BLACK BEAUTY BY ANNA SEWELL
KOBO (E-BOOK), FIRST PUBLISHED 1877
136 PAGES
HTTP://EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/BLACK_BEAUTY
BLURB FROM THE COVER
Black Beauty is the autobiography of a horse. This gentle book follows the life a well bred horse, from his early childhood in a pleasant meadow, through a myriad of owners—some kind and some cruel—until fate returns him to the meadow in which he was born. A wonderful story that will remain with you and your child.
EXTRACT
The first place that I can well remember was a large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it. Some shady trees leaned over it, and rushes and water-lilies grew at the deep end. Over the hedge on one side we looked into a ploughed field, and on the other we looked over a gate at our master’s house, which stood by the roadside; at the top of the meadow was a grove of fir trees, and at the bottom a running brook overhung by a steep bank.
REVIEW
Black Beauty was a favorite when I was eight or nine. I haven’t read the book for about 25 years. I had a very pleasant trip down memory lane re-reading this classic. Black Beauty is a very simple yet incredibly powerful story of the relationship between human and animals, in this case horses. Black Beauty is narrated by the horse in question, Black Beauty in the form of a sort of autobiography. Black Beauty tells us about his life, his cruel and kind owners, the best way to treat horses and the relationship between man and beast. I think Black Beauty is the only thing I’ve read that is narrated by an animal. Sewell makes this work really well. The use of a horse as a narrator is one thing that makes Black Beauty a lovely book. I also think Black Beauty is the only thing I’ve read that conscious teaches us morals, in this case how wrong it is to be cruel to animals and the rewards of being kind. Even though Black Beauty carries a moral message, Sewell manages not to come across as preachy or talk down to the reader. Black Beauty is a lovely, thought-provoking book. I got teared up several times especially when Black Beauty was cruelly treated or recounted another horse’s cruel treatment. Black Beauty is a lovely book that tugged at my heart-strings.
RATING
