Beauty
core novel 1991 Beauty
Record
| First published | 1991 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.85 (6,111 ratings, collected 2026-09-05) |
| Page count | 463 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780385419390 |
Synopsis
Beauty, daughter of the Duke of Westfaire, discovers a letter left behind by her long-vanished mother revealing that a curse, laid on the family generations earlier, is due to fall on Beauty herself on her sixteenth birthday, threatening the same fate that has haunted the women of her line. Drawing openly on fairy-tale traditions like Sleeping Beauty even as it subverts and complicates them, the story follows Beauty's determined attempts to evade the curse through flight and cunning rather than passive endurance, carrying her far beyond the borders of her father's decaying estate. As her efforts to escape her fate ripple outward, they set off a chain of strange, far-reaching consequences that draw in other times, other worlds, and other tellings of her own story, complicating any simple idea of what escaping a curse might actually mean.
Where it sits
- Universe: Beauty
- Series: not part of a registered series (standalone work within its universe)
- Author: Sheri S. Tepper
Awards (verified)
- Locus Award (Best Fantasy Novel), 1992: won
Notes
- A Sleeping Beauty-descended protagonist cursed at birth is abducted into a dystopian future and travels through time and multiple realms to preserve magic, nature and beauty against ecological destruction. Won the 1992 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel; was also a preliminary nominee for the 1992 Hugo Award for Best Novel and a Mythopoeic Award for Adult Literature nominee.
Sources
← Beauty dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.