Romance Novels and Fairy Tales Part 1
Many romance novels are based on fairy tales. For example, Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre have similar themes to Beauty and the Beast.
Fairy tales date back thousands of years and have similarities across cultures. Some psychologists think fairy tales span time and place because they relate to essential dilemmas we all grapple with, life lessons many of us learn, and basic truths about what it means to be human.
What message lies behind the Beauty and the Beast story?
Josh Gressel argues Beauty and the Beast imparts the essential message, we must learn to love and accept those parts of ourselves we dislike, and experience as “beast-like”. Beauty needs to find what is beautiful in the beast, and the beast needs to accept that his issues are part of him, and to learn to cope with them. Only then can they find true love.
Fairy tales appeal to children and adults because of the essential truths they impart.
Many engaging, well-written, recently
published romance novels use a Beauty and the Beast theme.
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Some Beauty and the Beast romance novel page-turners
In The Hating Game by Sally Thorne, Lucy comes to realise Josh's sometimes difficult behaviour stems from shyness, and failure to deal with major issues from his past. She falls in love with his caring nature and masculine vulnerability, and can accept his flaws, once she understands him better. Josh must learn to accept his personality in its entirety, and realise he can fall in love, and be loved in return.
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Kate Forsyth writes of Ava's growing
understanding of her husband Leo in The Beast's Garden. Her
fear of her husband changes to fear for him when the Valkyrie plot
fails, he is arrested and sentenced to be executed. This intriguing,
page-turner is filled with romance and suspense as the tale of Beauty and the Beast is retold in a Nazi Germany setting.
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When Beauty Tamed The Beast by
Eloisa James is a delightful, historical novel with a Beauty and
the Beast theme. Both hero and heroine must learn to accept the
flaws in themselves, and in each other before love can triumph.
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What is your favourite Beauty and the Beast romance? What do you think is the central message of the Beauty and the Beast tale?
I love to love:
Friday night dinners
out with my husband are the best part of my week.
I love to laugh:
Sally Thorne's humour
in The Hating Game is the best.
I love to learn:
I think much of life
is about learning and personal growth. Sometimes challenging, often fun.
