Who translated the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast. What was the real story of beauty and the beast

“Beauty and the Beast” you can remember a summary of the fairy tale by Charles Perrault in 5 minutes.

"Beauty and the Beast" summary by Charles Perrault

What does the fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast” teach?- appearance is not the most important thing in a person, the main thing is his rich spiritual world.

The merchant lives in a mansion with six children, three sons and three daughters. All his daughters are very beautiful, but the youngest, Beauty, is the most beautiful, and also kind and pure in heart. For this, the two older sisters (angry and selfish) bully Beauty and treat her like a servant. A merchant loses all his wealth due to a storm at sea that destroys most of his merchant fleet. He and his children are therefore forced to live in a small farmhouse and work in the fields.

Several years later, a merchant hears that one of the merchant ships he sent has returned to port, having escaped destruction. Before leaving, he asks his children what gifts to bring them. The eldest daughters asked for precious jewelry and elegant dresses, and the sons demanded weapons for hunting and horses, thinking that their wealth had returned. And Belle asks to bring only a rose, since this flower did not grow in the part of the country where they lived. Arriving in the city, the father discovers that his ship's cargo has been confiscated to pay off his debts. He has no money for gifts.

Returning home, he gets lost in the forest, where he finds a magnificent palace with tables laden with food and drinks, which the invisible owner of the palace has clearly left for him. The merchant quenches his hunger and thirst and stays overnight. The next morning, as the merchant is about to leave, he sees the rose garden and remembers that Beauty wanted a rose. After the merchant has chosen the most beautiful rose, he comes face to face with the disgusting “Beast,” who tells him that he stole the most valuable thing in the entire domain, disdaining the hospitality of the owner of the palace, and must pay for it with his life. The merchant asks for mercy, claiming that he took the rose only as a gift for his youngest daughter.

The Beast agrees to give him a rose for Beauty, but only if the merchant or one of his daughters returns.

The merchant is upset, but accepts this condition. The Beast sends him home with wealth, jewels, and fine clothing for his sons and daughters, and emphasizes that Belle must come to his palace of her own free will. The merchant, having come home, tries to hide everything from Belle, but she learns the whole truth from her father and decides to go to the Beast’s castle herself. The monster receives the girl very kindly and informs her that from now on she is the mistress of the castle, and he is her servant. The owner gave her rich clothes and delicious food, and had long conversations with her. Every evening at dinner, the Beast asks Belle to marry him, but each time he is refused. After each of her refusals, Belle sees in a dream a handsome prince, who begs to answer why she does not want to get married, and she answers him that she cannot marry a monster, because she loves him only as a friend. Belle doesn't match the prince and the beast, thinking that the Beast must be holding the prince captive somewhere in the castle. She searches for him and discovers many enchanted rooms, but none of them contain the prince from the dreams.

For several months, Belle lives a luxurious life in the Beast's palace, served by invisible servants, amid wealth, entertainment and many beautiful clothes. And when she gets homesick and homesick for her father, the Beast allows her to visit her father’s house, but on the condition of returning exactly a week later. Belle agrees to this and goes home with the magic mirror and ring. The mirror allows her to see what is happening in the Beast's castle, and thanks to the ring, she can instantly return to the palace if she spins it three times around her finger.

Her older sisters were surprised to find the younger one well-fed and smartly dressed; they were jealous of her, and when they heard that Belle was to return to the Beast on the appointed day, they asked her to stay another day - they even put onions to their eyes to look like they were crying. In reality, they wanted the Beast to get angry at Belle for being late and eat her alive. Belle is touched by the sisters' show of love and decides to linger.

The next day, Belle feels guilty about breaking her promise and uses the mirror to see the castle. The mirror shows that the Beast lies half-dead from grief near the rose bushes. With the help of the ring, she immediately returns to the palace. Beauty cries over the lifeless Beast, saying that she loves him. Belle's tears fall on the monster and it turns into a handsome prince.

The prince tells Belle that once upon a time an evil fairy turned him into a monster, and that only love could break the curse. The girl was supposed to fall in love with him in the form of the Beast.

The prince and Belle got married and lived happily ever after.

New readings of classic fairy tales are wonderful. After all, fairy tales live for centuries because they tell about the eternal. At the same time, they have sufficient flexibility to “adapt” to the morals and views of each new generation. The main thing is that while you get carried away with interpretations, you don’t lose the original meaning of the story.

And, since many fans of the genre have gathered here, I propose to plunge into the world of a real Fairy Tale, that is, look into the original sources.

“Beauty and the Beast,” or rather its Russian version, “The Scarlet Flower,” is one of my favorite fairy tales from childhood. Is it any wonder that I began my research of primary sources with her. And I discovered a lot of interesting things.

Most of our contemporaries, hearing the name “Beauty and the Beast,” first of all remember the American cartoon. And indeed, the light, bright story about the cute cartoon Belle and the clumsy, but kind and cute monster is perceived today as almost a classic.

But Hollywood is Hollywood... This cartoon has a very indirect relation to the real fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast. Moreover, the story of our heroes began long before the advent of cinema.

Love relationships between a person and an ordinary animal or a fictional animal-like monster are one of the oldest themes reflected in epics, ancient myths, legends and fairy tales. Initially, it was directly related to the belief of our ancestors in the unity of man and nature, but later, as often happens, it acquired a different meaning.

We will not go too far, recalling the Indian and East Slavic tales of bear people and the hooliganism of Zeus, who appeared to women in the form of a bull or a swan. The purpose of our research is plot number 425C according to the Aarne-Thompson classification, a fairy tale about wonderful spouses, a version that is called “Beauty and the Beast”.

Whoever our Monster has been: an ordinary little animal, such as a lion, ram or elephant, and a mythical animal, and an otherworldly creature like a demon or a ghost.

And what he and Beauty had to endure cannot be told in a fairy tale or described with a pen...

Let's start with the fact that Beauty and the Beast, just like the first season Henry from OUaT, had two moms and no dads.

Contrary to popular belief, the world-famous version of this tale was not written by Charles Perrault. It appeared half a century later in a book for children’s reading, “Magazine des enfants,” published in 1756 by the French governess Leprince de Beaumont.

"Adoptive Mother" of Beauty and the Beast - Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont

What is the classic version of "Beauty and the Beast" about? With minor changes, this plot is exactly repeated in most of the group's fairy tales to group 425C. The story can be read in its entirety - it is very short.

The merchant goes on a journey. The older daughters ask to bring clothes and jewelry, and the youngest daughter asks to bring a rose. He fails, he gets “lost” in the forest and stops for the night in a castle, where in the morning he discovers a rose and picks it. Then the owner of the castle (who is also a monster) predicts his imminent death or imprisonment, but agrees that the merchant’s daughter will come in return.

The youngest comes to the monster's castle and happily spends a long time there, observing the life of her family through a magic mirror, but refuses to marry the monster. She then returns home to see her father. The older sisters are plotting against her, and she does not come to the castle on time, but finds the monster already dying. However, her love, confirmed by her desire to marry him, brings the monster back to life and turns him into a handsome prince. And then they get married.

The first officially recognized literary mother of our characters was the Parisian aristocrat Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbeau de Gallon, Madame de Villeneuve, who wrote her fairy tale sixteen years earlier. Alas, I was unable to find her portrait.

The volume of the original version of "Beauty and the Beast" was no less than two hundred pages. The plot is known to everyone - it almost exactly corresponds to the full version of de Beaumont’s fairy tale. The only difference: in de Villieuves, Beauty fell in love with the Beast for his intelligence, and in the revised version, de Beaumont - for his kindness. Well, that's right. And there is morality, and you don’t have to worry about Beauty’s future - a kind person, even if he’s a fool, probably won’t offend. And with the smart one, the grandmother said in two...

But Madame de Villeneuve did not limit herself to the story about the magical power of true love. The birth mother of our heroes was a worthy predecessor to the “storytellers” Kitis and Khorovets. Not satisfied with the union of loving hearts, she plunged the heroes into a real whirlpool of events.

As a result, the story included warring fairy clans, lost children, and Belle’s real father, who turned out to be the king of the Magic Islands and the husband of one of the fairies’ sister. This fairy tale has not been translated into Russian, but those interested can familiarize themselves with its TRANSLATION INTO ENGLISH. To be honest, I didn’t get to the end of the story - but I don’t like reading in English either.

Most likely, de Villeneuve was not the creator of “Beauty and the Beast” either - she simply took a folk tale as a basis, processed it, and then supplemented it with her fantasies on the future fate of the heroes. After all, similar stories can be found in collections of folk tales in many countries, including France.

For example, the collection Folk Tales of Lorraine by Emmanuel Cosquin includes THE TALE OF THE WHITE WOLF with many overlapping elements. However, this collection was not published until a century after de Villeneuve's version, so the question of "real authorship" will probably forever remain open. However, this is the fate of most fairy tales.

What this tale tells about and how it has changed over time, we will talk next time. In the meantime, keep our favorite heroes in the form of chibiks. :)

To be continued...

One winter night, the prince throws a ball in his castle. An old beggar woman offers him a rose in exchange for shelter from the cold. The prince, disgusted by her appearance, throws the woman away, despite her warning not to be deceived by appearances. Transformed into a beautiful sorceress, she turns the prince into a monstrous Beast and his servants into household items, after which she erases the memories of the castle from the minds of everyone present at the ball. The Sorceress bewitches the rose, warning that the Beast, unless he learns to love another person and is able to achieve reciprocated love by the time the last petal falls, he will remain in his cursed state forever.

Several years later, in the settlement of Willenow, an eccentric book-obsessed girl named Belle is strolling through her town. A selfish hunter and ex-soldier named Gaston tries in vain to seduce Belle and marry her, but due to his personality, she keeps blowing him off. Gaston also doesn’t know, but his outrageous friend, LaFou, is secretly in love with him. Belle lives with her father, Maurice, who is overprotective of her due to the death of her mother when Belle was still a child. Maurice leaves, and suddenly, as darkness falls, he discovers a mysterious castle. He receives permission to enter from the invisible owner of the castle, but he immediately leaves after he begins to think that the glass of water is talking. When Maurice leaves, he picks a rose from a beautiful bush. This attracts the attention of an invisible creature, who pulls Maurice off his horse and drags him away.

The next day, Gaston sets up wedding paraphernalia in Belle's house and tries to ask her to marry him, but Belle humiliates and rejects him. Belle later sees her father's horse and, thinking that something bad has happened to him, rides the horse to the castle. There she sees Maurice, who is locked in a dungeon, and she begs the kidnapper (the Beast Prince) to free her father, and even says that she is ready to take his place.

The Beast agrees and one of his servants returns Maurice to the village. Belle grieves in the dungeon, but is suddenly freed by the castle's butler, Lumiere, who has been turned into a candelabra as a result of Agatha's curse, and he gives her a more comfortable room, despite the objections of the castle's majordomo, Cogsworth, who has been turned into a mantel clock. Belle meets other castle employees who have been cursed. With the castle's head cook Mrs. Potts, who was turned into a teapot, her son Chip, who was turned into a glass of water, the court composer, Maestro Cadenza, who was turned into a harpsichord, Cadenza's wife and opera singer, Madame de Garderobe, who was turned into wardrobe, and Lumiere's maid and friend Plumette, who was transformed into a feather duster.

At first Belle is distant from the Beast due to his cruel nature, but after he saves her from a pack of wolves, they begin to open up to each other and over time, the Beast begins to behave better, finding a person in his heart. Meanwhile, in the village, Maurice tries to call for help to save Belle, but everyone mistakes him for a madman. Gaston, in order to show himself in a good light, goes with Maurice, but when Maurice refuses him Belle's hand, Gaston, in order to avenge the humiliation, chains Maurice to a tree, to LaFou's horror.

Returning to the castle, after a romantic dance between Belle and the Beast, Belle sees through the magic mirror that Maurice, who was forged from the tree with Agatha's help, is feeling unwell, as his health has been undermined. The Beast, now in good spirits, allows Belle to leave the castle to look after Maurice, causing some grumbling from the servants. He even allows Belle to take the mirror with her. After Belle arrives at Maurice's house and tells him why she is no longer in the castle, an angry crowd unexpectedly approaches the house, led by Gaston, who told everyone in the city that Maurice is crazy because he talks about the monster and that that Gaston wanted to kill him, leaving him in the forest. They intend to place Maurice in a mental asylum.

Belle uses the magic mirror to show everyone that Maurice is not crazy, but the villagers now begin to fear the beast. Gaston appeals to the villagers, persuading them to attack the beast. He locks Belle with Maurice so that she does not have time to warn the Beast. With the help of Maurice, Belle frees herself and rides Philippe in time to save the Beast. The servants fight with the crowd that has already entered the castle, and LaFou goes over to the side of the servants. Gaston manages to find the monster, who is sad, not seeing the beauty, and shoots him, apparently killing him, as he falls from the roof dead. When Belle appears, Gaston gloats about his victory, but the Beast gets up and fights Gaston, gaining the upper hand. Instead of killing Gaston, he orders him to leave. The monster goes to meet Belle. Gaston shoots the Beast from the footbridge. He wins, but the bridge crumbles and he falls to his death.

The beast dies in the arms of the beauty in his room. Belle is very sad. All enchanted servants lose their magical state and turn into real inanimate objects. Agatha enters the beast's room and uses magic dust to slowly turn it back into a human, resurrecting it. When he and Belle kiss, the other servants also transform from objects into people, and soon Mrs. Potts finds her husband Jean, a potter in Villeneuve.

The film ends with Belle dancing with the Beast as a prince in a ballroom, surrounded by her new family.

Once upon a time there lived a rich merchant, and he had three daughters. All the daughters were good, but the father loved the youngest - Beauty - most of all. And not only the father.

Everyone loved the beauty for her beauty and kind heart.

One day the merchant went bankrupt, and he and his daughters were forced to move to the village. Of the three sisters, only Beauty was not afraid to work hard.

In order not to experience any more troubles, the merchant went to overseas countries. He saw a lot, and now he found himself in a wonderful palace. How many treats were there on the table!

After eating, the merchant got drunk and went for a walk in the garden. He sees scarlet roses. “Give me,” he thinks, “I’ll pick it for my youngest daughter.” He had just picked the rose when a shaggy monster appeared in front of him.

For picking my flower, you will pay me! - his voice boomed. - Let your beloved daughter Beauty come here instead of you!

There is nothing to do. And so it happened.

And Beauty appeared in the Beast's palace. Many days passed, Beauty became friends with the Beast, because he was not at all evil. And the Beast loved the girl with all his heart.

But Beauty missed her home, her father and sisters. One day, in a magic mirror, she saw that her father was sick, and the Beast sent Beauty home for a while.

But remember, if you don’t come back, I will die of grief and sadness! - the Beast said goodbye.

How glad we were to see Beauty at home! No one wanted to let her go back to the palace.

I can’t leave the good Beast, I promised to return! - Beauty said to her family and found herself in the palace.

And - lo and behold! - Beauty's love cast a spell on the Beast, he became a handsome prince.

A global fairy-tale story about love between a gentle beauty and a beast-like creature appeared thanks to a genetic disease of a native of the Canary Islands

The plot about the relationship between a girl and a half-beast has become widespread among different nations. He was found in the "Metamorphoses" of the ancient Roman poet Apuleius in the myth "Cupid and Psyche", by an Italian writer of the 15th century Francesco Straparola in the fairy tale "The Pig King". The textbook version appeared in France and, most likely, thanks to the first officially registered disease of hypertrichosis in the world.

Royally Trained Demon

In 1537, on the Spanish island of Tenerife, the family Gonsalvusov An unusual boy was born, covered with thick hair from head to toe, it even grew on his face. Small Pedro Not only the neighbors were afraid, but also the parents, believing that the child was stricken with a demonic disease.

At the age of ten, they sold him to French corsairs, who on March 31, 1537 presented him with a “man of the forest” right in his cage. Henry II in honor of the coronation. The French king had his own “wild circus” of dwarfs and Moors. In those days, having disabled people in the house was a symbol of high status.

The boy was studied by the best doctors in Europe, who came to the conclusion that Pedro was not a demon, but a man. In fact, this was the first recorded case of hypertrichosis in history.

The monarch took a liking to the intelligent monkey boy, who soon began to serve him at the table. He mastered the French language so quickly that the king ordered the guy to be taught in order to test the abilities of the “forest man.” As an experiment, Henry II educated him as a nobleman. So, thanks to his illness, Pedro Gonsalvus studied with the best teachers of his time. He followed the same program as the future queen Margot, princes Charles IX And Henry III. Having an excellent education, he subsequently made a good career in the government, became a judge and achieved the status of don. The king allowed Pedro to use the Latin form of his name and be officially identified as an aristocrat Petrus Gonsalvus.

The widow of Henry II, Catherine de' Medici, went down in French history as the "Black Queen". wikipedia

Experimental marriage

For fun, the bored queen decided to marry 35-year-old Gonsalvus to her beautiful maid. Mademoiselle Catherine Raffelin I saw my husband only on the wedding day. The Queen specially sent people to watch the newlyweds on their wedding night. The strange family was given a part of Fontainebleau Park to live in and was provided with good security.

The queen's interest in the Gonsalvus offspring disappeared after the birth of her first two healthy children. She gave "living toys" to her illegitimate daughter Charles V Margaret of Parma. The unfortunate family then passed to the viceroy in the Spanish Netherlands, Alessandro Farnese who gave them to his son Ranuccio. In total, Pedro and Catherine had seven children, four of whom inherited their father's genetic disease.

The Gonsalvus family, dressed as courtiers, often attended social events. Youngest daughter Antonietta (Tognin) She was always dressed up like a doll and subsequently, of all Pedro’s children, she gained the same fame as her father.

Duke Ranuccio sold all the children who inherited hypertrichosis to various royal courts in Europe. Their appearance everywhere aroused fear and curiosity; court artists repeatedly painted their portraits. The Austrian Ambras Castle Museum in Innsbruck still houses four portraits of the Gonçalvuses.

After their death, the elder Gonsalvuses fell into disgrace and moved to the Duchy of Parma, where they lived at the court of the cardinal Odoardo Farnese.

Detail of the painting “Hairy Arrigo, Mad Peter and Dwarf Amon” by Agostino Caracci, 1599 profilib.net

Beauty and the Beast lived together for almost 40 years and became free thanks to their eldest son, who served as a jester for the Crown Prince of Parma. Enrique Gonsalvus persuaded the owner to release him and his family into freedom. They settled in Italy, on the shores of Lake Bolsena in the town of Capodimonte. Gradually, Enrique gathered the whole family. Don Pedro lived his last years in the Italian village until his death in 1618.

The Gonsalvus family became the object of observation by an Italian scientist, humanist and zoologist Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522 – 1625).

Illegal "father" and two "mothers"

The first author of the fairy tale "La Belle et la Bête", in the form in which we know it today, was a French writer in the 1740s GabrielBarbot de Villeneuve. It is curious that one of her relatives served on slave ships and could well tell this story - after all, the strange family was constantly transported from place to place.

But the 1756 version, edited by a French writer, teacher and, by the way, great-grandmother of the novelist, became a textbook Prospera Merimee Marie Leprince de Beaumont. De Beaumont shortened de Villeneuve's 200-page story and published it in her magazine for girls, Magazine des enfants, without crediting the original author. Le Prince de Beaumont's edition is now considered a classic version of the tale.

But she was once unlucky: in the 18th century, the fairy tale was published in the collection “Tales of Mother Goose, or Stories and Tales of Bygone Times with Teachings” (g.) by the French poet and critic Charles Perrault and was subsequently published as an appendix to this collection, so the authorship was unconditionally attributed to Perrault.

Today, when you hear the name “Beauty and the Beast,” the first thing that comes to mind is the Disney animated film adaptation with the cute Belle and the good monster (1991). The hand-drawn fairy tale became the first animated film in history to gross over $100 million at the box office. It even won Oscars for Best Song and Best Score.

“Beauty and the Beast” is the first animated film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.

Russia also has its own version - it’s a fairy tale Sergei Aksakov"The Scarlet Flower", first published in 1858. It is interesting that Aksakov himself heard the plot in childhood from his housekeeper and only much later, to his surprise, became acquainted with the work of Madame de Beaumont.