Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast was published by Harper & Row in 1978, McKinley’s debut novel and one of the first works to demonstrate that fairy tale retelling could be serious literary fiction rather than children’s literature or parody.
McKinley’s Beauty (Honour — nicknamed “Beauty” ironically, because as a child she was plain) is not the passive heroine of the traditional tale but an intellectual: she reads voraciously, studies Latin and Greek, rides horses, and has more interest in books than in appearance. When her merchant father is ruined and the family retreats to the country, Beauty thrives — she is practical, competent, and happier away from society’s expectations.
The Beast’s bargain (he will spare her father’s life if one daughter comes willingly to his castle) is accepted by Beauty not as sacrifice but as payment of a debt — her father picked the rose, and she feels responsible. The castle is genuinely enchanted: invisible servants, a library that contains books not yet written, gardens that bloom regardless of season, and the Beast himself — courteous, intelligent, genuinely terrifying in appearance, and desperately lonely.
McKinley’s innovation is to make the romance credible: Beauty’s love for the Beast develops not from Stockholm syndrome but from genuine intellectual and emotional connection — they talk about books, they walk in gardens, they share meals, and the Beast’s character (kind, witty, self-aware about his own monstrousness) earns affection that his appearance initially prohibits.
Collecting Beauty
First edition (Harper & Row, New York, 1978): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $80–$250
- Signed first edition: $150–$400
- Without jacket: $15–$30