A Prince Among Men
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | A Prince Among Men |
| Publisher: | |
| Editor(s): | Lorraine Cirelli and Roseann Buonadies |
| Date(s): | 1995 |
| Series?: | |
| Medium: | print zine |
| Size: | |
| Genre: | |
| Fandom: | Beauty and the Beast (TV) |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
A Prince Among Men is a 152-page het Beauty and the Beast (TV) anthology edited by Lorraine Cirelli and Roseann Buonadies.
It has a color cover by Sally Perkins.
The interior art is by Jan Durr, Jackie Kapke, Sally Perkins, Sandra Tew, Pam Tuck.
Contents
- A Happy Life, poem by Sir Henry Wotton (4)
- Guardian Angel by Dove Hodge ("A helpless orphan arrives in the Tunnels, finds her safe haven, and meets the magical, gentle spirit that is Vincent.") (5)
- The Crush, poem by Dove Hodge (6)
- To Dream of the Future by Sally Stanton ("After the dreadful events of Catherine's first Winterfest, Vincent relates to her Devin's tale of the mythical tapestries covering the walls of the Great Hall.") (7)
- Within Your Light, poem by Lorraine Cirelli (11)
- Courage for the Most Strange by Sally Stanton
- The Devil's Initiation by Lorraine Cirelli and Roseann Buonadies ("Heinous murders are being commiteed in the City. Catherine is drawn into the investigation and both she and Vincent come face to face with an old nemesis and unbeknownst to them, a future one.") (12)
- War, excerpt by Percy Cysshe Shelley (38)
- Till I Hold You Again by Lorraine Cirelli ("Vincent lingers outside the window of a house where Catherine is attending a party, tortured with the knowledge that he can never join her in her world.") (39)
- Cathy's Song, "performed by Simon and Garfunkel" (43)
- Alliance by Lorraine Cirelli and Roseann Buonadies ("Vincent is silently challenged by an unexpected source and fights an inner battle to resolve his deepest conflict.") (44)
- What is a Man Without the Beasts by Chief Seattle (57)
- Defiance, poem by [?] (58)
- Night Music by Lorraine Cirelli (59)
- More Than You Know by Lorraine Cirelli and Roseann Buonadies ("Vincent is haunted by his inability to convent to Cathering what is in his heart as Lena plans to reassert herself into his life.") (63)
- The Moment You Were Mine, "performed by Beth Nielson Chapman" (79)
- What Are Friends For by Lorraine Cirelli and Roseann Buonadies ("Jamie flees her husband's physical abuse Above to return to the safety of her only turn home.") (80)
- Sonnet by William Shakespeare (89)
- Rite of Passage by Lorraine Cirelli and Roseann Buonadies ("Devin returns Below with his new wife and sadly discovers when he's ready to leave, she wishes to remain.") (90)
- Roar of the Lions, the Sacrifice of Lambs by Lorraine Cirelli and Roseann Buonadies ("Vincent and Catherine's son, Zane, decides to cut the apron strings and experience love on his own, despite Catherine's better judgement, for only she knows the heartache Rowena Campbell can inflict.") (125)
- Rebel Son, "performed by Survivor" (137)
- Courage Most Strange by Sally Stanton ("In the middle of his run on Broadway, Ron Perlman has discovered he's turning into Vincent!" Another description: "Ron Perlman has a series of unsettling close encounters with Vincent...and contemplates the possibility of a Movie.") (RPF)(138)
- A Prince Among Men by Lorraine Cirelli ("A fairy tale that may shed some light on how Beauty and the Beast came to be.") (142)
Reactions and Reviews
This handsome and well-produced anthology zine is well-edited and enjoyable overall despite some rather odd word use in places (for instance, "he dispatched with the rest of his clothing...."). Occasional stories are sexually explicit.In Dove Hodge's brief "Guardian Angel," 16-year-old Isabella comes to the tunnels and meets Vincent, who makes a strong first impression. Sally Stanton's "To Dream of the Future" has Vincent, after his first Winterfest with Catherine, recall the childhood first Winterfest he can remember, and the allure of the fabled tapestries. Stanton also offers "Courage for the Most Strange," in which Ron Perlman has a series of unsettling close encounters with Vincent...and contemplates the possibility of a Movie.
Virtually all the rest of the fiction is by Cirelli and Buonadies. "The Devil's Initiation" is a long story in which Catherine investigates, then is taken captive by, a secret society whose initiation rites include rape and murder. Injured Vincent finds himself dependent on the sense of obligation of Mitch Denton, one of the sect, for Catherine's safety. After the story's resolution, the reader finds that the sect's backer is more sinister than was suspected. With good characterization, Cirelli's first-person vignette "'Till I Hold You Again" has lonely Vincent peeking longingly at a party Catherine is attending until she discovers him and reassures him of her love. In the team's "Alliance," in which Vincent, seemingly deranged, challenges a lion in the zoo but in fact is coming to harmony with his bestial Other, to Catherine's delight as that personality, now integrated, intensifies their lovemaking, detailed fairly specifically. Also explicit is Cirelli's "Night Music," in which on an outing, Vincent and Catherine share a sensual interlude. In "More Than You Know," by Cirelli and Buonadies, Lena, intending to renew her intended seduction of Vincent, is chagrined to learn that he and Catherine have already become lovers. Jamie and Vincent are the focus the team's "What Friends Are For," in which Jamie, who has left the tunnels for what's developed into an abusive marriage, needs Vincent's aid in separating herself for good from unfaithful husband Paul, and both she and Vincent find that aid comes in an unexpected form. Devin features in the strong, substantial story "Rite of Passage" when, as a restaurant proprietor, he falls in love with spunky waitress Leila. When he brings her Below, she fits right in and loves the place, wants to stay...but Devin is increasingly restless, threatening the couple's happiness. In "The Roar of Lions, the Sacrifice of Lambs," V/C son leonine Zane is in love with tunnel girl Rowena, but Catherine opposes on the grounds of Rowena's parentage. But love, not to mention explicit sex, nevertheless finds a way....
Cirelli's final story, "A Prince Among Men," is a fairy-tale setting of the story, with Princess Catherine lonely because the palace is built on a mountain of ice no one can scale. Carried off the mountain by a compassionate magic bird, she has a single day to meet her subjects and falls in love with one of them: Vincent. Despondent when she must return forever to her unattainable castle, she becomes the prize her father, King Charles, offers to whoever can scale the mountain. Guess who does? And guess who heard this tale as a child, influencing his future writing? You'll have to read it to find out.[1]