Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast is a traditional fairy tale (type 425C –
enchanted husband – in the Aarne-Thompson classification). The first published
version of the fairy tale was a rendition by Madame Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de
Villeneuve, published in La jeune américaine, et les contes marins in 1740. The
best-known written version was an abridgement of Mme Villeneuve's work published
in 1756 by Mme Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont, in Magasin des enfants, ou
dialogues entre une sage gouvernante et plusieurs de ses élèves; an English
translation appeared in 1757.

— Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.