The Beast’s Heart

Leife Shallcross

Hachette

Otago Daily Times, May 26th 2018

“Let all who look upon you see the nature of the heart beating in your breast”. With these words, Australian author Leife Shallcross condemns her hero to the life of a Beast, a curse that can only be lifted if a woman agrees of her own free will marry him. It is a story as old as childhood, but told this time from the perspective of the Beast rather than the Beauty.

Driven mad by the transformation, the Beast loses himself to his basest instincts, slaughtering every living thing that crosses his path before eventually stumbles back his crumbling family seat. Upon regaining his senses he finds himself imprisoned within its gates and, desperately lonely, tricks a passing traveller into promising to send his youngest daughter to him for a year. The girl, Isabeau, duly arrives and the Beast soon lives for the time they share together reading, exploring the grounds or sitting in the music room as she plays for him. And when she shuns his company he watches her family in a magical mirror in his chambers, hoping to learn how to win her heart.

Although written for an adult audience, The Beast’s Heart cleaves to the romantic innocence of fairy-tale. The Beast’s house with its invisible servants and enchanted glass are reminiscent of stories such as Eros and Psyche and Snow White, while the magical gardens, whose defiance of the seasons is eroded by Isabeau’s presence, echo those of the Selfish Giant. Even the Beast’s devotion to his beloved is determinedly platonic and, in determination not to repeat the sins of his abusive father, he turns his frustrations back upon himself.

The fact that the Beast has been cursed not for his succumbing to his base appetites for his suppressing his base appetites by hardening of his heart can be read in several ways, there is great pleasure to be found in accepting the novel’s innocence of at face value. 

Deceptive in its simplicity, The Beast’s Heart is beautifully told and totally captivating. We all need some magic in our lives, and Shallcross’s tale provides a welcome refuge from the woes of the world.

https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/books/ancient-fairy-tale-can-still-set-heart-aflutter