Tuesday I laid out the bare bones of what a fairy tale is, and even made a nifty recipe to follow. I also happened to mention that one of the biggest things that makes a fairy tale a fairy tale is that it’s often retold, again and again.
Does that mean that every fairy tale is a retelling? Are the wild and honestly unknown stories “Fitcher’s Bird” and “The Robber Bridegroom” retellings of “Bluebeard” since they all involve men murdering their new wives?
The answer is no, and the reason why is…slightly complicated.
Fairy tales have been retold again and again over time, and in those multiple “retellings,” new versions emerged that were just different enough to claim a name as a unique story. When we say “the original version” of any kind of story, Snow White, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, whatever, we’re really just pointing back to a single version that was put down in print at some point and grew popular enough to become a springboard for new versions.
Let me give you an example. We all know the story of Beauty and the Beast, popularized by the 1991 Disney film (and remade into another stunning beautiful version in 2017). A pretty young woman named Beauty (Belle, in the Disney versions) goes to save her father and ends up trapped in a castle with a fearsome Beast. The Beast is cursed and the spell can only be broken by true love.
The “original” version of this story is often attributed to the French author, Madame Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, who penned a lengthy novella-length version in 1740. Another French author, Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, wrote an abridged version in 1756, which is the more well-known version and really what those Disney movies are based off of. More or less.
However, you couldn’t necessarily say that Villeneuve’s version is the “first” Beauty and the Beast story ever written. SurLaLune has published a collection of Beauty and the Beast tales dating as far back as Cupid and Psyche’s tale in 2nd century Rome. They count over 180 tales that fit the bill for involving a Beauty with a Beast. The problem is, these stories range anywhere from The Frog Prince to The Pig King, with any sort of man-turned-animal meeting a woman who breaks his curse.
Because of this confusion, we now have a system to neatly file away individual tales according to their motifs and plots. It’s called the Aarne-Thompson-Uther classification system (just shortened to ATU). It has 12 subcategories for identifying beastly husbands, which you can look further into here if you happen to be interested. I’ll do an entire post, or series probably, about this classification system, because it really is a fairy tale scholar’s best friend. And worst enemy.
But back to Beauty and the Beast, the ATU 425 version. Is Villeneuve’s version just a rip off, or a retelling, of a dozen or more stories she’d heard in the past? It’s very likely. But due to the unique nature of her version of the tale, its popularity, and the fact that it inspired a retelling hardly more than 15 years of its publication all mark it as a fairy tale in its own right, one you may absolutely retell yourself if you so choose.
Beaumont’s version, however, can justifiably count as both a retelling and an “original.” We can call it an original because we still know it today as one of the most well-known versions thanks to how tidy and short it is. But it’s a retelling too, because it was influenced by Villeneuve’s tale. She literally retold the story in her own words, and for a different audience.
However there are a few things that make Beaumont’s version different than what we could call a retelling today. So, after a Villeneuve-length introduction, let’s get down to how to really spot an honest-to-goodness fairy tale retelling!
The number one way to spot a fairy tale retelling is that it’s usually stated somewhere. In the summary of the book, in the title, in some sort of advertising, that sort of thing. But some books are sneaky. How are you going to know if a story is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast if it doesn’t say it?
It’s pretty easy. Really.
The Retelling Keeps the Same or Similar Motifs as the Original
Once you’ve read a certain fairy tale, you pretty much know what to expect out of all of its retellings. We in the fairy tale world tend to call these little recognizable tidbits “motifs,” but you can also just call them “familiar elements” or “things you always see in retellings of this particular story.”
Let’s take Beauty and the Beast, since we’ve already been talking about it. And because it just so happens to be one of my all-time favorite fairy tales. I’m even getting a tattoo just to show how much I love it. Eventually. Probably. Hopefully.
Anyway.
Things We Almost Always See in Beauty and the Beast
- A rose
- A very beautiful girl, often named Beauty or something similar
- A hideous beast, usually angry or grumpy
- An enchanted castle or similar rich living space
- A curse where the cure somehow involves love
And that’s pretty much it. Just reading that list, you probably already have an image in your head. If you take those simple elements and toss them in a box with a few other good bits, shake them around, and dump them on the ground, you’ll find a shiny new retelling!
Well, almost. Writing a retelling is considerably harder than spotting a retelling. More on that later.
You can’t just write any old story with a pretty girl and a rose and a beast and a true-love-conquers-all plot. You might risk ending up with a really boring, tired old story at best, and a potentially plagiarized piece at worst. And reading the same story that you’ve already read is dull. That’s why you need…a twist!
The Retelling is the Original Story — With a Twist!
One of the biggest selling points of retellings these days is that they come with a twist. We can’t say that of the 1991 and 2017 versions of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast because the 2017 movie is literally just a remake of the 1991 version. But we can say that of Beaumont’s version and A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. There are many twists incorporated into this book, but one of the more obvious twists (without spoiling all the good ones!) is that the Beast in this tale isn’t a hideous monster, but a fairy lord in a mask. A good retelling never relies on just one good twist, however, and A Court of Thorns and Roses is an amazing retelling.
The Story Takes Place in a New Setting
This isn’t a necessity for a retelling, but it’s certainly one way you can go about changing the story. One of the best examples is Alex Flinn’s Beastly. He puts his own twist on the shape of the Beast character, but what makes this retelling stand out from the rest is the setting — modern day New York City. That changes the story quite a bit! Flinn does a lot to the story while still keeping many of the same motifs we mentioned earlier, which makes it a recognizable Beauty and the Beast retelling. But even if he hadn’t, just setting the story in modern day New York City changes a lot and keeps things fresh and interesting.
It Often is Reshaped to Appeal to Today’s Audience
How many readers out there would be interested in a docile Beauty who goes through her little tale preaching the virtues of unconditional love no matter what your appearance is? A Beauty who doesn’t really face any hardships and who honestly doesn’t have any depth to her character?
The answer ought to be no one, but sometimes that’s how these fairy tales are written. The genre of the fairy tale doesn’t really afford much in the way of character development, mostly because the tales are so short, but also because moralizing tales and fables like these were less about the characters and more about the lesson at the end.
Today’s audience is much more interested in more complex stories that explore character depth, relationships, difficult questions, human nature, new and fascinating worlds, and so on. And we’re all the better for it. As much as I love reading the original tales, I believe we’ve come a long way in the art of writing.
Pretty much any retelling in the last century could be used as an example here, but I’ll use Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge, just to bring in another retelling. Nyx is the furthest thing from a docile, loving Beauty. For one, she’s been trained to kill the Gentle Lord she’s betrothed to in order to free her people. I don’t think I could see Disney’s Belle or the original Beauty doing that. Of course, it’s never that simple, which Nyx finds out as soon as she moves in with her new husband.
Hopefully now you’ve all been equipped with the knowledge to go out and hunt retellings of your own to consume. Like I said before, spotting a retelling can usually be pretty straightforward. You’ll usually see it snuck in somewhere like the back cover summary or the title. Reviews are a dead giveaway. Retellings are defined by their use of well-known motifs, otherwise it could just be any other story. But what makes a good retelling — that comes with the twists, the new settings, and the complex storytelling we know and love today.
Obviously this isn’t just for fairy tale retellings. This list can be used to spot a retelling of anything, and retellings of other classics are also on the rise in popularity. But this is a fairy tale blog, and as much as I love Shakespeare, I can’t devote all my time to retellings of his works.
I vastly prefer the originals anyway. Don’t mess with my Bard.
What do you guys think? Are there other ways you can spot a retelling? Don’t forget to tell us what your favorite retellings are! You might just see a review of them!
This is wonderful! I haven’t thought about that before. I feel like I have to get the list of requirements for my favorite stories now just to see how many times I’ve read it as a retelling.