Our Favourite Horses.. Number 15: Black Beauty
Black Beauty is an 1877 novel by Anna Sewell. Anna wrote the book in the last years of her life. The book was an immediate best-seller, but Anna unfortunately died just five months after it was published. It has since sold fifty million copies, making Black Beauty one of the best-selling books of all time.
While teaching animal welfare, the book also teaches the important virtues of how to treat people with kindness, sympathy, and respect. In 2003, the novel was listed at number 58 on the BBC's survey "The Big Read". The story itself is told from the perspective of Black Beauty himself. It starts with his carefree days as a colt on an English farm with his mother, and plots what becomes a difficult life pulling cabs in London, to a happy retirement in the country. Along the way, Black Beauty meets many hardships and tells many tales of cruelty and kindness. Each short chapter recounts an incident in Black Beauty's life containing a lesson or moral typically related to the kindness, sympathy, and understanding treatment of horses, with Anna's detailed observations and extensive descriptions of horse behaviour.
Do you remember when you first read the book or have any stories to tell about it? We'd love to hear them! #equusengland #horses #showjumping #equestrian #dressage #eventing #lovehorses #horselove