جاء نيتشة يطلب لديكارت المغفرة من الحصان. وجنونه(أي انفصاله عن البشرية) يبدأ في اللحظة التي بكى فيها من أجل الحصان.

ميلان كونديرا/كائن لا تحتمل خفته

I've never read this book as a kid. And as it turns out, I'm probably not one to read children's books as an adult, even if they are classics.

So the main character in "Black Beauty" is a horse. I've read a couple books like that before and enjoyed them. But whereas The Art of Racing in the Rain had a an actual plot - a story of a family told from the dog's perspective, and The Call of the Wild had an interesting historical fiction/adventure backdrop, I found Black Beauty to be boring and completely empty.

Each chapter is an education in horse mismanagement. Throughout the book I find out that:
- if the horse's shoe falls off and you keep riding it on a paved road, it's hoof will get hurt;
- if you feed the horse too much and exercise it too little, it will feel hot and restless;
- if you feed it too little and work it too hard, it'll feel weak and tired;
- if the light in the stables is too dim, its eyesight might get worse;
- if the horse's head is forcibly held up too high, it has a hard time pulling a lot of weight;
- etc. etc.

I don't own a horse, nor do I ever plan to. I'm not even that into horses at all, so why would I care about the particularities of equine diet or the proper use of riding equipment? Because, you know, it's not like anything else is happening in this book except ticking off all of the above mentioned.

There is no plot, no insight into human nature from an animal's perspective, no interesting historical backdrop. The horse changes faceless, indistinguishable owners, gets mistreated/mismanaged in a bunch of ways, and that's it. I didn't care about any characters - equine or human, and was generally bored out of my mind.

So this is another classic piece of literature I completely missed the point of. Maybe if you're a kid or a horse lover it turns into a masterpiece? I don't know. Definitely didn't work for me.

Black Beauty is one of those rare books that can preach without being preachy. Anna Sewell wrote this to illustrate the abuse of horses, in particulary the harsh use of the bearing rein. The bearing rein was used to get the horse's head arched, but made it difficult for the horse to breathe and near impossible for the horse to pull a carriage uphill. When Sewell died, the hearse to carry her body used horses with bearing reins. Her mother went out and made the driver get rid of them.

Another Sewell story. On her way home, driving her own trap, she was able to tell that her horse picked up a stone simply though the reins.
Sewell was an awesome woman.


Sewell was truly a horsewoman and an educator, both of which are on display in Black Beauty. The plot deals with the abuse and mistreatment of horses; it teaches and raises awareness while it entertains. Sewell respects readers of all ages enough not to shy away from unpleasentness, though she never ever descends into shock value (and disregards more pressing questions for the adult reader wonders if Beauty is a gelding). She makes both her animal and human characters real and doesn't over romantize the story, as has been done in some adaptions of her work.

If you liked this book, you might want to check down Black Beauty's Family.

Stories about animals never fail to make me cry, this one being no exception.
This was the first time I read Black Beauty and I loved it.
Anna Sewell was truly ahead of her time, speaking out on animal rights with such empathy and insight.
She didn't shy away from describing the mindless cruelty us humans treat animals with.

Nowadays horses are some of the less abused animals, compared to so-called "farm animals", but still they suffer terrible fates as carriage horses, where they are exposed to city noise and pollution, have to pull weights far too great for their bodies, and stand for hours on end in the heat and cold, often without water, sometimes passing out from the strain. It is cruel and unnecessary.

Even "riding horses" are often used until they get too old or their joints or backs are damaged and then get sent to slaughter.
Like Anna Sewell I long for a world in which all animals can be free and just exist for the sake of existing—without being enslaved by us and used up like objects until they are ready to be thrown away.

It was a nice easy read!

An incredible environmental tale that paved the way for the animal rights movement in the Victorian era. I found that Black Beauty has a somewhat basic means of conveying story beats and morals, but the themes presented are very strong and the main character, like any animal really, is incredibly likeable, which cancels out most of my complaints. I'm reading this book for a class, so I honestly forget it's a children's book, as the themes are so mature. I'm impressed at Anna Sewell's ability to create such an important, yet accessible book.

I read this book in my very early teens and loved it, it was a classic then and a classic now, beautifully written it just fires up a young persons imagination and evokes emotions. If you have not read this book then you must.

I recently read an online article about Dean Martin. He said that Black Beauty was the only book he ever read. Well, at least he read a good one.

Black beauty is one of the most sensitive and heartfelt animal stories I have read. Being an autobiography of a horse, Black Beauty exposes the suffering of horses due to the thoughtless and cruel conduct of humans and advocates the need for their overall welfare. It is said that what inspired Anna to write the only book she ever wrote was to create social awareness of the suffering of horses, and induce them to be treated with kindness, compassion, and understanding.

Although the story is focused on horses, it teaches the world in general the need to be kind, considerate and sympathetic toward all animals. I read this story for the first time when I was about nine. I remember being heartbroken and unhappy for days, for I was a very sensitive child. I’ve heard that some say this book is unsuitable for children as it unsettle their mind. I’m no psychologist and cannot account for its truth, but I think this should be read by children. Kindness, compassion, and sympathy towards all beings are qualities that we have to cultivate in children's minds from an early age. The best mode to instill those qualities in children is to show how other beings suffer in their absence.

Written of the world as seen through the eye of a horse, the story creates a certain sense of shame. Humans as an intelligent species to have treated their inferior beings in the manner described in this story are quite shocking. I’m inclined to think that in modern times we do treat animals far better.

The story is beautifully written. From the first chapter, the reader is drawn into the life of black beauty. It is amazing how strongly the readers get attached to the main character and narrator, black beauty that when he suffers, our heartbreaks and when he is happy and content, our hearts are overjoyed. The simple and sensitive presentation and the truthful and sincere storyline are extremely touching. I enjoyed the read very much, perhaps more so the second time around. My revisit of this beautiful classic was due to a goodreads challenge that I have taken, and I'm really glad to have done so.

Çocukken okuyup da asla unutamadığım kitaplardan. Tekrar okuyabileceğim kitaplardan .Çocuklarınıza mutlaka okutun diyeceğim kitaplardan.

As I young girl I never was much into horses as were all the other girls from my class. This is why I never read Black Beauty. I also never saw any of the movie adaptions. All I knew was that it was about a very beautiful horse.
Reading this book I was surprised by three things: First of all, it was completely different from what I expected. I had kind of imagined a story about a wild horse. This so totally wasn't the case. The second thing was, that Anna Sewell turns out to be the Charles Dickens for animal rights! She tells about all the mischief and maltreatment that happened to horses. And this directly leads me to the third surprise: Balck Beauty was published in 1877, almost 140 years ago. I was very surprised to see some dealing with animal rights topics at this time. I had always thought this to be a much modern topic.
I enjoyed the writing very much and I so felt with Black Beauty and all the other horses. In the end I was really close to tears. Black Beauty is a novel I'd widely recommend!

Me: I never expected this book to be so incredibly heart-breaking.
Also me: I loved it so much.