John Patience

Beauty and the Beast is one of my favourite fairytales (at least the Disney version is), so I was pretty stoked to see it was included in John Patience’s classic treasury series! His storytelling here is pretty lightweight, considering the potential depth of the story, but I did appreciate his illustrations, which made the book a decent (if not top notch) addition to the set. He uses unexpected compositions to give the pictures a unique viewpoint, the costuming was amusingly lush, and there was just a hint of Arthur Rackham to give the visuals some depth, but overall he didn’t take it quite far enough to be a standout. Belle was pretty generic, which I guess makes sense considering that it is the Beast who is the central character, and Patience’s version of him was definitely on the beastly side. He doesn’t reach the scare-adorable factor of Disney, but he wasn’t a bad effort, since it’s a challenge to tread the line between ugly but endearing. The success of Patience’s other books in this series definitely hinge on whatever makes them unique (the patterning in the Pied Piper of Hamelin, Cinderella’s costuming, the marbled backgrounds), and this volume never quite figured out what it’s standout feature was - it had a little bit of silhouettes, medium-complex costumes, and well done but not standout scenery - so it never quite matched up to my expectations for the book.… (mehr)