{"id":194342,"date":"2025-06-18T12:09:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T12:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/194342\/"},"modified":"2025-06-18T12:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T12:09:10","slug":"cancelled-beauty-and-the-beast-retelling-finally-gets-released-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/194342\/","title":{"rendered":"Cancelled \u2018Beauty and the Beast\u2019 retelling ‘finally’ gets released in France"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Published on
\n 18\/06\/2025 – 13:44 GMT+2<\/p>\n

\"\"ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

A modern retelling of the 1756 fairytale “La Belle et la B\u00eate” (\u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d) is published in France today, three months after the French Education Ministry called it inappropriate for children.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The new illustrated rendition, written by cartoonist Jul, comes to bookstores with a red banner on its cover saying: \u201cEnfin!\u201d (\u201cFinally!\u201d).<\/p>\n

The French government had originally commissioned the text as part of its annual \u201cA book for the holidays\u201d campaign, through which 800,000 pupils receive a copy of an updated literary classic<\/strong><\/a> to read over the summer.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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\u201d and \u201ccould raise a number of questions among students that would not necessarily be answered appropriately,\u201d the ministry said in a letter to the author.<\/p>\n

Jul denounced \u201ccensorship\u201d<\/strong><\/a> based on \u201cfalse pretexts.\u201d He said the decision came from his representation of a heroine with brown skin and black curly hair. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith the sensitivity and critical sense of a cartoonist used to capturing the zeitgeist, Jul infuses \u2018Beauty and the Beast\u2019 with a captivating modernity, without losing any of its universal spirit\u201d, the book\u2019s publisher GrandPalaisRmn\u00c9ditions said ahead of today\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

Education minister \u00c9lisabeth Borne\u2019s initial preface has disappeared from the newly published version, which is intended for readers from age 10 upwards, according to the publisher.<\/p>\n

Jul celebrated the release with a 3-minute online video, in which celebrities read excerpts of the tale. <\/p>\n

The video, titled \u201cBecause no one should control what we read\u201d, features actors, writers and politicians from across the political spectrum, including former Education Minister Nicole Belloubet and former President Fran\u00e7ois Hollande.<\/p>\n

“This mobilisation of the entire \u2018republican arc\u2019, with elected representatives as far apart as [leftist lawmaker] Fran\u00e7ois Ruffin and [former right-wing Prime Minister] \u00c9douard Philippe, shows that it’s not possible for an ultra-reactionary fringe to tell us what we should or shouldn’t read\u201d, Jul told AFP.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is unanimous agreement that this book deserves to be widely read.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d as a case study. <\/p>\n

The “censorship” scandal still bears consequences. Jul’s \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d was printed in 20,000 copies, compared to the 800,000 initially required for the government\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on 18\/06\/2025 – 13:44 GMT+2 ADVERTISEMENT A modern retelling of the 1756 fairytale “La Belle et la…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3938],"tags":[3444,18319,389,39278,77,36,79236,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-194342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-censorship","10":"tag-children","11":"tag-controversy","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-france","14":"tag-ministry-of-education","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114704296596482976","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}