With intensely idiosyncratic illustrations from the prolific Etienne Delessert - two-time winner of the Premio Grafico at the Bologna World Children's Book Fair, whose artwork can be seen in titles such as Humpty Dumpty and Moon Theater - this version of the classic fairy-tale of Beauty and the Beast was published by Creative Editions, a small Mankato publisher specializing in more artistic picture-books. The result is a volume that is visually arresting, with a surreal sensibility that is attention-grabbing, even when not (in my personal estimation) beautiful. It's hard to describe the Beast here, as he is only fully depicted once or twice, and then in a rather distorted way, but I would say that he has the appearance of a large dark grayish hound.

The narrative itself is engaging enough, although very text-heavy - definitely too involved for younger children! - and diverges a bit from the Mme Le Prince de Beaumont-influenced versions most often seen. It is attributed to Mme. D'Aulnoy, which I find very difficult to understand, as all the scholarship I have read on Beauty and the Beast agrees that the first recorded version of this story was in Mme. de Villeneuve's 1740 La jeune américaine, et les contes marins, and Mme. D'Aulnoy died in 1705, her two major fairy-tale collections - Les Contes des Fées and Contes Nouveaux ou Les Fées à la Mode - being published in 1697 and 1698, respectively. How then, if the first written version of this tale appeared in 1740, could D'Aulnoy have penned a version? This edition is the first indication I have seen, that any version of this story is attributed to Mme. D'Aulnoy - although I know she translated a similar story, originally from Giovanni Francesco Straparola, about a Pig Prince - and I suspect it must be a mistake. One wonders what the source (by which I mean the actual volume) was?

In any case, leaving aside these puzzling issues of attribution, this is a version of Beauty and the Beast I recommend to fan of the tale, as it offers a very different aesthetic sensibility than most other versions I have seen. Obviously, Etienne Delessert fans will also enjoy it. ( )