Rose Daughter
A couple of weeks ago, The Toast published a piece called Fairy Tales are Women's Tales.
It's about the origins of fairy tales, their original content, and how
they were sanitized and infantilized and given to children instead. I
mention this because Robin McKinley has made a career of taking these
fairy tales and giving them back to women. Making them dark and deep and
rich and putting the women (not children, grown women) back in the
center of the tales.
Rose Daughter is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It's actually McKinley's second retelling of this particular tale. The first Beauty was published 20 years previously. I haven't read that one, so I can't speak to it. I can say that McKinley's second attempt at this classic is pretty incredible.
Of course anyone will know the bones of the story. Beauty's father stumbles across the Beast's palace one night while traveling and gives offense. The Beast allows him to leave, provided his daughter, Beauty return in his place. Beauty does so, and she eventually falls in love with the Beast and breaks the curse and they live happily ever after. McKinley tells that story, but she adds to it in some really incredible ways.
First, Beauty is given two sisters, and the relationships between the three of them are just wonderful. They all have their own strengths and weaknesses, and they work together to keep from starving after their family plunges into poverty. They all mourn their mother and support their father in their own ways, and they grow closer to each other over the course of the book.
There's also the rose motif, which McKinley sort of beats you over the head with. But it worked for me. I swear I could smell roses during many of the scenes because her descriptions were so rich and perfect. She delves into all the symbolism of roses and love and stretches it to make her fit the book in every way.
My favorite part of the book, though, is Beauty's choice when the curse is broken. First, I love that she's given a choice in the matter of what form the Beast will take. Mostly I love that she wants him to remain a Beast, because that's the form she fell in love with. There's no reward of an utterly handsome prince or vast wealth or fame. Beauty chooses a simple life with those she loves most, which is rather lovely.
Rose Daughter is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It's actually McKinley's second retelling of this particular tale. The first Beauty was published 20 years previously. I haven't read that one, so I can't speak to it. I can say that McKinley's second attempt at this classic is pretty incredible.
Of course anyone will know the bones of the story. Beauty's father stumbles across the Beast's palace one night while traveling and gives offense. The Beast allows him to leave, provided his daughter, Beauty return in his place. Beauty does so, and she eventually falls in love with the Beast and breaks the curse and they live happily ever after. McKinley tells that story, but she adds to it in some really incredible ways.
First, Beauty is given two sisters, and the relationships between the three of them are just wonderful. They all have their own strengths and weaknesses, and they work together to keep from starving after their family plunges into poverty. They all mourn their mother and support their father in their own ways, and they grow closer to each other over the course of the book.
There's also the rose motif, which McKinley sort of beats you over the head with. But it worked for me. I swear I could smell roses during many of the scenes because her descriptions were so rich and perfect. She delves into all the symbolism of roses and love and stretches it to make her fit the book in every way.
My favorite part of the book, though, is Beauty's choice when the curse is broken. First, I love that she's given a choice in the matter of what form the Beast will take. Mostly I love that she wants him to remain a Beast, because that's the form she fell in love with. There's no reward of an utterly handsome prince or vast wealth or fame. Beauty chooses a simple life with those she loves most, which is rather lovely.
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