A luxuriously magical retelling of Beauty and the Beast set in seventeenth- century France--and told from the point of view of the Beast himself. I am neither monster nor man-yet I am both. I am the Beast. He is a broken, wild thing, his heart's nature exposed by his beastly form. Long ago cursed with a wretched existence, the Beast prowls the dusty hallways of his ruined château with only magical, unseen servants to keep him company- until a weary traveler disturbs his isolation. Bewitched by the man's dreams of his beautiful daughter, the Beast devises a plan to lure her to the château. There, Isabeau courageously exchanges her father's life for her own and agrees to remain with the Beast for a year. But even as their time together weaves its own spell, the Beast finds winning Isabeau's love is only the first impossible step in breaking free from the curse . . .