"Beauty and the Beast" by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont is a fairy tale published in 1756. When a merchant plucks a rose from an enchanted castle, he faces death at the hands of a hideous Beast—unless one of his daughters takes his place. Beauty volunteers to save her father and enters a world of luxury and mystery, where a monstrous host asks nightly for her companionship while she dreams of a handsome prisoner. Her choice will determine both their fates.
Project Gutenberg has several editions of this eBook: #19967 (An illustrated HTML file) #23311 (An illustrated HTML file) #7074 (A Plain HTML file) Wikipedia page about this book: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_and_the_Beast