Beauty and the Beast

 

Reviewed by Colleen Gifford

Credibility:
The .edu signifies an educational institution. I further investigated as to what .pitt signified- this site was from the University of Pittsburg, a very creditable institution. No author or department at the University was listed . It would have been helpful to know who pulled this together and put it on-line.

Timeliness:
A date on the end of the document indicated to me that this site was routinely monitored and updated, even if the subject didn’t change; they had someone looking at it and changing the date.

Follow-Through:
There was no link back to the university. The only sites listed at the bottom of the page were sites that listed other fairy tales. There was information also in regard to the author of this version of Beauty and the Beast- LePrince deBeaumont. I feel this is appropriate as users probably would be looking for related links. I was disappointed finding no link or email address of someone at that the university who was the professor of story-telling or French fairy tales , etc. It would be informational to know who the compiler of this informative site was. The related web sites all worked and were other fairy tales and information about them.

Authority:
The version of this tale is very old, I was unaware that the version of Beauty and the Beast was French. (I did realize there were French words in the Disney version.) Nor did I ever wonder about the author of the made famous tale by Disney! In this document it states that Jeanne-Marie was a prolific author authoring over 70 books of that time (1700’s) but is only remembered for her version of Beauty and the Beast. She would be an interesting author to study and read more about. I wish at the end of the site more of her tales were listed even if they never made the top ten of French Fairy Tales.

Material in Paper form?
This was first published in 1756 under the title “Magasin des enfan,…” it was translated in English in 1757. This original version could be found in larger libraries or book stores.

Improvement?
I liked having the story available to me on the web, I made a copy for easy use and to make notes on it when I watch the movie and write comparisons.

Reviewed by Laura Livermore

1. Accuracy

The story of Beauty and the Beast is beautifully written using an old English style.  It is error free and easy to read.  D.L. Ashliman revised the spelling and punctuation.  This version of the story is by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont (1711-1780), a famous author in her time.  The source of her material for this version of Beauty and the Beast comes from another author’s collection, her name was Gabriellle-Suzanne Barbot, Dame de Villeneuve (1695-1755), and her version was almost 200 pages long.  This web page has no background color and no graphics so it looks very plain and dry.  Since the web page is short in length there is no need for a navigation bar.  At the end of the web page there are additional web links that are related to the topic.  The links are as follows:

2. Authority

The source of this version of Beauty and the Beast is from  “The Young Misses Magazine, Containing Dialogues between a Governess and Several Young Ladies of Quality Her Scholars, by Madam Prince de Beaumont, 4th ed., v. 1 (London: C. Nourse, 1783), pp. 45-67. First published in 1756 in France under the title Magasin des enfans, ou dialogues entre une sage gouvernante et plusieure de ses élèves. The first English translation appeared in 1757.” (http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/beauty.html oct 19 2003)     This web site was last revised on October 2001.

3. Objectivity

There is no advertising on this web site since this a “.edu” it is made by an educational institution and it is safe to assume that its original intention is to educate and provide knowledge to the general public