The Borrowed Rose: Beauty and the Beast Book Recommendations and Retellings

I made an interesting discovery the other day. I was making the acquaintance of Geralt of Rivia, the Witcher, in  The Last Wish   by Andrzej Sapkowski .  A delightful, tough, magical kinda dude.  I enjoyed the format of the book and getting to know the characters as the short stories unfolded into a broader tale. About three shorts in I was delightfully surprised to discover that Mr. Sapkowski enjoys fairy tales, and wove my fave into the story.   The Witcher Meets Beauty and the Beast in "Grain of Truth" In one of Geralts' adventures, "Grain of Truth," he is meandering through a forest and encounters the remains of two unfortunate souls.  One is a woman with a rose pinned to her dress.  He meanders further down the path and encounters a dilapidated castle.  Upon entering the courtyard he is accosted by the Beast, also called Nivellen.  Nivellen is a jovial fellow, and after a ferocious display where he fails to frighten the Witche...

After reading the fully loaded original version of Beauty and the Beast by Madame Barbot de Villeneuve , the shortened version by Madame LePrince de Beaumont is lack luster.  Sorry, fellow fans, but it just kinda is.  It establishes the important basics that make up the elements of consistent BATB tales, but there's not much drama, conflict or interest to draw you in. Let me restate that I am not a literary critic, reviewer or smart in literary analysis in any way.  Just to be clear.  The comments that follow are those of a girl who loves to read and who loves to read  Beauty & the Beast  tales. Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont, 1711 - 1780 Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont was a French author, living in the 1700s.  She wrote her version of  La Belle et La Bête as a magasin - an instructional handbook for parents and teachers.  It appeared in Le Magasin des Enfants in 1756.  She was quite the writer, producing upwards ...