ADVERTISEMENTA modern retelling of the 1756 fairytale “La Belle et la Bête” (“Beauty and the Beast”) is published in France today, three months after the French Education Ministry called it inappropriate for children.
The new illustrated rendition, written by cartoonist Jul, comes to bookstores with a red banner on its cover saying: “Enfin!” (“Finally!”).
The French government had originally commissioned the text as part of its annual “A book for the holidays” campaign, through which 800,000 pupils receive a copy of an updated literary classic to read over the summer.
The book was ready for its first print run when the Education Ministry cancelled its order in March, citing concerns over the portrayal of issues including social media and alcohol.
“The finished book is not suitable for independent reading, at home, with the family and without the guidance of teachers, for pupils aged 10 to 11” and “could raise a number of questions among students that would not necessarily be answered appropriately,” the ministry said in a letter to the author.
Jul denounced “censorship” based on “false pretexts.” He said the decision came from his representation of a heroine with brown skin and black curly hair.
“With the sensitivity and critical sense of a cartoonist used to capturing the zeitgeist, Jul infuses ‘Beauty and the Beast’ with a captivating modernity, without losing any of its universal spirit”, the book’s publisher GrandPalaisRmnÉditions said ahead of today’s release.
Education minister Élisabeth Borne’s initial preface has disappeared from the newly published version, which is intended for readers from age 10 upwards, according to the publisher.
Jul celebrated the release with a 3-minute online video, in which celebrities read excerpts of the tale.
The video, titled “Because no one should control what we read”, features actors, writers and politicians from across the political spectrum, including former Education Minister Nicole Belloubet and former President François Hollande.
“This mobilisation of the entire ‘republican arc’, with elected representatives as far apart as [leftist lawmaker] François Ruffin and [former right-wing Prime Minister] Édouard Philippe, shows that it’s not possible for an ultra-reactionary fringe to tell us what we should or shouldn’t read”, Jul told AFP.
“There is unanimous agreement that this book deserves to be widely read.”
The controversy even reached the National Assembly. Green lawmaker Cyrielle Chatelain requested on Monday the creation of a parliamentary inquiry committee into “the ultra-reactionary threat hanging over” French schools. She used “Beauty and the Beast” as a case study.
The “censorship” scandal still bears consequences. Jul’s “Beauty and the Beast” was printed in 20,000 copies, compared to the 800,000 initially required for the government’s campaign.
“The people who will go and buy it in bookshops are those who already go to bookshops,” said Jul. “It was supposed to be given to those who don’t usually go. The promotion of a common literary heritage is the ministry’s mission, and it has failed.”
