Marriage is so beastly
QUESTION Was Beauty And The Beast written to encourage arranged marriages?
The original 1740 version of Beauty And The Beast was a critique of arranged marriages, which were a fact of life for the upper classes.
However, other versions are more moralistic, assuring girls that if they are virtuous and obedient, they can find happiness in marriage.
The original story was written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, who came from the minor nobility and was unhappily married to a lieutenant colonel. After his death, she moved to Paris, eventually living in the house of poet and erotic novelist Prosper Jolyot de Crebillon.
De Villeneuve was influenced by the story of Cupid and Psyche in Apuleius’s Golden Ass and by folklore tales about animal bridegrooms.
Her story about an aristocratic family who lose everything in a fire, forcing their youngest daughter to marry the Beast, was a critique of a system in which women could not choose their husband, refuse the marriage bed, own property or divorce. Brides aged 14 or 15 were married off to men who were decades older.
De Villeneuve’s beast was a real monster. On meeting Beauty’s father for the first time, it greets him by laying ‘upon his neck a kind of trunk’, and when it moves, Beauty is aware of ‘the enormous weight of his body, the terrible clank of the scales’.
In this convoluted tale, the Beast is reclaimed by a combination of magic, civility and love. The final transformation into a prince does not occur until after the marriage.
The story only became popular when it was rewritten by Mme Leprince de Beaumont, a French governess in england. A writer of stories with strong moral lessons in instructional manuals for children, she abridged Villeneuve’s 100- page story for Le Magasin Des enfants in 1756.
Her version, which has become the archetype, shifts from the Beast’s need for transformation to the requirement for the heroine to change — she must learn to see beyond his appearance and recognise the good within him.
The story was fundamentally changed from a critique of marriage to a lesson in moral edification aimed at young readers. Over the years, the Beast has become ever more sanitised. His monstrous shape hides a tortured soul and he does not pose a real danger or sexual threat to Beauty.
Catherine Martin, London E12.
QUESTION Where do distillers get juniper berries for flavouring gin?
JUnIPeR berries, which are actually seeds, give gin its distinctive, aromatic pine flavour. They are an unusual crop in that they have to be foraged in the wild.
This coniferous plant was once common, but most have been wiped out by disease and over-grazing, with the only viable stands in the north of Scotland.
A particular problem is the fungal disease phytophthora austrocedrae. In 2015, a survey by Plantlife Scotland found 63 per cent of juniper bushes have degraded to brown/orange shrubbery as a result of this pathogen.
Another problem is that, according to the Woodland Trust, 80 per cent of juniper bushes are too old to produce seeds.
Most juniper berries used for distilling come from Italy or eastern europe. Gin brands Beefeater and Bombay Sapphire source their berries from Tuscany.
The best come from near Florence and grow in a microclimate between the sea and the Apennines.
They are foraged in the traditional way by generations of the same family. It is not a simple business. The bushes first produce green berries and one year later these ripen to dark blue and purple. In the autumn, the foragers must hit the tree to shake off the ripe berries.
They can’t cut it as that would ruin growth for the following year and stop the green berries maturing.
A few small Scottish gin producers, including Loch ness Spirits, Badvo in Perthshire and Inshriach in Aviemore, forage for local juniper berries.
Henry Murphy, Perth.
QUESTION Has a homeless person ever become a millionaire?
During the early 1980s, Chris Gardner was homeless while raising his toddler son in the U.S. Despite this, he enrolled in a finance training programme, became a stock broker and founded his brokerage firm, Gardner Rich & Co, in 1987.
His net worth is now $70 million. Gardner’s story inspired 2006 film The Pursuit Of Happyness starring Will Smith.
Andres Pira, a Swedish dropout living on a beach near Phuket in Thailand, sent begging letters to friends asking for money. One responded by sending him the motivational book The Secret Of Rhonda Byrne Or The Law Of Attraction In The Bible by Rhonda Byrne.
On reading this, Pira became a local estate agent. He now owns 19 property companies with more than 250 employees and his net worth has catapulted into billions in the local currency.
He has published his own motivational book, Homeless To Billionaire: The 18 Principles Of Wealth Attraction And Creating Unlimited Opportunity.
Several well-known celebrities have suffered homelessness. When she moved to new York to become an actress, Halle Berry stayed in a homeless shelter.
‘It taught me how to take care of myself and that I could live through any situation, even if it meant going to a shelter for a small stint or living within my means, which were meagre,’ she said.
Country singer Shania Twain grew up in an abusive household and spent time in a Toronto homeless shelter with her mother and siblings.
Director James Cameron was living in his car when he was pitching his Terminator script to film studios.
Mike Canford, Barnsley, S. Yorks.
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