When you're growing up in the 1880's, nothing beats the traditional Liberal education. The important features you ought to be learning about your world around you shouldn't only be the plight of orphans in the streets or the seedy underbelly of our overcrowded and filthy cities.

You need to be aware of animal cruelty.

In particular, you need to be aware that if you mistreat your horses, they will not be able to write effectively on their typewriters.

Do not assume these are all ghostwritten. There are lots of horses out there who are very good at writing, but if you overwork them and mistreat them, they may never show you the other talents they may have, deep inside.

#HorsesAreWritersToo

Please, be aware.

Bless your Christian heart. Oh, and cabbies DO deserve Sunday off. Don't perpetuate the injustices.

I remember owning this book as a child. It's nice to revisit childhood classics and enjoying them just as much as an adult.

DNF 50%
i love horses but sorry i can't

The book does get a touch preachy at times, but considering the time it was written in and that animal cruelty was a relatively new hot-button topic at that time, I tink it works quite well. The story is told from the first-person perspective of the titular character, a horse named Black Beauty.

Written in 1877, this was penned during an era where horses were very much the primary means of transportation in most of the "civilized" world, whether it be horseback riding, or cart/carriage/wagon-pulling, and since they were such a ubiquitous part of life, some people sadly tended to see them as mere objects - and treated them as such. Black Beauty is sold to a various number of owners - kind owners had to sell him because of health or other personal issues. mean owners sold him for a quick buck (or since this is England, a quick pound) and Beauty experiences kind, indifferent, and abusive treatment at turns.

This wasn't written as a children's book, but it works well for both kids and adults, and the language level is easily accessible to kids, perhaps not the youngest ones, but around 8-9 years old is a good reading level to start, and I found this a nice, engaging, and easy read. Although horses have been pretty much replaced by automobiles, the messages about animal cruelty (there is mention in here of ear-cropping and tail-docking for dogs as well) will never get old.

“My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt.”

A heartbreakingly beautiful and thought-provoking novel.

With its main focus on the treatment of horses in Victorian England, Black Beauty is a difficult but very insightful read. Even though it was an interesting inside look into a horse’s life and perspective, the frequent accounts of abuse and mistreatment were extremely painful to read through being an animal lover. So I definitely struggled quite a bit! Even though the main message was kindness and caring about animal welfare, my mind just kept screaming, “Free the horses! Free all the horses!” The fact that it was more important to society for a horse to be fashionably presented than comfortable and safe was abhorrent to me! This story really makes you see that animals have feelings and a soul!

We follow the main character Black Beauty throughout the luscious English countryside from the time he leaves his mother’s side. He is a beautiful, strong, gentle, and intuitive horse who endures a lifetime of ups and downs. I actually read the animated illustrated version of this story which was lovely! The only other complaint I have about the book apart from the mistreatment depictions is that it was a bit too religiously focused at times for my liking. I am an independently spiritual person, so it’s not my thing to read about! That being said there were still some very valuable lessons for all to be learned from this story.

LESSONS LEARNED:

*Ignoring acts of cruelty is just as bad as committing them yourself!

Quote: “It is because people think only about their own business, and won’t trouble themselves to stand up for the oppressed, nor bring the wrong-doer to light.”

*Ignorance is no excuse! Educate yourself or pass it on to someone more knowledgeable!

Quote: "How can you talk about only ignorance? Don’t you know that it is the worst thing in the world, next to wickedness? And which does the most mischief, heaven only knows. If people can say, ‘Oh! I did not know, I did not mean any harm,’ they think it is all right."

*Be kind! (Duh!)

*Animals do have feelings!

Quote: “We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words.”

My favorite part of the story would have to be the ending! Also the cab horse parts and the details about war horses. Pretty fascinating though extremely sad!

Whew! Anyway, I’m so glad I finally made it through this book. It took entirely way too long, and I even had to set it aside for several days at a time. Breaking it up with some audio helped tremendously! However, I will say I’ve developed a newfound love for horses and have added spending time interacting with horses to my dream list of things to do! I want to pets them and loves them!

This book happens to be one of my most favourite 2021 reads.

It's packed with emotions and beautiful writing.
The characters are memorable and, most of all, it taught me so many things about horses. I never thought I would be this invested when it comes to stories about horses!

What I came across through this read is that only a few men know how to be actually kind. And it just breaks my heart.

I wish I could save the horses. They are so overworked and being abused. All they need is some good care and kindness.

Is it okay for men to be cruel towards them just because they cannot speak?

If you haven't read this beautiful classic yet, please do pick it up. It's fast-paced and you will love the characters, the horses and a few people who are dedicated towards them.


"My life was now so utterly wretched that I wished I might, like Ginger, drop dead at my work, and be out of my misery."

I just cannot stop crying.

Pick up this book if you haven't yet!

4,5 Stars

A lovely read, although very hard in parts. Even though there's plenty of happy moments there's also abuse and I teared up in the end.

2023 reread:

4,5 Stars

Midway I thought I would bump this down to four stars on reread. But towards the end with goosebumps and tears in my eyes I remembered why it was a 4,5.

I revisited this classic horse story not knowing what to expect, really. I have found that I can't really trust my childhood memories. In this case, however, the years made no difference. The odd thing I noticed while reading this book was how completely I'd internalized the messages regarding animals and how one should treat them. I know that I must have read this 20 or 30 times before I was 14, but I didn't realize that I was memorizing whole chunks of it and grafting it into my moral code. It's a wonderful book.

A timeless story that should be required reading for everyone, whatever the age. When this book was written, horses were used for every kind of pleasure and work, and were part of most upper class households. Many thought of them the way we think of cars, vehicles there for our use and disposable when they no longer meet our requirements. These, however, are sentient creatures, with needs and feelings, and Sewell wrote a moving and informative piece in their behalf.

Who would not fall in love with Black Beauty; who would not suffer for these noble creatures when they are mistreated? The descriptions of check-reining made me feel sick for the horses and completely angry with the people who would do such a thing for fashion's sake alone. Some of the horses were treated well with poor owners and some badly with wealthy owners, proof that the difference was in the heart of the person who owned them. Sewell set out to expose the cruelty and idiocies of animal mistreatment and she succeeded in spades.

We don't have the exposure to horses that this society did. There are not horses in our streets and we do not use them for hauling our goods to market, but there are still lessons to be learned here. You can see the results of mistreatment of dogs and other domestic animals as close as your internet connection or your local animal shelter. Man failing to appreciate the animals around him is an age old problem and one that still requires our attention and improvement.

This is the first book that has made me cry quite a while!

I first read Black Beauty as a kid and remember being carried along and very moved by it. Black Beauty's eventful and sometimes pretty horrible life from paddock to carriage horse to London cab horse raised lots emotions, along with making animal and insect-loving child me think further about the treatment of animals. As was obviously Anna Sewell's goal: entertainment and a call for animal welfare (particularly for horses commonly used for transportation and labor in her time) compellingly packaged together. Although we now tend to think of Black Beauty as children’s literature, it was evidently conceived as a kind of animal welfare activism.

Listening to this fine audiobook adaptation decades later, Black Beauty still tugs hard at my heartstrings. I am still moved by the story of a lovely horse and his equine peers like Ginger, Merrylegs, Rob Roy and Captain, but am now also more attuned to the moral and social justice issues of the book. There is quite a bit of moralizing, which is certainly not unusual in Victorian fiction, and much of it holds up over time, including some of the ideas about religion. And there is quite a lot of socio-economic commentary, especially in the section of the book when Black Beauty is owned by a London horse cab driver, which brings to mind some issues of inequality that seem not to have changed drastically since Victorian times. Indeed, as I write this little review during the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, circumstances have thrown light onto these issues for anyone who could be bothered to notice. We see, for example, how underpaid people doing essential jobs in delivery, retail, food manufacture, etc. are both integral to keeping things going and often part of demographics that are most at risk.

And nowadays having the internet to use, I looked up Anna Sewell and find her to be an impressive and interesting figure. There's a biography about her called Dark Horse: A Life of Anna Sewell by Adrienne E. Gavin (The History Press, 2004) that I've added to my to read shelf. I’m interested to know Sewell better and to consider the influence of her Black Beauty in both animal welfare attitudes and policy and as a major work in animal literature.

Book on CD narrated by Simon Vance.

First published in 1877, this is the only novel written by Anna Sewell, but it has become a much-loved classic and one of the most widely read animal stories. Black Beauty tells his own story, from his early days as a colt frolicking with his friends and his mother, to learning to accept a bridle, saddle and rider, to being sold as a carriage horse, then to pulling a cab in London, and eventually to a happy country life once again.

I had a copy of this book when I was a child; it was part of a set of classics that included works by Louisa May Alcott and Mark Twain (among others). But for some reason I never read it, even during my “horse crazy” phase. I’m so glad I finally got to it. It’s a timeless tale with a simple message: Be kind to everyone (and everything). Sewell manages to convey this through Beauty’s experiences, both good and bad.

The hardcover text edition I got from the library was also beautifully illustrated by Lucy Kemp-Welch. There are several full-page full-color plates, as well as small ink drawings beginning each chapter.

Simon Vance does a marvelous job voicing the audio version. He gives life to the story, without being overly dramatic. It’s a great book to “read aloud” and I highly recommend listening to it with your children or grandchildren.