About This Book
A short story about Beauty and the Beast in the Old South. During the U.S. Civil War an enslaved companion (Belle) to a White plantation owner's daughter (Penny) come of age on Paradis Malfait under the tutelage of their governess Madame Hortense Duquesne. Hortense teaches her young teenage students about the societal inequities between men and women. She uses the novel Beauty and the Beast to illustrate her points. Penny's father Pierre forces Belle to become his unwilling mistress. There is a battle between the sexes as Belle is coached by Hortense and her mother on how to reduce the damage to her caused by her forced liaison.
