Black Beauty (Everyman's Library Children's Classics) [Hardcover]

A horse is a horse of course, unless of course the horse is Black Beauty. Animal-loving children have been devoted to Black Beauty throughout this century, and no doubt will continue through the next. 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.

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. Throughout, Sewell rails--in a gentle, 19th-century manner--against animal maltreatment. Young readers will follow Black Beauty's fortunes, good and bad, with gentle masters as well as cruel. Children can easily make the leap from horse-human relationships to human-human relationships, and begin to understand how their own consideration of others may be a benefit to all. (Ages 9 to 12) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Never before has this favorite been so handsomely, and appropriately, illustrated. Keeping (d. 1988), a master draftsman who illustrated 300 books, including all of Dickens, has provided a bountiful number of drawings (some subtly touched with color), combining piercing caricature, compassion, and a sure eye for the horses' beauty, movement, and (at the worst of times) plight. A masterpiece of illustration, capturing the book's drama and period while rising nobly above its sentimentality. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

A new edition of this favourite tale about the life of a black stallion --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Described on the title-page of the first edition as 'the autobiography of her horse, translated from the original equine', BLACK BEAUTY was Anna Sewell's only book, written when she fatally ill but determined to record her passopnate indignation at the insensitive behaviour of people towards animals. It has been loved by children ever since its first publication in 1877, just a few months before the death of its author, whose declared aim had been to 'induce kindness, sympathy and an understanding treatment of horses'. The illustrations by Lucy Kemp-Welch first apperared in 1915.

Anna Sewell (1820-78) was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Black Beauty, her only book, was completed and published in 1877, just a few months before she died, so she did not live to know of the book's huge success. Apart from being a good story, Black Beauty was instrumental in changing people's attitudes towards horses, and domestic animals in general. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.