Villeneuve, Gabrielle‐Suzanne Barbot de
Villeneuve, Gabrielle‐Suzanne Barbot de (1685–1755),French writer whose ‘La Belle et la bête’ (‘Beauty and the Beast’) was the basis for Mme Leprince de Beaumont's famous version. Unhappily married to a military officer, Villeneuve was left impoverished after his death and attempted to earn extra money through her writings, specifically historical and sentimental novels. She eventually became acquainted with Crébillon fils, another writer of fairy tales (among other things), and, from all accounts, cohabited with him. Although contemporaries were quick to dismiss her as the mere ‘governess’ and mistress of her more illustrious partner, Villeneuve was in fact his intellectual companion and continued to write fiction on her own.
Her version of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ appeared in La Jeune Amériquaine et les contes marins...
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