Everyone knows the story of Beauty and the Beast. Historians have collected 23 variations from around the world, along with an astonishing 162 versions of the archetypal “Animal Bridegroom Story.”
However, the modern version of the classic tale — written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve in 1740 and made famous by the 1991 Disney film — may actually be based on a real man and his family. His name was Petrus Gonsalvus and he might just be the man behind the real Beauty and the Beast story. He toured European aristocracy, married a beautiful woman and sired a brood of children. And he really was covered in hair.
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