Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont

Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont Jeanne Marie Leprince de Beaumont (26 April 1711 – 8 September 1780) was a French novelist who wrote the story titled Beauty and the Beast. She was born in Rouen and died in 1780. She faced poverty and many hardships in her childhood. From 1725 - 1735, she taught small children in Ernemont, about ten miles from Rouen. Subsequently, she obtained a prestigious position as a singing teacher to the children at the Court of the Duke of Lorraine, Stanislaw Leszczyłski, at Laneville. In 1746, she left France to become a governess in London. She wrote Beauty and the Beast and Other Classic French Fairy Tales and after a successful publishing career in England, remarried, bore many children and left England to live the rest of her life in Savoy, France. Her first work, the moralistic novel The Triumph of Truth (Le Triomphe de la vérité), was published in 1748. She continued her literary career by publishing many schoolbooks. She then began to publish collections she called “magazines” of educational and moral stories and poems for children. She was one of the first to write fairy tales for children. She also wrote other works, based on traditional fairy tale themes. Another well-known storyteller of the era, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, wrote a story titled Beauty and the Beast. Le Prince de Beaumont revised and abridged this story considerably, in the form in which it is most commonly known and always included the revised version in the many “magazines” she published over the next 30 years. The success of this shorter revised version is the reason Le Prince de Beaumont is commonly deemed the author of the classic story. Jeanne Marie Leprince de Beaumont (26 April 1711 – 8 September 1780) was a French novelist who wrote the story titled Beauty and the Beast. She was born in Rouen and died in 1780. She faced poverty and many hardships in her childhood. From 1725 - 1735, she taught small children in Ernemont, about ten miles from Rouen. Subsequently, she obtained a prestigious position as a singing teacher to the children at the Court of the Duke of Lorraine, Stanislaw Leszczyłski, at Laneville. In 1746, she left France to become a governess in London. She wrote Beauty and the Beast and Other Classic French Fairy Tales and after a successful publishing career in England, remarried, bore many children and left England to live the rest of her life in Savoy, France. Her first work, the moralistic novel The Triumph of Truth (Le Triomphe de la vérité), was published in 1748. She continued her literary career by publishing many schoolbooks. She then began to publish collections she called “magazines” of educational and moral stories and poems for children. She was one of the first to write fairy tales for children. She also wrote other works, based on traditional fairy tale themes. Another well-known storyteller of the era, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, wrote a story titled Beauty and the Beast. Le Prince de Beaumont revised and abridged this story considerably, in the form in which it is most commonly known and always included the revised version in the many “magazines” she published over the next 30 years. The success of this shorter revised version is the reason Le Prince de Beaumont is commonly deemed the author of the classic story.