Beauty Book

Beauty is the half mortal, half fairy daughter of a 14th century English duke. A fairy curse puts the entire household into an extended sleep, but Beauty escapes using a magic cloak. Outside the castle, she is captured by a film crew from the 21st century who have come to film the end of magic. Beauty lives for a while in the overpopulated, ugly 21st century where nature has been completely destroyed by humans and magic no longer works. She escapes, and her subsequent adventures take her to imaginary countries, the land of Faery, the late 20th century (where she is brutally raped), and to various times during her own century where her descendants become, in turn, Cinderella, Snow White and the Frog Prince. Like much of Tepper's fiction, this book is driven by a controlled fury. She sees the destruction of beauty all around us by those who believe humanity has a right to use up the rest of nature, and this book is a stark warning that if we don't change our ways we will destroy the world. Her heroine is the guardian of all that is beautiful in the world, of all that is being devoured by human greed. An angry novel, it makes its point heavy-handedly in places, but with great poignancy overall. It's a powerful and thought-provoking read. Elizabeth SourbutRead More