When I began reading this story I immediately related it to the story of Beauty and the Beast. The narrator was off in Rome enjoying life, not a care in the world, going to parties. When Miss Grief comes knocking at his door seven times and he dismisses them assuming she is trying to sell him something. Eventually when they meet, he is exposed to a new world of writing. I find it interesting that when he sends her work to the publishers and they send them back saying parts need to be fixed, he cannot find the words to fix them with. It is almost as if her books were written with magic. Though upon first reading her works many found fault with them, the narrator cannot seem to change any part of Miss Grief's stories.
Her name must be Miss Grief because of her sad life. She lives with nothing while the narrator has everything. All she wants is her work published, with no such success. One thing I wonder about in this story is why she keeps it a secret that her maid is really her aunt? Maybe to show that although she is poor she still has enough class to own a maid?
Being a huge fan of Disney movies, I like your connection to Beauty and the Beast. I hadn't thought of that, but it is true. He is selfish and sees Miss Crief at first only by haggard appearance (like the old lady that comes to his castle). Yet, in the end, she was the one with the "magic" and beauty in her work that he could not match. He found himself changed in the end as well.
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