The Meanings of "Beauty & The Beast" A Handbook by Jerry Griswold

The Meanings of "Beauty & The Beast" A Handbook by Jerry Griswold is a must own for fans of Beauty and the Beast (like me). The other is Beauty and the Beast: Visions and Revisions of an Old Tale but that's for discussing another day. The books actually make great companions to each other since Hearne focuses on the history and iterations of the tale, avoiding interpretations, while Griswold is focused on many of the possible interpretations of the tale as the title implies.

Griswold was one of the presenters at Grimm Legacies, and not surprisingly, he gave an entertaining presentation on Beauty and the Beast. So to start off the recap, I wanted to offer a post on Griswold's book devoted to the tale. I will share more about his presentation in another post as well as another devoted to his favorite iteration of Beauty and the Beast. Stay tuned to learn more.

Book description:

Using Beaumont’s classic story as a touchstone, this work shows how "Beauty and the Beast" takes on different meanings as it is analyzed by psychologists, illustrated in picture books, adapted to the screen, and rewritten by contemporary writers.

The Meanings of "Beauty and the Beast" provides expert commentary on the tale and on representative critical approaches and contemporary adaptations. This book also includes a variety of original source materials and twenty-three colour illustrations.

The Meanings of "Beauty and the Beast" is for any reader who wishes to explore this classic, endlessly rich fairy tale.

About the Author

Jerry Griswold is a professor of literature at San Diego State University. He is the author of several books, including Audacious Kids: Coming of Age in America’s Classic Children’s Books (Oxford University Press, 1992; reissued as The Classic American Children’s Story: Novels of the Golden Age by Penguin, 1996) and The Children’s Books of Randall Jarrell (University of Georgia Press, 1988). Griswold has also published more than one hundred essays in The Paris Review, The Nation, The New Republic, The New York Times Book Review and elsewhere. He writes frequently for The Los Angeles Times.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. The Importance of "Beauty and the Beast"
2. The Tale and its Author
3. Among the Critics
4. Sources
5. Folk Tale Variations
6. Illustrations
7. Contemporary Versions
8. Films

Selected Bibliography