This is a book I picked up on a whim at the local library. It is taller than most books I have (i'm sure it wouldn't fit on my bookshelves any way but sideways) and is hard bound.
Beauty
author: Hubert
artist: Kerascoet
This comic book was originally published in french under the title Beaute, and was translated to english by Joe Johnson.
I rather liked this tale and I will be looking into finding more works by this author and the artist team.
When I first picked up the book I had assumed (foolishly) that it was probably going to be a retelling of "sleeping beauty", as there is a fairy in the background, possibly with the twist of "the three little men in the wood" (another lesser known fairytale.) I was wrong on both counts. BUT I am a sucker for both fairytale retellings and stories that end not so pleasantly.
Beauty spins the tale of a young peasant girl named Coddie. Coddie has basically all of the traits one would expect in a low level rags to riches transformation story. She is "ugly", she is used as forced labor for the household, she is kind despite being shown unkindness her entire life, and she encounters a magical force as she comes of age.
The story takes place in a fictional land, but does a very good job of showing how serfdom and the class system works. You can tell the station of a person by what they are wearing and how they look.
Coddie is shown very quickly at a pagan coming of age ceremony just how very unwanted she is by her community. She soon after gets sent out to the forest in the middle of the night to gather firewood to get her out of the house, this is where she comes upon the magic. She saves a fairy.
I really love what the author did here. He did not go the now traditional route of fairies granting kindnesses. Instead, he shows the true nature of wishes. The "be careful what you wish for, it may seem good at the time but you didn't think this through and now you're stuck with it."
She makes a simple yet devastating wish.
To be beautiful.
Fairies are capricious things. They have their own morals and sense of right/wrong. It does not always align with our own.
Such is the case with the Fairy Mab. Mab gives her not only beauty, but possibly the most dangerous version imaginable. Mab gives her the power of perceived beauty. In reality she will still look like herself. (the book frequently goes back and forth between her perception of herself and how others see her) but to EVERYONE else, she takes the form of their ideal of beauty. She is the sexiest/prettiest thing they have ever seen in their life. Pure perfection of form.
The only way people are able to recognize her from who she was before is her smell. Coddie smells like fish, due to her work skinning fish in the village. It is a smell that never goes away, but it is interesting to see how it is perceived in different ways due to her outer beauty.
She doesn't understand this at first because she cannot see this illusion form. Coddie immediately has one pitfall after another. Her vision form makes men lose all control. In turn, the women disdain her because they will never be able to measure up. In a land where women are still very much property, the only ability she has is to awkwardly social climb.
This is where human nature begins to take over. All of her negative traits become emphasized as she is showered with wealth and ability. Her peasant upbringing really shines through, but anything that could be seen as vain or stupid becomes a non issue as soon as people are put under her spell.
SHE DRIVES MEN TO MADNESS.
They all want her.
And will do anything to obtain her.
There is no consent to this story, because women did not (and in most places, continue to not) have choices over own lives in the time period it is trying to portray itself as.
This is a tale of wishes gone wrong, betrayals, battles, rapes, poverty, angry mobs, scornful women, and human nature.
THIS IS NOT A STORY FOR CHILDREN OR THE FEINT OF HEART.
This does not end "happily". But it does end well.
And for those who do not understand the end and think it is just because she was so different visually...
Remember. The only reason that she is not perfection to their eyes is because they are looking at the drawing of someone else's perfection. Not the woman that was Coddie.
ISBN: 978-1-56163-894-9
