Genre: Classic Novel

The Dragon Prince: A Chinese Beauty & the Beast Tale by Laurence Yep | Children’s Book Review

Posted March 16, 2017 by Jana in Children's Book Review, Inner Child / 4 Comments

The Dragon Prince: A Chinese Beauty & the Beast Tale by Laurence Yep | Children’s Book ReviewThe Dragon Prince: A Chinese Beauty & the Beast Tale by Laurence Yep
Published by HarperCollins on January 9, 1999
Genres: Classic Novel, Fairy Tale, Retelling
Pages: 32
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
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When a poor farmer falls into the clutches of a dragon, only Seven, his youngest daughter, will save him—by marrying the beast.

Publishers Weekly praised "Yep's elegant, carefully crafted storytelling" and Mak's "skillfully and radiantly rendered illustrations" in this captivating and luminous Chinese variation of the beauty and the beast tale.

The Dragon Prince by Laurence Yep is the Chinese version of Beauty and the Beast, and is so rich in culture. Inside the book the author includes his source notes, explaining that this tale is a Southern Chinese version of the classic. He also thanks Truly Shay for helping him translate several tales for him. Immediately, I felt confident that this book would be of very high quality because of the proof of research.

This tale is written in a way that sounds natural when read aloud, and the text is very traditional and stylistically magical. The story includes cultural elements that seem true to the area in which it takes place, including the fact that it’s about a rice farmer and his daughters, a serpent for a beast (that becomes a dragon), the term bride prince is used, and the palace is located in an underwater garden under the ocean’s surface. The story takes an interesting spin, and Seven’s (the Beauty equivalent) sister attempts to drown her and take her place. The prince can tell, though, and searches to find his lost Seven. They live happily ever after.

Elegant silk robes, jade cups, and gold plates are illustrated. The illustrations themselves are reminiscent of Chinese style, with bright colors, Chinese architecture and clothing, and a stylized dragon. The prince speaks of the traditional Chinese custom of brides visiting their families after their wedding.

 

Oh my goodness, I love this version of Beauty and the Beast so much. The Chinese culture, colors, and design influences make it not only entertaining, but a rich, educational, vibrant tale that anyone would love. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves China, Beauty and the Beast, beautiful illustrations, and learning about other cultures!


Beauty and the Beast by Marianna Mayer | Children’s Book Review

Posted March 15, 2017 by Jana in Children's Book Review, Inner Child / 1 Comment

Beauty and the Beast by Marianna Mayer | Children’s Book ReviewBeauty and the Beast by Marianna Mayer
Published by Aladdin Paperbacks on September 1978
Genres: Classic Novel, Fairy Tale
Pages: 48
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
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Generations of children have been fascinated by the story of the girl named Beauty, who grows to love a fearsome beast by learning to see and cherish his kindness, generosity, and intelligence. In this acclaimed, best-selling version of the classic tale, first published in 1978, Marianna Mayer's evocative imagery and Mercer Mayer's exquisite paintings transport readers into a world of pure magic and mystery.

I really, really loved this beautifully illustrated version of the classic Beauty and the Beast tale. I can’t believe it’s out of print because I would LOVE to own a copy for my personal library. Anyway, this book was actually the very first time I read what the traditional tale was like rather than the Disney version. I felt that it was nicely simplified into a storybook for young children, although it might be a bit too long for the tiny littles to focus on. The story starts off with the words, “There once was a…”, reflecting traditional oral storytelling style. There are repeated refrains in this story of the beast pleading Beauty to marry him, and her refusing. There are also repeated story elements of Beauty having various dreams. The words are traditional in nature, and are not like how people speak today, so even though it’s a picture book I think readers of all ages would be drawn to it for one reason or another.

What really set this book apart for me, though, were the illustrations. I can’t believe the same person who wrote and illustrated the Little Critter books also illustrated this one! Mercer Mayer is truly a chameleon. The illustrations are very detailed and ornate, and match the colorful vocabulary and magical tone of the writing. Here are a few of my favorites. It was hard to not share more!

All in all, I loved this version of the story! I found the text to be more enjoyable than the original French tale, and the illustrations made for a very enjoyable reading experience. I’d definitely recommend this to fans of Beauty and the Beast, both young and old. It’s a lovely edition that I’m sure any collector would love to own as well.


Beauty & the Beast by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont | Book Review

Posted March 12, 2017 by Jana in Book Review / 1 Comment

Beauty & the Beast by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont | Book ReviewBeauty and the Beast by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont
Genres: Classic Novel, Fairy Tale
Pages: 34
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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Beauty and the Beast is a traditional fairy tale. Its first published version was written by French author Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve in the middle 18th century. It was a novel-length story intended for adult readers and addressing the issues of the marriage system of the day in which women had no right to choose their husband or to refuse to marry.

The best-known version of the tale appeared sixteen years later. Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont simplified and shortened the Villeneuve’s work and published it in a magazine for young ladies. The new abridged version became more successful, and Madame de Beaumont is regarded now as the author of the classic story.

What better way to kick off A Week of Beauty and the Beast in honor of the upcoming release of Disney’s live action version of the story than to start at the very beginning with the 18th Century original tale? I’ve lived my life loving the animated Disney movie, so I was excited to read the story that inspired it all. My copy of this story is illustrated by Walter Crane, and it looks like an illuminated manuscript. Each page of text is framed by roses and leaves, and the periodic full-page illustrations are very detailed.

 

This version, while different from the Disney movie we all love, is still quite magical. Beauty’s father has lost everything he has to pirates. One day he learns that one of his ships has been recovered and journeys to town to claim what’s rightfully his. Before he leaves he asks each of his daughters what they would like him to bring back for them. All Beauty wants is a rose. So, father sets out on his journey only to find that his partners have divvied up all his possessions because they thought he was dead. He heads back home, depressed, defeated, and even more broke than he was before he left. He presses on through the cold, winter night and falls ill. He ends up in the beast’s castle, where he is nursed back to health. As he leaves the castle for home, he picks a single rose for Beauty. This makes the beast very mad and he tells the old man that unless one of his daughters volunteers to live in the castle forever, the beast will kill him. When father returns home, of course Beauty volunteers because it was her silly request of a rose that got her father into trouble in the first place. Beauty lives with the beast and dreams of a handsome prince each night, who tells her to look past outside appearances and save him from his plight. Each day the beast proclaims his love for her and proposes marriage. For some reason, Beauty cannot make the connection and is convinced that a handsome prince is imprisoned somewhere in the castle. Oh, he is… He just might not be where she expects to find him.

Looking past outward appearances is a very common theme throughout this book, and I find it to be a timely message given today’s expectations of what a person must look like in order to be worthwhile or successful or loved. However, it does bother me that there’s a double standard. Beauty is noted as being beautiful–the most beautiful person in her family. The beast falls in love with her, but we are led to believe it’s because she’s beautiful. We’re basically being told here that women should look past outward appearances and love unattractive men, but men can still require the highest of standards. Of course, this story was written in the 1750s. We’ve come a long way since then, but there is still this “women must look like this” stipulation today that I hope dies out with other things from the 1750’s. Like Smallpox. And dying of pneumonia.

The writing is very antiquated and simplistic, but I loved reading the original story and comparing it to all the versions I’ve read and seen since then! I highly suggest you snag the free ebook and give this a read if you’re a fan of today’s Beauty and the Beast.


Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier | Book Review

Posted November 24, 2014 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 2 Comments

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier | Book ReviewRebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Published by Avon on 1938
Genres: Classic Novel, Mystery, Romance, Suspense
Pages: 448
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again...

Working as a lady's companion, the heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Her future looks bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Max de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. She accepts, but whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to the ominous and brooding Manderley, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory of his dead wife Rebecca is forever kept alive by the forbidding housekeeper, Mrs Danvers...

Not since Jane Eyre has a heroine faced such difficulty with the Other Woman. An international bestseller that has never gone out of print, Rebecca is the haunting story of a young girl consumed by love and the struggle to find her identity.

This classic romantic suspense tale is one I have heard of since I was a little girl. It’s one of the first books my mom bought me when I showed an interest in reading romances. It has been described to me as being “amazing” or “haunting” or “creepy” or “exciting”. Needless to say, my expectations were extremely high. I wanted to feel utterly captivated and submerged in this tale just like my mom was in high school. Of course, a classic novel is hard to review. Everything has been said over and over again. So I’m just going to take a few moments to write down my thoughts and experiences with this book, probably the most anticipated novel of my life.

My mom and I decided to buddy read this together during the month of October because we felt it would be fun to discuss it and then watch the Alfred Hitchcock movie on Halloween.

I have owned a paperback copy of Rebecca for a very long time, but the print is super tiny and close together, so I would start it and then my eyes would hurt and I’d quit it. When it came out on Kindle I was so excited because I could finally read comfortably. But WOW is this book long! It took me an hour to get through 5%, which means this book is LONG. The first chapter, which is about 4% of the book is full of descriptions of trees and flowers. It moves very slowly.

The writing is very pretty and feels super historic (obviously), and I really enjoyed the ominous feeling throughout the story. I had to continually remind myself that this is a classic, though. It’s old. It was not written this year or last year or ten years ago. I kept getting super annoyed with the second Mrs. de Winters because she was so frail and fragile and a complete pushover. And I kept getting annoyed with how petty some of the other characters were (Maxim’s relatives, for instance). But this is how life was. Men were domineering, women were submissive, and gossip and pettiness filled shallow conversations. Re-compartmentalizing Rebecca helped me make allowances, though, and I did enjoy seeing Mrs. de Winters find herself. She did eventually settle in to the role she was pretending to fill. And she owned it.

When I think romantic suspense, I think nail-biting, edge of your seat, can’t sleep at night suspense. I kept hoping for the story to get scary or tense. There were creepy moments, but I feel like a lot of good has been done with the genre since Rebecca was written. I can’t think of instances where I was more pleased with the suspense. And really, the same goes for the romance. I could hardly call it romance. It was more of a young girl infatuated with an older man who wanted to be infatuated with her too, but was too preoccupied to do it right. He acted more like a father than a lover, patting her on the head and patronizing her. But again, I think this was common back then. Life has changed, and I would never fault du Maurier for portraying contemporary times. And in all honesty, I did grow accustomed to their weird little relationship when I realized that this entire book was groundbreaking when it was written.

The ending left me very underwhelmed. I wanted more details, more explanations, more of a climax. I closed the book feeling unsettled and disappointed. My mom did not love Rebecca this time, like she did in high school. I think my main problem here is that the hype made this book seem like so much more than it ever could have been. We all know what hype can do to a book if your opinion of it is anything less than “I LOVED IT MORE THAN I LOVE YOU”. You’re left feeling more disappointed than you would have been otherwise. It’s even worse when the hype has been consistent for over 75 years. There was no way Rebecca was going to live up to my expectations. And when I think realistically and separate myself from my expectations, I find that I did enjoy the book. It’s the first adult classic I’ve ever read, and I have been wanting to read it for a very long time. I now know the story, and I know what everyone is talking about. I think literature has changed so much that new ideals have been formed. But what’s a world without change?