Black Beauty

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, 1877

     This story about a horse shuttled to and fro. The narrator is the horse, and goes by various names including Blackie, Darkie, and Black Beauty. Beauty begins his story as a colt, his mother reminding him to be a good horse. He becomes a well-trained carriage horse and continues to work for the gentry. When Beauty is ridden by one of his masters' drunk stable hand, he trips and skins his knees. Beauty is no longer considered fit to lead a carriage and becomes a work horse. He finds himself with more cruel owners and overworking himself in the course of trying to be of the most service to the humans around him. When he finds his final home retired in the country with the three ladies, he is recognized by a former stable boy as the beauty that led the carriage of the lord.
      Beauty's story is told in vignettes, each chapter is an incident with a moral or lesson about kindness and understanding. The book is said to be the cause for much change in the public opinion in relation to animal cruelty. Black Beauty opened the market for horse-stories that are now popular in children's literature. Sewell herself said she didn't intend the book to be a children's book, and portrayed a very realistic representation of horse behavior, as well as the conditions cabbies in late-seventeenth century London faced. While some of the concepts may be more advanced than some young readers are ready for, Black Beauty is accessible to readers as young as fifth grade.