The daughter of a naval officer, Robin McKinley spent much of her early childhood abroad. She attended college in Maine in the early and middle 1970s, during the rise of the women's rights movement in America. Her novel Beauty: A Retelling; of the Story of Beauty and the Beast reflects changing perceptions about fairy-tale heroines during this period, as well as her own personal interests. Set in the mythical past, the story itself is not closely linked to any specific time period. The familiar version of "Beauty and the Beast," the tale on which the novel is based, appeared in 1757 in France, where it was affected by developments in art and society that spanned more than a century. McKinley's story takes place in an era that resembles the one evoked by the familiar French version and so bears a relation to some events of that period.
Women, education, and salons. Upper-class French women in the early 1600s generally received a basic education. Often instructed by their nurses, they were tutored in such basic subjects as reading, writing, and geography.
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