Showing results for title "Black Beauty", by author "Anna Sewell" in Genre Fiction

Black Beauty is an 1877 novel by English author Anna Sewell. It was composed in the last years of her life, during which she remained in her house as an invalid. The novel became an immediate best-seller, with Sewell dying just five months after its publication, but having lived long enough to see her only novel become a success. With fifty million copies sold, Black Beauty is one of the best-selling books of all time.

When Black Beauty is trained to carry a rider on his back, or to pull a carriage behind him, he finds it hard at first. But he is lucky - his first home is a good one, where his owners are kind people, who would never be cruel to a horse. But in the 19th century many people were cruel to their horses, whipping them and beating them, and using them like machines until they dropped dead. Black Beauty soon finds this out, and as he describes his life, he has many terrible stories to tell.

A beautiful horse grows from a young foal into a working cab-puller, journeying from the fields where he was born to the streets of London. This charming family favourite about kindness and empathy is narrated by journalist and presenter Angela Rippon....

Black Beauty is born with a fine coat, a white foot, and a silver star on his forehead. As a foal he spends the days with his mother in an idyllic paradise until a vicious groom injures him, and his beloved owners have no choice but to sell him. As he passes from owner to owner he faces cruelty and hardship, as well as compassion and kindness. Through it all–all his struggles to survive–Black Beauty refuses to let his spirit be broken. Will he ever find the happiness and peace he craves?