Black Beauty

About this book

Black Beauty tells his own story, from a happy colthood in an English meadow through service with kind and cruel owners, a terrible night ride to fetch a doctor, the pain of the tight 'bearing rein' that fashionable owners used to keep horses' heads high, and hard years pulling a cab through the streets of London, alongside his friends Ginger and Merrylegs.

Context and significance

Anna Sewell (1820–1878), who was disabled after a childhood accident and depended on horses to get around, wrote the book in her last years, dictating much of it to her mother; she died a few months after it was published in 1877. She wrote it to teach kindness to animals, and it changed attitudes to horses across the world. It remains a moving read for children and adults.

About the author