9 h 41 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if love reveals the person that appearances keep hidden?
In Beauty and the Beast, and Tales of Home, Bayard Taylor brings a traveler's eye to familiar ground. Love, marriage and family pressure shape these short stories, while character reveals itself over time. The title story draws on an old fairy-tale pattern to explore appearances and the expectations people place on one another.
Alongside Beauty and the Beast, the collection includes Twin-Love, Can a Life Hide Itself and Jacob Flint's Journey. Taylor looks at life at home with the curiosity of someone used to looking beyond it. American and European manners sit side by side, inviting you to notice what seems natural—and what seems odd.
What you’ll discover
- Beyond first appearances Explore how love can change the way one person sees another.
- The pressures of home Find stories where marriage and family expectations put personal character under close scrutiny.
- A traveler's curious eye See familiar manners from the outside as Taylor sets America beside Europe.
- Humor without hurry Enjoy observant, slightly amused narrators who leave room to notice human behavior.
- Character revealed over time Settle into calm stories that trace how people show who they are.
Is it for you?
This book suits readers who enjoy nineteenth century American fiction, short stories about manners and love, and the voice of a well-traveled writer. If you want fast plots or modern pacing, its calm style may feel slow.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A traveler writes about home
- The title story plays on an old tale
- The other tales study character and love
- Style, themes and how to read them
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Beauty and the Beast, and Tales of Home
by Bayard Taylor· 1872
Stories of love and family compare American and European manners.
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Language: English
“Surely, there must have been something peculiarly noble and sweet in Bayard Taylor's nature to have drawn to him so powerfully a man of another nation and another race.”
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 4
A traveler writes about home
Bayard Taylor became widely known for his travel books, which carried American readers to Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. When he turned to fiction, he brought that habit of looking at people from the outside. In this collection, home is the subject, and he studies it the way he once studied foreign cities.
The tales are set mostly among ordinary American households and communities of his day. They deal with courtship, money, reputation and the small habits that define a family. Taylor does not shout his points. He lets a situation play out and trusts the reader to notice what is funny, kind or foolish in it.
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The author
Bayard Taylor
1825–1878 · American poet and travel writer
Bayard Taylor was an American poet, novelist, and travel writer. He was born in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, in 1825. He published Views Afoot in 1846 and Northern Travel in 1857. He lived in the United States and served as a diplomat in Germany, where he died in Berlin in 1878.
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Questions about Beauty and the Beast, and Tales of Home
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What is Beauty and the Beast, and Tales of Home about?
It is a collection of short fiction by Bayard Taylor. The title story retells the old fairy tale in a modern setting, and the other tales deal with love, character and everyday American life of the 1870s.
Who wrote Beauty and the Beast, and Tales of Home?
Bayard Taylor, an American poet, translator and travel writer. He was also known for translating Goethe's Faust, and he published the collection in the early 1870s, near the end of a busy literary career.
Is this the same as the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast?
Not exactly. The title story borrows the idea of the old fairy tale, in which love changes how a person is seen, but it is an original piece of nineteenth century American fiction.
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