Loving the Beast before his transformation
a thing must be loved _before_ it is loveable.
In Lang's Blue Fairy Book (1889; Gutenberg transcription), Beauty declares her love and accepts the Beast before he becomes the handsome prince. But she already knows his gentleness and kindness. ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ final scenes. Chesterton's paradox therefore goes beyond a literal summary: ‘loveable’ means something like outwardly attractive or visibly restored, rather than wholly without qualities deserving love. The distinction matters because his moral makes love precede transformation without requiring the tale to portray its recipient as morally worthless. Lang's version credits Madame de Villeneuve; it should not be silently identified with every retelling bearing the same title.
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