Liliane Bettencourt (right), daughter of the man who founded cosmetics giant L'Oréal, tops Forbes' just-released list of the richest women in Europe with a fortune of $22.9 billion. That astounding figure also makes her the world's richest woman, the magazine notes. Bettencourt, whose father's reputation has occasionally come under fire, uses her money to fund a charitable foundation which supports medical research, cultural projects and humanitarian relief.

At the No. 2 spot on the Euro list is Swedish citizen Birgit Rausing, a packaging heiress with an estimated fortune of $14 billion, while No. 3 is BMW and pharmaceuticals heiress Susanne Klatten, with $13.2 billion. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling meanwhile is in last place at No. 22, barely making the list with a measly $1 billion. It's worth noting that Germany has the most female billionaires of any European nation, with nine of them living within its borders. You can see a gallery of the loaded ladies here.

J.K. Rowling's latest book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, just went up for auction and ended up making nowhere near the amount expected. The last of 7 handwritten editions of the book (which will not be published) was expected to go for around $100,000, so I'm sure there were some pleasantly surprised faces when bidding closed just shy of $4 million dollars.

The money will be donated to The Children's Voice, a charity that campaigns for the rights of children in Europe and was co-founded by Rowling and Baroness Nicholson back in 2005. In response to the auction's end Rowling was "ecstatic" and was quoted as saying "It means Christmas has come early to me this year."

We have all been waiting eagerly to see what projects J.K. Rowling will embark upon in the post-Harry Potter days. News that she has not only chosen a project, but completed it -- a volume of fairy tales entitled The Tales of Beedle the Bard -- is thrilling indeed. Except when you read further. Only seven copies will be printed handwritten. The seventh one (the other six were gifts) will be sold at auction, with a starting price of $62,000. Given that a first-edition Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone sold for $40,000, it seems that this volume will sell for far more.

While the proceeds are headed to charity (surely a laudable goal), something in this news makes me queasy. When J.K. Rowling burst to the scene with her first Harry Potter books, much was made of her struggling, lower-class background: the welfare mom made good. And many pundits have lauded her tales for making reading exciting again for children everywhere. She made literature relevant to even those who were, like she was once, just squeaking by.

So the concept of exclusive literature leaves me cold. If you're interested in the etymology, however, it's more than appropriate: a bard was a poet employed by the wealthy to tell tales of their great deeds. I always thought of J.K. Rowling as something far more free-spirited; but it this bard's tales will only be told to a few.

Update: A commenter pointed out that I was incorrect that these would be printed -- the books are handwritten. However, the commenter says these copies will be available to the public; that is not true according to this source.