Beauty and the Beast and Other Classic Fairy Tales

by Various

The romance of the story Beauty and the Beast - the triumph of love over looks - has fascinated readers for centuries and inspired numerous films and TV series. This anthology not only features the beloved tale, but 100 enchanting stories chosen from The Blue Fain/Book and other collections by Andrew 50 devoted to beauties and another 50 from the perspective of the beast.

Genres: Classics, Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Fiction, Childrens, Short Stories, Beauty and The Beast

736 pages, Unknown Binding

First published August 29, 2016

About the author

Various is the correct author for any book with multiple unknown authors, and is acceptable for books with multiple known authors, especially if not all are known or the list is very long (over 50).

If an editor is known, however, Various is not necessary. List the name of the editor as the primary author (with role "editor"). Contributing authors' names follow it.

Note: WorldCat is an excellent resource for finding author information and contents of anthologies.

Reviews

[Tal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of great fairy tales. These all revolve around some sort of princess or prince and are unabridged (like all classics should be). This book has many short tales in it and makes for an easy read. All the tales are enchanting and captivating. The cover is gorgeous and the pages are lined in silver at the edges. The inside cover is a phenomenally drawn. The only complaint I have is that the beginning of a new story isn't it's own page but at the bottom of the last bit of the former story. 10/10 would read again. Very pretty book

[SqueakerKitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/15/18: I am about halfway through reading this book. Just finished the Beauties section. Really enjoying.

This book is a compilation of mostly European fairy tales (pulled mainly from the rainbow Fairy Books, Perrault, and the Brothers Grimm) as well as a handful of Middle Eastern stories. The book is divided into two halves, Beauties and Beasts.

There don't appear to be any of the Basile versions in this book. On the whole, the stories are therefore darker than what modern audiences are used to reading, but not as dark as they could be. The version of sleeping beauty in this compilation, for example, has no mention of rape that is in some earlier versions of the tale.)

Familiar stories in this edition: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Rumpelstiltskin, The Frog King (aka The Princess and the Frog), How to Tell a True Princess (aka The Princess and the Pea), Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, The Twelve Dancing Princesses

update 6/15: just finished this one. The "beasts" half of the book is weaker than the "beauties", but still enjoyable.

[Pen&Quill Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

✨Quill's thoughts

✨This book is a treasury of both beloved and less familiar fairy tales. The more well known ones include;Cinderella, or the little glass slipper, snow White, Rumpelstiltskin, the 12 dancing princesses, & the Frog King, (that ones from the Grimms complete fairy tales and is written in old English for example, 'What ails thee, King's daughter? Thou weepest so that even a stone would show pity.' And is equally fun and confusing to read, though I liked what the princess does to turn the frog human again, and it doesn't require lip gloss!)

The Beauty &the Beast tale is taken from the Blue fairy book and is very close to the original Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve version. (And if you like that you should definitely check out Robin McKinney's Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast)

One more thing to keep in mind is that many of the stories were written over a hundred years ago so some are not what we think of today as socially acceptable. Also take care with the purple on the cover and silver on the page edges as it does rub off slightly.

All in all a great book to have on any fairy tale lovers shelves especially for those interested in looking up the original tales

[Jeni · Rating 5 out of 5]

This whole thing makes me want to read all the different colored fairy tale collections referenced throughout. Other than the titular fairy tale, my favorites included:

Beauty: The Twelve Dancing Princesses - a charming, classic story that I actually first heard of in an art book I recently got, and since I like the story as well, I may need to get that version as well.

Beast: The Brown Bear of Norway - much Beauty and the Beast, this is a reworking of the classic Cupid and Psyche tale, but I liked the twists in this one.

[Jana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this. There were a lot of fairy tales in here that I didn't know before, and most of them were really nice.

[A. Hadessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the different and short fairytales :3 most stories are filled with magical animals or powerful fairies.

[Susanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magic fairy tales in a beautiful edition.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book took me 2 years of reading it off and on, but a lot of the stories are great. I especially enjoyed the "Beast" ones that solely featured animals. It reminded me of a lot of Aesop's Fables. Some of the classic tales were fun to read; I'd read them before, but it was nice to have a refresher.

But, be forewarned: remember when the Andrew Lang fairy books were compiled (1899 to 1910), which are the basis of this book. A good portion of these stories are very, very outdated and inappropriate. Some are very misogynistic towards girls. Some are even racist. That's what knocked off a few stars for me (as well as some repetitiveness in the fairytales). If you want to read these stories to children, I would highly recommend reading those stories on your own first, before opening up the book and reading from it with your kiddoes.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the leatherbounds my husband gave me for our paper anniversary!
I guess I'll give it maybe 3.5 stars. I read about 100 pages or so in it every day.
The first 400 pages are stories about ''beauties'' (mainly princesses), and the rest stories about ''beasts'' (mainly animals). There is a good mix of fairytales here, not just european ones. Some I was already familiar with, many I wasn't. They do tend to sound very similar though, especially when you read everything at once. If you're considering getting this, I recommend it!

[Alexandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

I find it so hard to DNF, especially when it's a book with that many pages, but I've found out that I don't ever really appreciate short stories. Most of these fairytales are fun, but so unmemorable, so it feels like a waste of time. I literally forgot the stories I read the day before (as some for real had 0 morals, especially the Beast tales). It was interesting though to read the original fairytales that have been adapted by Disney. And I can't deny that this Barnes&Noble edition is absolutely the most beautiful book I have!

[Erin H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great selection of stories with a beautiful cover. I liked how it was divided up between stories about beauty and then about beasts.

[Becki]

It may have taken me two years but it’s finally finisheddddd

[Andrea Ungos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

[Ola Nes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beauty and the Beast and Other Classic Fairy Tales is a hefty book with a myriad of fairy tales. The prominent fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast is clearly the best one, and the longest with its barely 40 pages of content. The rest of the 700 pages range from fairy tales of simply one page to about twenty. There is a huge discrepancy in quality. Some are relatively fun to read, others are boring as shit, but most of them ends up in the forgettable category which is the main problem with these huge omnibuses of collected works. It started well, but there are simply way too many princess fairy tales about some random dude overcoming a mythical challenge to win the princess and half the kingdom. This is of course what fairy tales are all about, but I still wish there was some more variety in here. I got through it eventually though.

[Addison Beatty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't manage to read all of these fairy tales, only about 30 percent of them, but they were all highly entertaining. I might pick this one back up again if I have nothing to read and want a glimpse back in time, but it was beautiful overall. It's HUGE, though! So don't feel pressured to finish it, I know it can be challenging with short stories that aren't connected to one another, but this was great!

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very great and enjoyable book. Smart and classic fairy tales which every adult should read.

[KateADale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I dis enjoy this book I found some of the stories to be boring or repetitive and in some cases both

[Fran · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great range of new tales to explore with children allowing then to keep being introduce to new but also familiar fairy tales.

[Victoria Abate · Rating 5 out of 5]

fairytale book, but not as i remember seeing them.
like superrr different

[Andrea Thorsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wish there was a bit of context to each story

[Megan Beavers · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to read and become familiar with fairy tales but it wasn't doing it for me.

[Zaida JoliCoeur · Rating 2 out of 5]

couple good ones, rest of the stories blended together. most gorgeous book ever though!

[Amanda Del Brocco · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is essentially just an anthology that was created from other anthologies - mostly stories that were published in the Fairy books from Andrew Lang. WSome of them were more interesting than others. Some of them were more familiar to me than others. I didn’t find that there was any correlation between those two statements. The one thing that I think could have improved this greatly was identifying the source of the original tale - other books like this document where in the world the story originated which would help put the tale in context.

[S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I was a fictional character, living in fairy tales

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

CAWPILE ➣ 9.00

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book got so boring, because a lot of the stories were very similar. It would have been better if fewer stories were included so that each of them would have been able to shine more.