Throughout, Sewell rails - in a gentle, 19th-century way - against animal maltreatment. Black Beauty tells the story of the horse's own long and varied life, from a well-born colt in a pleasant meadow to an elegant carriage horse for a gentleman to a painfully overworked cab horse. Although Anna Sewell's classic paints a clear picture of turn-of-the-century London, its message is universal and timeless: animals will serve humans well if they are treated with consideration and kindness.

Animal-loving children have been devoted to Black Beauty throughout this century, and no doubt will continue through the next. Genres: Historical Fiction, Children's ClassicĪ horse is a horse of course unless of course the horse is Black Beauty. Published by Puffin Classics on November 24th 1877 Buuuttt I’ve been trying to get through all my children’s classics, and this one came highly recommended by some friends, so I decided to listen to the audiobook. I really had zero interest in reading this book, because a) I’m not a huge horse person (they scare me, and vet school was enough torture thank you very much), and b) I don’t really like books narrated by animals. Did it work? Anyway, let me tell you how to turn me off from a book: Call it “Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse.” I can’t even type that without laughing out loud because it sounds so dorky.

Okay the title of this blog post actually has nothing to do with the review, but I thought it might encourage you to read it.

Black beauty book series