Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, a French author of great renown, was born to Jean Barbot, a squire, lord of Romagné and Mothais, and councilor of the King at the Presidial of La Rochelle, and Dame Suzanne Allaire. Her original name was Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot, lady of Romagné and Mothais, and she was born and died in the vibrant city of Paris, France.
However, Gabrielle-Suzanne did not hail from Paris, but rather belonged to a powerful Protestant family from La Rochelle. Her family's influence and prestige were evident in her early life, with her father holding a prominent position at the Presidial of La Rochelle.
In 1706, Gabrielle-Suzanne married Jean-Baptiste Gaalon de Barzay, a knight, lord of Villeneuve, and lieutenant-colonel of infantry at the Berville Regiment. This union was a significant one, as Jean-Baptiste was a member of an aristocratic family from Poitou.
Tragedy struck Gabrielle-Suzanne at the tender age of 26, when she became a widow. This devastating loss was compounded by the fact that she progressively lost her family fortune, leaving her in a precarious financial situation.
In an effort to support herself, Gabrielle-Suzanne made her way to Paris, where she embarked on a literary career. It was in this city that she met Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, or Crébillon, père, with whom she would live until her death.
Gabrielle-Suzanne's most famous work is, of course, the fairy tale "La Belle et la Bête", or "Beauty and the Beast" in English. This enchanting tale was published in La Jeune Américaine, et les Contes marins in 1740. It is believed that Gabrielle-Suzanne may have heard this tale from a maid while she was traveling to America.
After Gabrielle-Suzanne's death, Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont re-wrote the tale in an abridged form and published it in 1756 in her Magasin des enfants. This version of the tale was intended to teach young English girls a moral lesson, and it is this abridged version that is more well-known than Gabrielle-Suzanne's original work.
Unfortunately, Gabrielle-Suzanne was not credited in Leprince de Beaumont's publication, a fact that has contributed to her relatively unknown status as the original author of "Beauty and the Beast". Despite this, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve remains an important figure in the world of French literature, and her contributions to the world of fairy tales are undeniable.
