Bookshelf · Childhood IconsPreview

Belle.

Beauty and the Beast · 1991 / 2017

The provincial girl with a borrowed library and a bigger imagination. Belle’s reading list runs from fairy tales to Greek myth — and the one book she keeps re-reading.

"Far-off places, daring sword fights, magic spells…"

3 booksCurated · cited · cross-referenced

The shelf, decoded

Why this list.

Belle, in the 1991 animated film, names her favorite book on screen — a fairy tale with magic spells, a prince in disguise, and a heroine who does not figure it out until chapter three. The list below is what she would also read, given the Beast’s library.

The reading list

3 books for Belle.

No. 01On screen
King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table
Roger Lancelyn Green
The "daring sword fights" of the song. Belle has the whole cycle.
CitationSong lyric
No. 02On screen
Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare
The 2017 Belle reads this with the Beast in the library scene.
CitationBeauty and the Beast (2017)
No. 03Character fit
The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales
Brothers Grimm
Source canon. Belle’s favourite genre, full stop.
CitationCharacter-fit

Closing note

Read out loud, to anyone who will listen.

Hermione Granger

Cover of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Cover of A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The most famous reader in modern fiction. Hermione’s shelves are half library reference, half novels she has memorized but will never admit are favorites.

Read the list

MatildaSoon

Matilda Wormwood

Cover of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Cover of The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Four years old. Library card. Walking home with a stack taller than she is. Matilda’s reading list is the patron-saint canon for every kid who hides under the covers with a flashlight.

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Browse all 25 character lists