Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve
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Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, French author (c. 1695-Paris, 1755). She is considered the original author of the story of Beauty and the Beast (Belle et la Bête). Her lengthy version was abridged and published by Mme Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. In 1767 she wrote a novel Jardinière de Vincennes. She was a close friend of the controversial writer Claude Jolyot de Crébillon.