The Forgotten Tale
An old French story inspired the famous tale of Beauty and the Beast. The plot revolves around a fairy who, after falling in love with a king, gives birth to a girl, but is banished from the fairy world. The child grows up among humans and is called Beauty for her incomparable beauty.
Meanwhile, a prince raised by fairies suffers a terrible curse when one of them, having harbored desire for him, is rejected. Furious, she transforms the young man into a Beast, condemning him to live like that until a woman agrees to sleep with him of her own free will.
The fates of the prince and Belle intersect when the young woman's father, after taking shelter in the Beast's castle, picks a rose for his daughter and is sentenced to death. To save him, Belle surrenders herself to the monster and gets to know him better. Over time, she overcomes her fear and falls in love. When she finally gives in to her feelings and spends a night with the Beast, the spell is broken, revealing a handsome prince.
The queen, initially against the marriage, only accepts the union when she discovers that Belle is the daughter of a king. The tale, which inspired Madame Leprince de Beaumont, is said to have been based on the true story of Don Pedro Gonzales, a man who suffered from hypertrichosis and lived in the French court.
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