Belle x Book

Belle x Book
GENERAL
Beauty and the Beast
Character	Belle
Character	Book
Canonical?	Canon
Status of Relationship	Belle loves reading books
IN FANDOM
Type (?)	Cargo

1

Belle x Book is the cargo ship between Belle and books from the Beauty and the Beast fandom.

Canon

Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Growing up in a small town that doesn't have much to offer someone like Belle, books become her escape. She dreams to one day have adventures like the people she reads about. Belle always having her nose in a book, however, gets the townspeople to view her as an odd person. Luckily, the town's Liberian is always kind to her for being one of his most loyal and kind customers. Each time she finishes one of the books he lends her, she returns it for another book. After seeing her pick the same book twice for being her favourite, he allows her to keep it. Even though Belle tries to refuse his offer, she is thankful that he insisted that she keeps it. Belle doesn't approve of Gaston taking the book out of her hands and then dropping it in the mud right in front of her. Gaston's disregard of books is one of the reasons why Belle doesn't want to marry him.

Belle is made aware of the library in the Beast's castle when she is being given a tour of the castle, but her curiosity of the West Wing keeps her from visiting it with Cogsworth and Lumiere. Luckily, Lumiere gives Belle another chance to see it when he suggests to his master that he presents the library as a gift to Belle. Afterwards, Belle and Beast begin to read together, and she helps him learn to read using Romeo and Juliet. He enjoys the book so much that they are seen re-reading it together, bringing the two of them closer.

Sing Me a Story with Belle

In this series, Belle is the owner of her own bookshop. One of her friends is a large, talking book aptly named Big Book. Each episode involves her singing a story to the children form one of her books. A few episodes in the series involve Belle looking after her books and wondering what to do with new books, without getting rid of some of the old ones. In another episode, Belle finds a book one of her friends hid for how its cover looks. She tell the story it contains to prove that one should never judge a book by its cover alone.

Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (1997)

Belle struggles to come up with a gift for the Beast to celebrate Christmas. Eventually, she decides to write him a storybook, just like the ones she loved so much back home. She proceeds to sing the song "Stories", a song about how she'll one day read books with the Beast. The song also makes references to many familiar fairytale tropes, such as slaying dragons, searching for buried treasure, and royalty. This suggests that Belle has read a number of books with these plot elements.

Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World (1998)

This midquel introduces new characters to the castle, such as Webster, a blue dictionary. He was once the castle's writer, and he befriends Belle in the library. However, he does not get along very well with the Beast and is eventually banished from the castle. Belle, sad to see her friend go, sets out to bring Webster back to the castle. When he returns, he apologizes to the Beast and Belle.

Beauty and the Beast (2017)

In the 2017 remake, Belle gets her books from the local priest who is kind to Belle and allows her borrow the books from his very small library. Belle treats his books as places she has visited, from how they help her feel that is she is far away from their small part of the world. Belle is later seen reading while doing the laundry, trying to teach a young girl how to read. Unfortunately, the townsfolk disapprove of this. They already have one odd girl who would rather spend her days reading; they don't want a second Belle.

After Belle is saved from the wolves and nursed the Beast back to health, she takes the time to read from a book and finds herself reading out loud. This leads to the Beast talking about books and the stories they tell, before he brings her to the castle's library. Like in the original film, Belle is given free reign of the library so she can read its many books. The Beast soon shows Belle a magical book that has the power to take people to any place in the world, and Belle uses its power to bring her to Paris. She longs to see the place her family once lived and ends up uncovering the truth of what happened to her mother.

Moments

Ralph Breaks the Internet

• Belle can be seen reading from a book, before Vanellope enters room of the Disney Princesses. Resulting in Belle using the book in her hands as a weapon to fight the intruder with, until Vanellope reassures everyone that she isn't a threat.
• After Belle changed into her new comfy clothes, she goes back to her reading.
• Belle uses a book to help Snow White's poison apple reach Mulan and her sword.

Fanon

Belle's love for book is well known among fans of the Disney Princess and her film. That is why most fanworks of Belle are of her reading or simply holding a book in her hands. Along with liking the magical book Disney created for the 2017 remake, as Belle was using books as her way to travel beyond her small minded town. A few crossover shippers like to place Belle with fellow bookworms that she can talk books with, as well as allowing them to draw them sharing the same book with one another.

Fans of the old Sing Me a Story with Belle TV series felt that it was fitting that Belle was given a bookshop of her own. As well as one of her friends in the series being a talking book, who helps Belle tell the kids stories. Parents also felt that Belle was the right fictional character to help get children into books, as well as reading.

Fandom

GIPHY

Belle x Book gifs

Trivia

• In the Disney Mirrorverse game, Mirror Belle is seen having a tome-like book hanging off her belt.