Disney - Beauty and the Beast - Beauty and the Beast (Tale as old as Time)

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Beauty and the Beast (French: La Belle et la Bête) is a traditional fairy tale (type 425C enchanted husband in the Aarne-Thompson classification). The first published version of the fairy tale was a rendition by Madame Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, published in La jeune américaine, et les contes marins in 1740. The best-known written version was an abridgement of Mme Villeneuve's work published in 1756 by Mme Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont, in Magasin des enfants, ou dialogues entre une sage gouvernante et plusieurs de ses élèves; an English translation appeared in 1757.[1]

Variants of the tale are known across Europe.[2] In France, for example, Zémire et Azor is an operatic version of the story of Beauty and the Beast written by Marmontel and composed by Grétry in 1771. It had enormous success well into the 19th century.[3] It is based on Mme Leprince de Beaumont's version of the tale.

Amour pour amour, by Nivelle de la Chaussée, is a 1742 play based on Villeneuve's version.

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