Beast: Amazon.ca: Donna Jo Napoli: Books

Product Description

From Amazon

In a narrative as glittering and richly detailed as a Persian miniature, Donna Jo Napoli interprets and amplifies the tale of Beauty and the Beast with startling originality. We've seen her keen psychological insights, surprising viewpoints, and clever twists on traditional fairy tales in previous novels: Hansel and Gretel in The Magic Circle, Rapunzel in Zel, Jack and the Beanstalk in Crazy Jack, and Rumpelstiltskin in Spinners. Here she uses the intriguing setting of ancient Persia in a glorious retelling of the now-Disneyfied favorite--a bold undertaking with which authors from Robin McKinley to Francesca Lia Block have also challenged themselves.

Napoli, however, brings a fresh slant to the story through the eyes of the Beast, Prince Orasmyn, who has been transformed by a curse into a lion--and can only be redeemed by the love of a woman. From this four-footed perspective, the young prince struggles to learn how to survive as a beast while retaining his humanity in devotion to Islamic moral principles. Fleeing his father's hunting park, he travels as an animal across Asia to France, where he at last finds an abandoned chateau. There, using paws and jaws, he plants a rose garden and prepares the castle for the woman he hopes will come to love him. Enter the merchant, the plucked rose, the brave Beauty, and the story wends to its traditional end--but this time with compassion and a new vividness. Into this sumptuous tapestry Napoli has woven a wealth of lore about Persian literature, the tenets of Islam, rose culture, animal behavior--even a leonine mating scene. This level of detail makes for a leisurely pace and a novel that may be more appropriate for older teens who are willing to savor the journey rather than the destination. After all, we all know how the story ends. (Ages 14 and older) --Patty Campbell --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The bulk of this Beauty and the Beast novel is devoted to (the beast) Orasmyn's life as a lion, everything from his probing of the complexities of his fate and his Islamic prayers to his efforts to obtain food. PW called the book "more cerebral than romantic in tone, more laborious than lush in its execution." Ages 12-up. (June)
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
I gasp roughly. Read the first page

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Concordance

Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

30 Reviews

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

4.4 out of 5 stars (30 customer reviews)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Different, Not As Captivating as the Original Tale, Mar 27 2004

By

"royaldiaryfan2000" (Aston, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beast (Paperback)

Well I finally finished this book after reading it on and off for like...two years. It wasn't what I expected and in fact it did not meet my original expectations. I think the story could have been developed a little bit better and there not being too much detail on little things such as gardens and the surroundings. Yes, description is needed, but, at time it seemed as if this whole book was just a story of descriptions of the surroundings Orasmyn saw on his journey across Europe and Asia. I liked the twist of this story, though, I will admit that. The setting is more exotic for most of the journey w/ Persian palaces and the Indian wildnerness. The story explains how the Beast became so cruel and nasty, not because of his personality, but because of his new lion-like instincts. There were new characters here. Gone are Lumiere and Cogsworth and in their place is simply a fox, Chou Chou. The characters are well-developed and you can identify with most of them. The writer did a decent job here but I feel as if there was something missing, something that didn't make this story as magical as the real one.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Has nothing on the classic..., Jun 28 2011

By

C. S. Sauv� (Northern Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Beast (Paperback)

While nothing is overtly wrong with the text (if you can ignore the sex-with-animals parts), I find it doesn't really hold much interest for me between the transformation and the arrival of Belle.

Also, taking quite a long time to build up to it, the end seems sudden and incomplete. At the very least, I would like to know if charity is shown by Orasmyn to Belle's family after the story ends.

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2.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected, Feb 4 2004

By

Kate Morgan (US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beast (Hardcover)

Not that good. I expected this to be as good as all the rest of Donna Jo Napoli's books (Sirena!!) but I was extremely disappointed. Hardly any thing happened, it seemed like, because every thing was so dullly written. The idea and some of the events that happened in the book could have made a good story, but instead, it was extremely dull and boring. I expected this book to be as good as every one had made it out to be.

Dull and boring. Not worth reading. Find some thing else.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely!
A truely lovely book--this coming from a Muslim. The story was engaging as it was authentic. A real diamond, worthy of reading.

Published on Jan 23 2004 by Muslima

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favroite books
Beast is a wonderful book. I loved the fact that it was written from the beast's point of view. This was the book that encouraged me to read many others by this same author... Read more