are both great beauties. Since the book starts when Beauty is twelve or so, she has acne and she hates her appearance and she just kind of nopes out of the whole idea of trying to be pretty. Over the course of the story, Beauty grows up and starts getting outside more. She even talks about how farm work almost turns her into more of a boy than a girl and she finds that liberating. Once she gets to the castle, she gets put in clothes and jewels fit for a princess, which she thinks is absurd. She doesn’t realize how beautiful she actually is because her self-concept has frozen in place. Say what you will about the “ugly duckling” narrative, but I think it’s valuable to show that who you are at twelve is not the same person you are at nineteen. Beauty ends up looking like her mom. 

2 Beauty having a family that we see and a father that we believe she would give her life for

In the show, we never really get an idea of who Belle is actually saving. Personally, I feel comfortable giving her an extended family and girlhood friendships that we don’t see on the show. But I feel like adding in siblings would be too much change, unless that was the central conceit of the fic–if it was a fic about Belle’s relationship with her sisters. How good of a father Maurice is varies from fic to fic, but we very rarely get the idea that Belle would give up everything just to save him. 

3 The castle being cursed as well as the Beast

I love Imp Rumple as much as the next person, but you never get the feeling that life as the Dark One is that much worse than it was before his curse. That’s why he isn’t looking for love, why he chose power over love. In Beauty, the Beast is isolated in his castle, he’s a prisoner there and he has been for 200 years. The book also makes it a point that nothing else lives in the castle or on the grounds. There aren’t even birds or butterflies in the garden.  

4 Beauty weakening the curse even before she breaks it, just by dint of being her

Beauty makes the Beast’s life better, even before she starts to love him. She doesn’t like the lifeless loneliness of the place, so she asks for something to feed birds–even though the curse doesn’t allow there to be birds. But the sheer force of Beauty’s stubbornness and specialness brings birds to her windowsill.  

5 A library full of books that don’t exist yet

Honestly, this is one of the weaker parts of the book, but it’s still fun. Quite a few versions of “Beauty and the Beast” have the heroine being bookish, but we don’t always go into what she likes to read. Beauty corrects this by making her a classics nerd, translating the Greek and Latin books that are in her bedroom library. But in the Beast’s library, there are books that haven’t been written yet. Anachronistic authors like Browning and Ruyard Kipling. (Beauty is disappointed in herself when she admits that she’s never heard of these writers who haven’t been born yet.) Just, imagine Belle reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and tell me you don’t want that in a fic.   

6 The portrait of the Beast when he was still a man, and him asking her opinion of it. 

This is the moment that made me want to write this list. It’s such a great part of the book. On a rainy day, the Beast takes Beauty to a portrait gallery in the castle. He shows her a series of paintings that are all of one family. The last painting is the image of a breathtakingly handsome young man. For a minute, Beauty is intimidated by his good looks and the haunted fire in his eyes–she doesn’t like this man. But then she gathers herself. She knows that that Beast is beside her, and she trusts him and likes him much more than a painting–no matter how handsome and haughty the young man in the painting is. 

Like, this is such a good moment. Cuz Beauty doesn’t know who she’s looking at, but we know, and the Beast knows and it’s just so full of unspoken meaning…

 …And it just wouldn’t work in a Rumbelle fic. At least, not one that has very much to do with canon. Imp Rumple isn’t that unrecognizable from his spinner self. And when would Spinner Rumple have a picture painted? And the meaning would be different. I can’t see Belle expressing attraction to the image of Spinner Rumple, and any sympathy she might express for him would just come off as pity. Rumple is contemptuous of himself at any stage of his life. It wouldn’t signify anything for their relationship if Belle chose the imp over the coward.

 But if only we could have a moment like that!

7 The Beast watching and caring for Beauty’s family 

Going back to the idea of Belle’s family actually being worth talking about after she goes to the castle. In Beauty the Beast is able to observe Beauty’s family while she’s gone from them. He tells Beauty that he has come to care for them. He sends her father dreams to let them know that Beauty is alright. He gives them gifts and luxuries that make their provincial life more like the riches they were once accustomed to. This is partially out of guilt (because having jewels is less important than having the youngest daughter around) but also out of love. (I really love the moment when the Beast gives fancy gowns to Beauty’s infant niece and nephew. Her sister admits that she wanted to dress the babies up in something nice, but it’s so impractical when they grow so fast.)

I just love the whole idea that the Beast isn’t beastly in any way except his appearance. I love the idea that he wants his curse to break, he wants to join humanity again. And more than anything else, he wants Beauty to love him as much as he already loves her.     

I’m not saying you can’t have all this in Rumbelle fic, but these are parts of Beauty that I deeply love and wish I could see more of in other works. 

[divineandmajesticinone]

Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories; ‘The Tiger's Bride’

[princesssarisa]

I think I've noticed a slight trend in the evolution of feminist fairy tale retellings. In the '90s, 2000s, and earlier 20-teens, we had retellings which obviously had feminist themes, but weren't explicitly about "women's issues." The conflicts the heroines faced were relevant to feminism, but not exclusively caused by sexism. Yet more recent re-imaginings of the same stories have been much more explicitly (and a bit ham-fistedly) about battling sexism.

The movie Ever After is obviously a "feminist" Cinderella, with Danielle portrayed as a feisty and clever action heroine, and with a contrast between her tomboyish ways and the ladylike refinement of her stepmother and stepsisters. But the conflict Danielle faces revolves much more around social class than around gender.

Then there's Betsy Cornwell's 2015 YA novel Mechanica, a steampunk Cinderella where the heroine is an inventor. This is obviously a feminist retelling too, because Nick excels in a traditionally masculine field, because she uses her inventions to take herself to the ball without the need for a Fairy Godmother, and because she has a concrete goal of freeing herself from her stepfamily by opening her own shop. In this way, she's very much like the "girlboss Cinderella" of the 2021 Sony/Amazon musical. Yet if I remember correctly, her struggles have little to do with gender. She isn't blocked from achieving her business goal because she's a woman; the problem is simply that she's trapped in an abusive home with no money or resources of her own.

Yet the 2021 musical, with its Cinderella who similarly wants to go to the ball to find a patron and start her own business, makes the whole conflict ham-fistedly about sexism. To a slightly ridiculous degree, because this Cinderella isn't an inventor of mechanics, she's a dressmaker! Weren't most 19th century dressmaking shops run by women? Yet the entire conflict is framed as "Ella's goal of a career outside the home is frowned on because she's a woman."

Then there are the two screen versions of Disney's Beauty and the Beast: 1991 vs. 2017. In the original film, apart from Gaston's claim in passing that "It's not right for a woman to read!" Belle's misfit status is framed in a gender-neutral way. Her dreamy, adventurous spirit, of which her love of books is one aspect, sets her apart from the village's simple workaday culture. Of course there's a feminist element, since she wants more from life than what's expected of her and doesn't want to be the "little wife" of a man who doesn't respect her, but the villagers would still consider her odd if she were a man. Yet the 2017 remake had to explicitly add gender issues. Here, the villagers disapprove of women being educated; only boys go to school, Belle's neighbors dislike the fact that she even knows how to read, and they bully her for teaching a little girl to read too.

It's just a little trend I've noticed.

[mdpthatsme]

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[shy-raccoon]

Reverse beauty and the beast where a beautiful but tyrannical human royal imprisons a beast in their castle. As they fall in love the royal slowly realizes that their peasents should have rights and stripping the enviroment of all it's resources is bad due to the beast's influence.

[boyfriendyke]

there r a lot of things about the myth of psyche and eros that makes me a little insane but one of them has always been the tasks from aphrodite and the unfairness of it. they're not intended to be possible. they're so obviously not meant to be possible, and psyche isn't fucking hercules, you know, she's not a demigod or whatever, she's mortal and these aren't mortal tasks!! it's why psyche has to be helped with each one, fucking by like ants and river gods and shit. and so like. idk. i know ppl see psyche and eros as like a story about love and shit which obviously it is but as a kid psyche and eros always felt like a story about being able to accept help

[androdragynous]

i love king lindworm as a story and get so frustrated with so many modern attempts to retell it because like they're good stories but they're not This story. is king lindworm a story about love? not really. is it a story about justice? revenge? not really. king lindworm is a story about being born a monster and knowing from birth that you are something repulsive and unwanted. the lindworm desires not to be human but to be wed before its younger brother. the lindworm wants to at least be granted the birthright of its seniority if it can have nothing else. his intended wives find him too monstrous to love and the maiden who comes after them does not do it out of love. she does not trick him out of his skin because she wants to love him but because she wants the monster gone. there are few versions where the lindworm wants to be human, few stories where the lindworm has a choice. would the lindworm still be wed without his humanity? can the lindworm still be loved? does the blame rest heavier on the shoulders of the unwanted son than it does on those who brought him into the world and loathed him for being in it? i am feeling normal about the lindworm.

[bookshelf-in-progress]

It's a good sign I'm recovering from my creative slump that I was able to brainstorm a story that makes me laugh.

[simplyghosting]

I want fairytales and stories. Grimm’s fairytales. Hans Christian Andersen fairytales. I know those, but I want MORE. I want EVERY fairytale and story from EVERY culture. Common, uncommon, the whole shebang. I want to experience the wonder of woven words.

[ibrithir-was-here]

Soooo I wanted to make an 80s fantasy book cover thing and so @theboarsbride thank you for having a novel that inspired such! Everybody go check out their “The Monster and the Butterfly” and their other wips they’re real good

(Click for better quality)

[chameli]

I'm reading a book where the love interest's name is Fardeen and all I can think of is

[not-so-secret-nerd]

Happy second birthday to my debut novel! I can't believe 2 years have gone by. 270 reviews. 800k+ KU reads, and endless love from around the world. I can't even begin to thank you all for helping my fledgling soar.

[t-the-ring-master]

Would anyone be interested in a beauty and the beast retelling? If so, I’ll probably do some polls for it to get down characters and stuff. But if so… let me know.

[princesssarisa]

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

for Jane Eyre

Honour "Beauty" Huston from Robin McKinley's novel Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast.

Maybe this is cheating, because Beauty was clearly influenced to some extent by Jane Eyre, and even alludes to it in one scene, when Beauty mentions that one of her sister Hope's former suitors turned out to have a wife in the attic.

Both books revolve around a homely and unassuming yet intelligent, well-read, strong-willed, staunchly honorable young woman, who at age 18 goes to live in a grand Gothic dwelling. There she has a gradual romance arc with the master: a physically unattractive, imposing older man, who turns out to be a kindred spirit and an intellectual match for her, yet who has a secret that she doesn't learn until later. (Of course no matter how homely Rochester supposedly is, he's presumably less ugly than the Beast.) At one point later in the story, she leaves him, but a mysterious psychic connection between them leads her back, and in the end they're joyfully married. At an earlier point, she also resists his attempts to provide her with lavish gowns and jewels in place of her usual plain clothing.

Of course there are some important differences between them – unlike Jane, for example, Beauty has a loving family – and I don't think Beauty is as richly characterized or unique as Jane. But that 1978 novel definitely brings the innate similarities between Beauty and the Beast and Jane Eyre to the forefront.

[maybemockingbird]

WELCOME BACK RECRUITS

Once upon a time, in the dusty wastelands of Mars, a brave climber dared to scale a tower. Little did he know that his actions would change the course of the galaxy... forever.

These aren't your mother's fairytales...

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For those of you who missed R-PNZL, never fear! We have tiers available that get you the entire trilogy in both PDF and print formats so you can get in on the adventure from the beginning. Featuring cover art by @jackarais - creator of the hit webcomic Bicycle Boy - and bite-sized adventures that will absolutely blow your mind, R-PNZL is a great series for fans of fairytale adaptations that shake up what we've come to expect! No damsels in distress or love at first sight tropes here! So, if you're on the hunt for a new series to dive into, please come check out R-PNZL on Kickstarter before it ends on the 15th of December!

[millenniallust4death]

Grace Draven's post today about having cervical cancer and being scared about paying for treatment and caring for her family while she is unable to write filled me with such sorrow. Her beautiful stories have carried me through such dark times in my life. I read Radiance to Martin during his final week; Grace's words transported him to a world removed from cancer's tight grasp. I hope with all of my heart that Grace pulls through.