Beauty And The Beast
Adapted from the original by Stories Aloud
There was once a very rich man who lived with his six children in a beautiful house in town. He had three sons and three daughters. His daughters were all beautiful, but the youngest one was the most beautiful of all. The whole town called her Beauty. This made her sisters very jealous.
Beauty was also a lot kinder than her sisters. She was polite to everybody and loved to spend her time reading books. Her sisters thought she was stupid and made fun of her. They like to spend their time shopping and showing off their beautiful dresses and jewels.
One day, the father’s business lost a lot of money, and they had to move to a smaller house in the country. The two sisters were so upset that they sat around crying for days!
Beauty, too, was sad to leave, but she knew that crying would do no good. So she helped her father to pack.
When they arrived at their new home, everyone started working as hard as they could. The brothers worked on the farm and Beauty worked in the house. The sisters, well they did nothing whatsoever.
One day, the family was waiting for the father to return from a trip to the city. He was very late and it was getting dark.
A storm broke out and the father, deep in the woods, was tired and hungry. A large gust of wind blew him off his horse and he felt too tired to pull himself back on.
But he noticed a small light flickering in the distance and he found the strength to carry on riding towards it.
He found the light in the window of a beautiful old castle hidden in the woods. The door was open, but there was nobody around, so he took some of the bread on the kitchen table, found a large bed and fell fast asleep.
In the morning, he felt much better and he got his horse ready to leave.
As he rode towards the gate, he noticed a rose bush and he decided to pick a rose for Beauty. But as he took it from the stem, a loud roar made him stop and shiver.
He slowly turned around to find a huge, ugly, hairy monster standing just behind him.
The monster growled, “You are so ungrateful! I let you eat my dinner and stay in my bed and you repay me by stealing a rose?”
The father was so scared.
“My lord, please forgive me. I wanted to give it to my daughter.”
The Beast grunted and started pacing up and down, shaking his long hair as if deep in thought.
At length he said: “You have daughters? You can leave now, but one of your daughters must come willing to live with me here. If they do not, you will die.”
Then the beast turned and walked back towards the castle.
The poor father didn’t know what to do and the whole family sat in silence when he told them the story.
“I’ll go father,” said Beauty. The sisters hadn’t even considered it.
“No, Beauty, I will not allow it,” he protested.
“Father I cannot let you die. The beast might not be so bad!”
So, in the morning, Beauty went on her horse to the place where the castle stood and she knocked at the door.
Nobody answered, so she decided to let herself in and have a look around.
She couldn’t help loving the castle. It was so beautiful! There were long carpets, tall paintings, gold mirrors!
One room after another; each more beautiful than the last.
Then she came across a door which said “Beauty’s Room”, so she went inside.
There was a beautiful bed, a large wardrobe full of wonderful dresses and hundreds upon hundreds of books!
She put one of the dresses against her and looked in the tall gold mirror standing in the corner.
“Oh, how wonderful,” she gasped. “I wish I could see my family though.”
As she said this, there was a twinkling. And the mirror started to shine and inside she could see her home.
“A magical mirror!” She could see her brothers, who looked sad, and her sisters, who didn’t.
“Oh well,” she thought, “at least they’re all safe.”
Then she curled up on the enormous bed and fell fast asleep.
The next day she wandered through the garden and the stables. And when she had walked enough, she came in for dinner.
She went into the dining room and found a meal for two laid out. It looked delicious. But who had made it and where was the beast?
Just as she sat down, she heard a roar that made her jump out of her chair again.
The doors burst open and the beast came in.
He looked at Beauty.
Beauty looked back.
She thought that, though he was ugly and scary, he looked kind.
But she was not prepared for what he said next. “Would you mind if I joined you for dinner?”
How very polite! She had expected the beast to be horrible and rude. But he was quiet and had very kind eyes.
So the two sat down to eat. They didn’t talk much. But Beauty stopped feeling scared and the beast seemed to relax too.
Beauty stayed in the castle quite happily for a while.
She checked on her family every day in the mirror and she was pleased to see that her sisters had both got married.
She loved the palace and the garden and she even loved having dinner with the beast. She stopped noticing his ugliness and thought him very kind and intelligent.
“Are you happy here, Beauty?” he asked one night.
“I am,” she replied, “but I do wish I could see my familyーI miss them terribly.”
“You may visit themーtomorrow, if you likeーand stay there one week.”
“Thank you, Beast. I will return in a week, I promise,” she said.
Her father was so happy to see her, that he threw his arms around her neck. The whole family celebrated. She told them about how kind the beast was, and how beautiful the castle was.
It made her sisters jealous that she was so happy. Their husbands were boring and not very rich.
Beauty was having such a nice time at home that she stayed for more than a week. But she started to worry about the beast. She knew she would be hurting his feelings and she missed him.
One night, she has an awful dream. She dreamt of the beast lying in the garden of the castle, dying!
She jumped out of her sleep and burst into tears.
She got her horse and rode straight to the castle.
She went to the place she saw in her dream and found Beast lying on his back, dying.
“Oh, Beast, I have returned. Please don’t die!”
Beast opened his eyes slowly and said, “You forgot your promise; I thought I’d lost you. At least I have seen you once more before I die.”
“No, dear Beast! You must not die. I have missed you so much. I love you. I want to marry you.”
The beast stopped moving and his eyes shut.
Beauty clung to his body, crying into his chest. She really did love him.
When she sat up, she found herself crying into the chest of a man.
She pulled away frightened. “Do not be scared, my love. It is me, Beast,” replied the man.
“A wicked fairy put a spell on me to be an ugly monster. The spell would only be broken when a lady agreed to love and marry me. You have broken the spell, Beauty. You shall be my queen and we shall live here together.”
Beauty was overjoyed!
She loved the beast even when he was ugly and scary, but he was actually a handsome prince all along.
Her whole family came to the castle for the wedding. Everyone was so happy, except the sisters, of course. Can you image how jealous they were now?
But, as you know, they all lived happily ever after.