Beauty, by Robin McKinley

Most of the plot of this story can be summed up by saying: this is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Already you know how it ends. There is no need for me to conceal or explain what happens in this story, because you’ve all heard, read, or watched it before. I will say this for Robin McKinley, though. She makes an interesting beginning that is not typical to the rest of the well-known story.

Beauty lives in the city with her two older sisters, Hope and Grace, and their father. Her father is a wealthy merchant-trader who is suddenly overwhelmed by a streak of bad luck and must close his business and try to pay off what debts he can. The family moves to a small country village in an attempt to start their life over in a simpler fashion. Here is where the story starts to regain it’s traditional footing. Their father gets lost in a winter storm, and ends up at an enchanted castle. He is looked after by invisible servants for a night and on the next day he prepares to leave. But he makes a fatal mistake when he picks a rose to bring back to his daughter Beauty, and then the Beast appears. As the reader, you know what is going to happen. Falderol, fiddledeedee, eventually there is a happy ending. How could it not end that way?

But summarizing the plot like this takes away the charm and sweetness that Robin McKinley imbues the story with. ‘Beauty’ is actually the nickname for the youngest girl. Her real name is Honour, but when she was a child she had difficulty understanding the concept of honour so she said in disgust, ‘I’d rather be Beauty.’ This nickname sticks, but when she grows up she is on the nearer side to plain, than to beautiful. But by now everyone knows her as Beauty and she is too proud to mention how the nickname pinches.

McKinley’s story-telling is not perfect, however. When Beauty gets to the castle she is waited upon by two invisible maids whom she can sometimes hear. They are an interesting addition to the plot and they provide some necessary exposition, but I feel they are a weaker side to McKinley’s better writing skills. They play up the ‘terrible curse,’ and ‘impossible cure,’ and by the end when Beauty discovers all she had to do was fall in love to break the spell, all their dire warnings seem anticlimactic and somewhat silly. Unfortunately, they don’t do much for the story itself.

I must admit I love retellings of fairy tales. It’s like hearing the story again as if for the first time. Some characters never really change, like the Beast, but you love them for what they are. If the Beast was anything but a mixture of terrifying, gruff, and yet tender, we would not believe he was the Beast.

Robin McKinley rewrites Beauty and the Beast in a truly masterful way. She keeps all the characters and the storylines that made us love the story in the first place, but she renews our sense of wonder in this wholly different and fascinating world.

The one question I would ask Robin McKinley about Beauty, is how did everyone know to come to the castle at the end.

Editor’s Eye

My respect for Robin McKinley is truly growing in leaps and bounds. In Deerskin she amazed me with a controversial writing technique, and in Beauty I now discover that half the story is one intricate wordplay! (a slight exaggeration, but somewhat true)

I mentioned earlier that ‘Beauty’s’ given name is ‘Honour.’ When I started rereading this book I felt a hunch that whenever the word honour was mentioned there was something more attached to it than just word choice. I believe I made a correct assumption, as I hope to show you.

When Beauty’s father is confronted by the Beast for the first time, he says that he has suffered much misfortune already. The Beast replies, ‘Your misfortunes seem to have robbed you of your sense of honour…’ It is my belief that most of the time when the word honour is used, it really refers to Beauty. Yes, the father has suffered much misfortune, and this latest one is about to rob him of his ‘Honour.’ His daughter.

Another time honour is mentioned, it is again by the Beast. He is talking to Beauty and he says, ‘No, you need say nothing. I am a Beast, and a Beast has no honour.’ That is correct, the Beast does not have ‘Honour’ yet. Beauty has not yet fallen in love with him.

A third time that I believe honour is mentioned significantly, is by Beauty herself. She is speaking to the Beast and says, ‘It is very ungrateful of me—and dishonourable.’ Dis-Honourable, not very honourable, unlike her normal character. Which is Honour.

Now I’m not saying that every time honour is mentioned is perfectly significant, but a good portion of the time the word honour has more significance than would be assumed. I believe this was a terribly clever thing to do, and I think Robin McKinley is clever enough to have put it in there on purpose.


Reader’s View: (spoilers are in this section)

A couple things bugged me because they were never followed up on: the first Rose petal that falls and turns gold. Why does it do this? We never find out: there is never a reason given. Why does Beauty suddenly grow and turn pretty? And why does her father feel revitalized after spending one night there? I think the reason we are supposed to assume for this is magic, but it isn’t well explained. And what are the dimensions of the evil curse on the Beast’s family? It had to wait for a ne’er do well, buy why?

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