Week 2 Story: The Original Tale of Beauty and the Beast
In a town in the countryside of France lived a mother and her three daughters. They were a poor family with just a one-room cottage and one very scrawny cow. Getting by was tough, but they were happy nonetheless.
This particular day, the mother decided to go to the village to buy her daughters some gifts. The two oldest daughters wanted jewelry and dresses and dolls and so many other things while the youngest daughter stayed quiet. The mother promised them the finest gifts she could find.
The mother then asked the youngest, Mary, what she wanted from the village. Quietly, Mary answered with, "three roses please." The mother smiled and declared she would find Mary the three prettiest roses in the whole world!
Off she went to the village to buy her daughters some gifts. The mother spent hours searching for jewelry and dolls, only to find two little rag dolls for her oldest daughters. Satisfied with her find, the mother trotted off towards the cottage, taking the scenic route through the woods. It was only when she stumbled upon this grand palace with the reddest and prettiest roses she had ever seen that she remembered Mary's wish.
The mother began to pick the roses when suddenly, a basilisk appeared. He told the mother that she could have the three roses if she would bring back her youngest daughter. The mother tried to give back the roses, but the basilisk would kill her if she didn't comply.
So, the mother ran home to the cottage to escort Mary back tho the palace in the woods. Upon arrival, the basilisk grabbed Mary from her mother's arms and took her into the castle.
The basilisk's only request was for Mary to nurse him for 3 hours a day. Mary did as she was told.
It wasn't until the third day that basilisk brought a sword to Mary. he forced Mary to cut off his head to end his suffering. After much objection, Mary finally cut off the basilisk's head, only for a serpent to slither out of the body.
With ease, Mary cut off the head of the serpent. But, this time, the serpent turned into a handsome prince. He insisted that he and Mary get married, and Mary agreed.
And they lived happily ever after.
Author's note: This story is not an original, it is simply a retelling. Only very tiny details are changed and it is written in my own words, but again, this is not my story, just me retelling it.
Bibliography. "The Three Roses" from Fairy Tales by Josef Baudis. Web source.
Hi Libby!
ReplyDeleteThis story is so great. Right off the bat, I was drawn in because this was the same story I wrote one of my stories off of. I could tell immediately because of your descriptive storytelling!
That is my first "wow" moment of your story. The fact that I was able to read the first few sentences of your story, and immediately know which story it was based on, tells me how intentional and descriptive your writing is. It was similar to the original, but you also put your own twist on it. Really a wow moment for me!
Another “wow” moment for me was your ability to pull out the important details to add them into your rendition of the story. I liked how you didn’t emphasize the events that weren’t super important (like the nursing of the basilisk for 3 days) but just mentioned it. This helped me pay attention to the really important aspects of the story.
Hi Libby :) I really liked your retelling of it. I liked how you changed the dad to a single-mom and made it three roses instead of one. I'm not sure if the basilisk was the original creature, but I liked your description of it nonetheless. I wonder why the first head was easier to cut off than the second. I think it would be cool to explore that, to see if it was physically easier or emotionally/mentally easier. I would've loved to have seen that particular scene explored a little more.
ReplyDeleteI think it would've been cool if you had taken the retelling even farther and really made it more your own. I think maybe trying a different setting, a different time, or translating the characters over to parallel characters you made up would be really fun to see. Overall, I think you did a really good job retelling the story in your own vocabulary, I would just love to make it your own even more!
Hi Libby,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your story. I like how much creativity you added to make it your own, such as changing out the characters. My one suggestion would be to make it more unique, you stuck to the story line which was fine. Though to really get into it you could have gone much deeper into the mothers journey or even the relationship the daughter had with the prince.