Beauty cover art

Beauty

A Retelling of the Story of Beauty & the Beast

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Beauty

By: Robin McKinley
Narrated by: Charlotte Parry
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

New York Times best-selling author Robin McKinley has won numerous awards for her writing, including the prestigious Newbery Medal. Though her two sisters are beautiful, Beauty, despite her name, is thin and awkward - but she's also courageous. So when her father makes a terrible promise to a Beast living in an enchanted castle, Beauty knows she must volunteer to be the Beast's prisoner.

©1978 Robin McKinley (P)2013 Recorded Books Chapter Books & Readers Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths Fiction Literature & Fiction

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Rose Daughter cover art
Dragonhaven cover art
Ash cover art
Daughter of the Forest cover art
Rutherford Park cover art
Strands of Bronze and Gold cover art
Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow cover art
Silver Birch, Blood Moon cover art
Grim cover art
A Court of Thorns and Roses (10th Anniversary Recording) cover art Jane Eyre cover art
Great Expectations cover art
The Time Traveler's Wife cover art
The Witching Hour cover art
Salt Creek cover art
Among Others cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
Adored every second of it, now keenly to travel forward 20 years for more story

A lovely recommendation from a lovely 'little sis

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I enjoyed every minute of it. Finished it in 2 days! Found it very relaxing.

Loved it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Robin McKinley is known for rich prose, and she does well here. I prefer her other retelling of Beauty and the Beast (Rose Daughter). You can tell this was her earlier work, she improved in later novels. But this was a lovely tale. Suitable for ages 11+ on account of the more advanced vocab, but subject matter is fine for any child imo.

Well read retelling

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, my friends have similar tastes to me and over the years have all been given a copy of this paperback as I love it so much. It's a fairy tale rewriting of Beauty and the Beast but what is lovely about this is the lead is a bookworm :) a girl after my own heart.

What other book might you compare Beauty to, and why?

Ummm... Beauty and the Beast :) no. Ok, Robin McKinley has gone on to write Rose Daughter another retelling of a classic fairy tale. I would also say Patricia C Wredes Enchanted Forest Chronicles would be a similar read.

What does Charlotte Parry bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

I love that it's a British narrator. I've happily listened to America narrators and it's such a delight to listen to a great voice. She brought Beauty to life.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes and I did :) listened to it all in one day whilst pootling about the house entertaining the tiddlers and doing some housework.

Any additional comments?

a great standalone listen.

a childhood favourite now available

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I enjoyed this as I'm a fan of the original fairy tale, this retelling had a lovely emotional realism to it that made all the magic seem so plausible as the characters felt really real. Particularly loved the invisible servants they were so funny and charming.

lovely take on an old favourite

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I was pleasantly surprised at how no-nonsense and straightforward this fairytale was. I also enjoyed the narration quite a lot. All in all, a very pleasant book.

Nice fairytale

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.