Barrett’s finely wrought paintings create an appropriately dreamy, romantic atmosphere for this formal retelling of the classic tale. Eilenberg adds details, but keeps all of the essentials. Suddenly ruined, merchant Ernest Fortune and his beloved daughters Gertrude, Hermione and Beauty repair to unhappy poverty in a country cabin. But then, Beauty, who dreams of being swept off her feet by a handsome prince, offers herself in place of her father to the hideous, tortured Beast, and—though the spoiled older sisters suddenly disappear from the story at the end—all turns out splendidly. Using a subdued palette that opens in shadow but bursts into brighter hues at the climax, Barrett uses dress and details to give the story a late-19th-century setting, faces off a fair-skinned, chestnut-haired teenager with a forthright gaze against a towering, hunched, vulpine Beast and artfully fills in between dramatic full-bleed scenes with vignettes and sequential panels. As emotionally intense but not quite so dark as Nancy Willard’s rendition, illustrated by Barry Moser (1992), this version will draw a profound response from its customary pubescent audiences. (Fantasy. 10-13)
