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    Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty & the Beast
    Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty & the Beast
    Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty & the Beast
    Audiobook7 hours

    Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty & the Beast

    Written by Robin McKinley

    Narrated by Charlotte Parry

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    New York Timesbest-selling author Robin McKinley has won numerous awards for her writing, including the prestigious Newbery Medal. Though her two sisters are beautiful, Beauty, despite her name, is thin and awkward--but she's also courageous. So when her father makes a terrible promise to a Beast living in an enchanted castle, Beauty knows she must volunteer to be the Beast's prisoner. Test.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateApr 19, 2013
    ISBN9781470360801
    Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty & the Beast
    Author

    Robin McKinley

    Robin McKinley has won various awards and citations for her writing, including the Newbery Medal for The Hero and the Crown, a Newbery Honor for The Blue Sword, and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature for Sunshine. Her other books include the New York Times bestseller Spindle’s End; two novel-length retellings of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Beauty and Rose Daughter; Deerskin, another novel-length fairy-tale retelling, of Charles Perrault’s Donkeyskin; and a retelling of the Robin Hood legend, The Outlaws of Sherwood. She lives with her husband, the English writer Peter Dickinson; three dogs (two hellhounds and one hell terror); an 1897 Steinway upright; and far too many rosebushes.

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    Reviews for Beauty

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    2,035 ratings133 reviews

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    • 5/5
      i LOVED it so much!!!!!!!!!!! not my fav tho !
    • 5/5
      Wonderful!!! Loved this version of my favorite fairytale. Can’t wait to read Rose Daughter.
    • 4/5
      I haven't read or thought about fairy tales since childhood, a very long time ago. I enjoyed this retelling of Beauty and the Beast. The YA story was told in a straightforward fashion and held my interest. I might have liked a bit more backstory on how the Beast became cursed, but overall, I thought this was a well done short novel. Recommended for adults too.
    • 4/5
      I've always quite liked this book. And it was lovely to listen to it. Definitely recommend it. It's a sweet retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
    • 5/5
      A beautiful retelling of Beauty and the Beast. The narrator was early to follow along and helped the story flow.
    • 4/5
      An elegant, complex retelling of Beauty & the Beast and one of my favorites. This is the better of McKinley's two versions. My constant gripe with Beauty & the Beast stories is that the Beast is never Beastly enough, and this goes true for this one as well. As usual, he is too sweet, too quickly. Other than that minor flaw, this is one of the best books in the genre, and I encourage fairy tale lovers to pick it up immediately!
    • 3/5
      A bit drawn out on occasion but good for a preteen/teenager.
    • 4/5
      I LOVE fairytale retellings. There is just something so refreshing about reading some of the favourite tales of childhood being re-told.

      This is the classic story of Beauty and the Beast but with a lot of delicious detail and a lot of backstory to Beauty and her family. It was a short read but it was a perfect winter read and great escapism. I love getting lost in the fairytale world and if you are the same you will love this book.




    • 4/5
      Good re-telling of the beauty/beast tale. McKinley gets us to thinking about how we all seem to have some good/bad smashing about in our veins.
    • 5/5
      This is my favorite version of the Beauty and the Beast story. Beautifully written.
    • 5/5
      I absolutely loved this book. I love anything that's Beauty and the Beast. But this is by far the best Beauty and the Beast book I've read.
    • 5/5
      This is absolutely the greatest retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" that I have ever read. I grew up on the Disney movie, but this book breathed new life into the story for me. It is enchanting, captivating, tenderly and powerfully written, and I recommend it to everyone who is looking for a book that will stay with them long after the story has ended. Wonderful.
    • 5/5
      I very much enjoyed listening to this. I loved that the plot is pretty much the same as the disney classic but the author gave more depth to the characters and the background setting.
    • 3/5
      I think I'll blame my partner's Disney song playlist for making me want to (re)read a bunch of Beauty and the Beast retellings. The obvious place to start (for me, anyway) is with Robin McKinley's two attempts at telling the story, Beauty and Rose Daughter. Beauty is perhaps the less delicate of the two, being suited to a younger audience in terms of complexity, language, etc, but it still makes a good story. You come to care for the little family, and learn to care for the Beast; the mysteries of the Beast's castle are genuinely interesting, though how confining someone to a castle which contains a library full of all the books ever written and yet to be written is a punishment, I'm not entirely certain.

      (You can see why I empathise with this version of Beauty, who loves her books and her studies, who reads and rereads Malory's Le Morte Darthur.)

      As usual, then, I found this a charming read, and I liked the little references to domesticity that are nearly inevitable with McKinley -- the sisters' rough hands as they learn their new work, their learning curve. And as usual, the thing I disliked most was that Beauty had to be made to match her name, in some magical transformation that made little sense -- the goodness of her is in her inner beauty, and why on earth she needs to have dancing amber eyes, I couldn't say. I liked that Beauty started out plain. I would rather she come to some happy acceptance of that than get a wish to be beautiful -- that doesn't solve anything.

      If I'm remembering the key difference between this and Rose Daughter rightly, too, it's a little awful that the Beast vanishes and changes so much too, leaving Beauty faced with a man she doesn't know, who doesn't even know his own name. He's the same person, but then, you can't really say he is when everything's so different and suddenly the Beast she loved is a handsome prince, with very little explanation. It would, perhaps, be better if Beauty instantly recognised him instead of feeling so confused -- at least then there would be a sense of continuity, of the importance of knowing what someone is like rather than what they look like.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed reading this book. It's a retelling of the classic Beauty and the Beast. I felt like the end was rather abrupt. I loved the story and felt like it fleshed out the story more. It was long and detailed in parts though. Halfway through the book, it hadn't even mentioned the Beast. I like the wind that helped Beauty get used to living in the castle. Greatheart, Beauty's horse, was wonderful. I think that the story was a little rushed at the end. I would have loved to have seen more interaction between the Beast and Beauty. She fainted into his arms, then ran away and after a week at home with her family, suddenly realized she loved him. It was so sudden and then at the end, she agrees to marry him and almost immediately her family and the entire village shows up to celebrate. It ended and left me feeling a little unsatisfied. I like the story but wished that it had a little more to the ending. I do recommend this book to anyone who loves fairy tales and romance.
    • 4/5
      I loved this. Beauty and the Beast is my favourite fairytale and this retelling is simply magic. Beauty was an extremely loveable character who is genuine and hardworking and honest and fair and practical. She is smart and caring and adaptable to bad circumstances. But it's not just her, her entire family are the stars of this book. All of the secondary characters are well drawn and fully developed. Hope and Grace and Ger and Father are all fierce and caring and loveable characters in their own right. All that besides, it was so nice to see a family portrayed as loving and caring and loyal and defensive of each other. There was no real bickering or animosity between them, they all supported and cared for each other and the amount of love was perfect.

      Although a fairytale of love and acceptance, the romance itself is of little importance. Mainly the author focuses on developing the friendship between Beauty and Beast and showing how they come to care about each other.

      Something about this book screamed more. As in more than anything else. I can't place my finger on what the more is but it's there. It just felt more fleshed out and emotive than many retellings.
    • 3/5
      Well crafted retelling and engaging to read. Sorta meh on the romance but thats just my usual attitude so.
    • 5/5
      I love this book. It is one of my favorites, and I try to reread it every couple of years. When his business went under, Beauty's father moved his family to the north with his future son-in-law. The area they moved to is on the edge of a haunted forest. When Beauty's father must return to the city, he gets lost on the way home and ends up in the forest, which leads him to an enchanted castle. When he takes a rose to give Beauty, a Beast tells him he must bring one of his daughters to the castle to live with him. Beauty volunteers to go. She is afraid at first because the Beast is large, and the castle appears deserted. She does get the feeling that she is not truly alone. She finds that the time she spends with the Beast shows her that he is not the terrifying monster she thought he was. Beauty discovers they have a lot in common and enjoys spending time with him. After a while, she starts hearing the voices of the enchanted beings in the castle. When Beauty learns the fate of her sister's fiancé, she asks the Beast to let her go home and tell the news. He tells her she has a week, but if she is gone longer than that, he will die. I liked how Beauty's family was such a loving family, not the poor little girl abused type of family. I loved Beauty and her independence. She seemed very adaptable and handled her time at the castle very well. I also loved the way that she was able to look past the surface of the Beast and see who he was. I loved the enchantments in the castle and how real all of it felt. The library was incredibly awesome. There were some entertaining parts, like the argument between Beauty and the "breezes" over the silver dress was great. The ending was a perfect fairytale.
    • 5/5
      This beautiful retelling of Beauty and the Beast begins with a young girl, Honour, saying she'd rather be called Beauty. And the nickname sticks. When her family loses their fortune and moves from the city to a rural community, she soon finds her place in their new setting, but she also hears whispers of a haunted forest, an enchanted castle, and a beast.The book is a little slower in its telling than modern stories, but I think that's where it gets its charm. Readers have the chance to sit and immerse themselves in the story. Many parts of the fairy tale are familiar, but others are so much better. The roses are incredible. The invisible servants and every single member of Beauty's family are highly entertaining. The library suspends belief. And the beast is only, always kind.But Beauty is the heart of the story. I couldn't help loving her despite her constant struggle to believe she is enough. She compares herself to her sisters, then to an ideal that perhaps isn't real or doesn't exist. But those around her don't see how deep her insecurities lie, seeing her strengths instead. She needs to learn to see herself through the eyes of others. Both Beauty and Beast have opportunities to prove their courage, their compassion, and their love. And it was beautiful to watch.
    • 5/5
      I LOVED this retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Highly emotionally intelligent and full of warmth, hope, and honesty, McKinley captures the spirit of the fairy tale with her own special flair. A must read for fantasy lovers!
    • 5/5
      This is a wonderful retelling of Beauty & the Beast filled with love and magic that will captivate the reader until the very end and leave you wanting more.
    • 4/5
      A nice retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story. I've long loved this particular fairy tale, although this latest (to me) version has made me realize that it's about as actually-romantic as Romeo and Juliet (read: it's demonstrably *not*). Stockholm Syndrome is not a sweet romance. But. The silly 16-year-old in me still roots for the beast to get the girl, even while I know that's ridiculous on multiple levels. Who cares, it's a good story and I unapologetically love that they get together in the end. This version has some nice adjustments to the original, too: I like the strengthening of the Beauty character and the details about her family are good. I'm also still curious if the idea of making the servants a more prominent and light-hearted part of the story in the Disney movie came from here. Overall, recommended, if you like fairy tale retellings.
    • 3/5
      Honour is the youngest of three girls. Her mother died soon after the birth of a fourth daughter, as did the baby, when Honour was only a toddler. Her father is a very successful business man, and has built up wealth and status in the city. Honour herself feels that she doesn’t live up to her nickname of beauty, but that is what everyone has called her since she was five years old, so Beauty she remains. All seems to be going well with the family when disaster strikes. Three of her father’s ships & investments are lost, and they are forced to leave the city and set up home in the country. All three girls must learn to work hard if they are to get by, but none shirk their duty.

      As they are settling in to their new home and new circumstances news arrives. A ship has made it back. Their father sets off to finish his business, but on his way back home he becomes lost in a storm. He finds safety in a strange, enchanted castle, but upon leaving its gates he sees a rose garden. Remembering his youngest daughter’s desire for some rose seeds he plucks one. Only for the enraged owner of the castle to accuse him if betraying his welcome. This beast threatens to kill the rose thief, but eventually relents saying that he may leave, provided he returns with his youngest daughter who must stay with the beast.

      I’m guessing that I didn’t need to relate that to you, after all, pretty much every one is familiar with the story of Beauty and the Beast. This version, published back in 1978 is an adaptation of that classic fairy tale. But you will find no squabbling sisters, or petty jealousies. All the girls are loving sisters and daughters. And there are no evil stepmothers. What a relief!

      I enjoyed this book, but it felt a little uneven to me. Some aspects were almost too practical for the sudden magical elements in it. The enchanted castle and curse upon the Beast didn’t seem to fit with the start of the book at all.

      A nice, enjoyable read, but not McKinley’s best. It was her first so that can be excused
    • 3/5
      This is a fairly basic retelling of Beauty and the Beast with some Disney touches thrown in. It's a pleasant read but doesn't really add anything new to the story. At least, it's short.
    • 4/5
      Beauty by Robin McKinley is an excellent retelling of the fairy story Beauty and the Beast. Beauty and the Beast was my favourite fairy story as a child and I totally fell in love with this story all over again. The author wisely sticks close to the known story but adds the most wonderful touches and embellishments along the way.The main character is nicknamed Beauty, her real name is Honor and it’s her steadfast honor and decency that the author plays upon in this charming tale. Her love for the Beast grows slowly starting with friendship and then blossoming into love so we get the happy ending that we want.I have had mixed reactions to this author’s books in the past, but this is a cozy and relaxing read. It was first published in 1978 and it stands the test of time. Beauty is a well told story that was a surprising treat to read.
    • 4/5
      A very gentle retelling of B&B with the drama reduced to a minimum and the characters all as nice as they can be, which focuses on the interior journey of Beauty. I could have used a bit of neighborly nastiness or some other conflict beyond desire to be with lovely family vs desire to stay with new beau. The Disney version seemed to pluck Beauty's bookish nature from this iteration of the heroine, while maximizing the trouble of many of the previous versions.
    • 5/5
      Beauty, youngest daughter of a merchant, takes her father's place as captive of a mysterious monster in an enchanted castle. (You all know the story.)This may be my favorite book ever -- it's certainly always in the top three (along with The Blue Castle and Cyrano de Bergerac, if you were wondering). It's been a few years since I did a reread of this one, and I found myself entirely charmed, as if reading it for the first time. It's just so good. The characters, the dialogue, the descriptions... I cannot even tell you how many times I've read it since I discovered it as a battered paperback in the school library in seventh grade. It's my ultimate comfort read. For a fairy tale retelling, it's pretty straightforward -- it doesn't take the story in new directions, the way more modern retellings do (and don't get me wrong, I enjoy those, too). It just fleshes out the story so beautifully. If you enjoy fairy tale retellings, highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Here's a question for you. Do you enjoy an adaptation or a retelling more or less if you don't remember the details of the original? For me, I don't remember the details of Beauty and the Beast except to say the Disney version was centered around Belle, her sickly woodsman father, the Beast, and the talking tea kettle. I remember it also had singing furniture and, of course, a droopy rose was at the center of the story. McKinley's version has three daughters, Gracie, Hope and Honour. Honour, nicknamed Beauty, is the protagonist of the story and ironically, is not at all beautiful like her sisters. Instead she is homely, unromantic, and scholarly; the bravest and strongest of the bunch. Honour's father has fallen on hard times as a shipping merchant and the family must move to the country. Enter the proximity of an enchanted/haunted forest. We first learn about these mysterious woods when Ger becomes angry with Beauty about being in the woods of Blue Hill. To speed up the telling up the story you know so well: father runs into trouble in the enchanted forest, has a dust up with the Beast, and promises to send a daughter to the Beast to save his own hide. Beauty, being the bravest and most admirable, is the logical choice. Beauty falls in love with Beast despite his appearance and by turns becomes a looker herself. When she promises to marry Beast, the spell is broken. The end.
    • 5/5
      This is one of my favorite books. It was one of the first, if not the first fairy tale retelling that I read and I really enjoyed the way the story was twisted. I loved the way they focused on the roses a lot and the way that it felt like a real progression in a fantasy scenario. I would and have recommended this book to almost anyone.
    • 4/5
      A worthy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, with some extraordinarily nice touches-- like how she got her name. Made it much less of a Stockholm syndrome story.