Beauty vs The Brown Fairy Book: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Folklore, Fairy Tales, Children's fiction
Beauty
More
A retelling of the story Beauty and the Beast. There is also a sequel available titled Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley.
vs
The Brown Fairy Book
More
Thirty-two fairy tales from the folklore of Africa, Australia, Brazil, India, New Caledonia, and Persia.
Side by side
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- The Brown Fairy Book has the widest readership — 1324 ratings behind its score.
Scores by source
| Beauty | The Brown Fairy Book | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | — | 4.1 (1324) |
| Hardcover | 3.7 (118) | 3.3 (8) |
| Google Books | 5.0 (1) | — |
| Apple Books | 4.5 (148) | 4.0 (5) |
Reception
| Beauty | The Brown Fairy Book | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 148 | 1324 |
| Editions | 31 | 312 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | — | 2701 |
| Reading it now | — | 150 |
| Written reviews | — | 43 |
| Wikipedia attention | 40539 | 3679 |
| Pages | 247 | 215 |
Questions readers ask
Which is rated higher: Beauty or The Brown Fairy Book?
Beauty has the higher combined reader rating across sources (Beauty 4.1/5, The Brown Fairy Book 4.1/5).
Which is shorter to read: Beauty or The Brown Fairy Book?
The Brown Fairy Book is the quickest read. Estimated at 225 words per minute: The Brown Fairy Book (215 pages, ≈ 3 h 59 m); Beauty (247 pages, ≈ 4 h 34 m).
Which is harder to read: Beauty or The Brown Fairy Book?
Estimated difficulty, based on era, reader shelves and length — Beauty: Light; The Brown Fairy Book: Moderate.