Ashlimann: Cupid & Psyche http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/cupid.html
British Library http://www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/psy... retellings of Cupid and Psyche
Latin Forum: Apuleius http://www.lateinforum.de/persap.htm bibliography and papers on apuleius
The first version of Beauty appears in 1740 written by Madame Gabrielle de Villeneuve as La belle et bete. The story, written for adults, takes more than 300 pages. The opening echoes the story of Job, "Once there was a wealthy merchant who had six sons and six daughters..." narrating a sequence of catastrophes which leave him penniless as they are forced to move from a the mansion of an aristocrat to the cottage of a poor plot farmer in the country where they can eke a living from the earth. Largely unwieldy for narration because of the contrivances of the supernatural powers in the likeness of squabbling faeries over the destinies of the merchant, his daughter, Beauty and the Beast. Where Shakespeare succeeds with meddling faeries in both Tempest and Midsummer Nights Dream, Villeneuve fails.
Sur la Lune: History of Beauty & Beast http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/beaut...
Madame Le Prince de Beaumont was busily engaged tutoring young English ladies in social proprieties and grooming them for their future marriages. Concerned about young ladies education, Beaumont published articles regarding pedagogy and educational reform. In 1748, her first book, La Triomph de la verite ou memoires de La Vilette appeared. Between 1740-1780, she published more than 49 volumes which included her version of Beauty and the Beast that appeared in magazine les enfants in 1756. This was followed by Magazine des adolescens (1760) and Magazine des pauvres (1768). At the ripe age of fifty, she left England to return to France where she married Thomas Pichon.
Ashlimann: Beauty and the Beast http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/beauty.html Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont version
Beaumont cut out all the unnecesary machinations of faeries behind the scenes interfering in the daily lives of mortals. Moving from Catholic France to the rebellious England, the wealthy merchant's family got halved. However, she changed the focus of the story to emphasize the proper social role of women to be adequately prepared for marriage. The story became a vehicle for social moralism regarding women as malleable, loyal and persevering. Considering womens' subordinate role in society, given in marriages of convenience as chattels and having little or no civil rights, the story reflects attitudes clearly. Marriage for young ladies was the terror of confronting the beastly sex of men as they were raised in china-doll clothing to have drawing-room teas, attend balls and look beautiful. It also reflects the strict Christian mentality of women being servants to their husbands as Eve was created from the rib of Adam. Love is patient, kind, forebearing, it endures all, suffers all and is loyal to the end. Moreover, it transforms the beast into a gentle prince, a theme taken up ten thousand times over in literature, including Stravinsky's Rake's Progress based on the Hogarth engravings with Auden's verse libretto. And in withdrawing the faeries, Beaumont inserts some heavy Christian moralism.
