There are variations of the themes in Beauty and the Beast that occur in tales not reconstructed by Perrault, but Perrault's reconstructions seem to have the effect of constricting female characters to proper behavior in a way that non-Perrault versions don't. I'm twitchy about his work, although I do appreciate the way he takes fragmented stories and turns them into more cohesive tales.

I'm primarily familiar with the poem/song version of Tamlin. Are there other primary sources for the tale?

-E-