Beauty and the Beast

Jeanne Marie Le Prince de Beaumont was a French novelist born in 1711. After her first marriage was annulled she moved to London, becoming a governess. After a successful writing career she remarried had many children and lived in Savoy. Beaumont wrote several books on education. She was one of the first to write fairy tales for children. Mme Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve wrote a story titled Beauty and the Beast. Le Prince de Beaumont revised and abridged this story producing the story that has become one of the most famous children's tales in history. The tale tells the story of Beauty who meets a terrible looking beast. She learns to love the beast. The moral is that inner beauty is the true and most precious form of beauty.