What is the full name of the author credited with the 1740 Beauty and the Beast version?

Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve is the author credited with the 1740 Beauty and the Beast version.

Villeneuve published her long French tale in La Jeune Américaine, et les contes marins in 1740. Her version is generally regarded as the earliest literary form of the story that later became widely known as Beauty and the Beast.

Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont produced a much shorter adaptation in 1756. Beaumont’s version became especially influential in education and later retellings, which is why the two authors are often confused. Villeneuve’s original included more extensive backstory for both the heroine and the Beast.

The literary tradition also draws on earlier folktale patterns involving arranged marriages, enchanted beings, and misunderstood appearances. Saying Villeneuve wrote the “original fairy tale” can be misleading, because oral stories and earlier related narratives existed; she is specifically associated with the first major published literary version.