The Story of Beauty the Beast: The Complete Fairy Story

Excerpt from The Story of Beauty the Beast: The Complete Fairy StoryNot very far away from here there may be seen a great city, which is maintained in a state of wealth by its very prosperous men. It numbered amongst its citizens a merchant, who was successful in all that he undertook, and on whom Dame Fortune, ever at his beck and call, had showered her most rare and fairest favours. But if he had immense wealth, he had also a great many children. His family, in fact, was composed of six boys and six girls. None of them were as yet married, for the boys were still too young to think of it, and the daughters, proud of the large fortunes upon which they had every reason to count, found it difficult to decide upon the choice they should make.While the vanity of these maidens was being flattered by the attentions of all the most handsome young men in the place, there suddenly came a reverse of fortune, which was the last thing these girls expected, and which sadly troubled the peacefulness of their life. The house in which they lived took fire. The splendid furniture with which it was filled, all the books of account, the bank-notes, the gold and silver, as well as all the precious stores, which formed the merchants chief source of wealth, were enveloped in the disastrous conflagration, the violence of which was such that scarcely anything was saved.This terrible misfortune was destined to be but the forerunner of others. The father, with whom everything had prospered hitherto, lost at one and the same time, either by shipwreck or through falling into the hands of pirates, all the ships that he had at sea. His agents, at home made him a bankrupt, and those who acted for him in foreign lands deceived him.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com