Black Beauty

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Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions, the Autobiography of a Horse

Black Beauty - Hardcover - UK - 1st Edition - 1877 - Green.jpg

Hardcover - UK - 1st edition - C Binding - Green version.

Author Anna Sewell
Published 1877-11-24
Type Fiction
Genre Drama
Themes Animals
Age Group Adult

Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions, the Autobiography of a Horse is a novel by Anna Sewell published on 1877-11-24. It went on to become one of the best-selling books of all time. The book is now in the public domain.

The book tells the story of the life of a horse living in late 1800s Britain told from the horse's perspective. It details the various jobs he has to do, how he feels about its various owners, and the "fashionable" ways he's forced to act.

Personal

Own?No.
Read?Audiobook read by Ralph Cosham.
Finished2024-09-19.

Although I'm not a particular fan of horses, I knew that the book was extremely popular, and, after seeing that it was also fairly short, I decided to read it. For some reason, probably from all the previous horse-related movies I've seen, and the fact that it's often billed as a children's book, I assumed that Black Beauty was a fairly recent book about a horse and a girl, so I was quite surprised to discover it's mostly about animal abuse in 1870s London.

Review

Overall:

Rating-4.svg

Good

  • Telling the story from the perspective of a horse was a nice way to make the story unique.
  • The story is very much against animal cruelty. It describes the horrors of it from how a horse must endure it and does a good job at making the reader sympathize.
  • The book also focuses on the importance of the working class and seem to alludes to them being as horses to the wealthy. Just like horses, they are always at the mercy of their masters, traded about as a horse, and discarded when they're no longer valuable.
  • The subtitle "translated from the Original Equine" is cute.

Bad

  • The story doesn't follow the pacing of fiction. Rather than building up to a climax, it just meanders its way through the book. I wouldn't say that it was boring, but it certainly wasn't exciting. It felt more like I was reading a series of vignettes rather than a single story. One could argue the author was making a point of how aimless a working horse's life is, but I think it's more a result of the author being an amateur.
  • While I'm all for a story against animal cruelty, the book just keeps on harping on the topic over and over again for the entire length of the story.
  • As with a lot of old British literature, it gets preachy at times.

Ugly

  • The original owner of Black Beauty refers to him with the racist slur, "my darkie."

Media

Covers

Representation

Strong female character?FailAlthough there are several women, they're all minor characters.
Bechdel test?PassNear the end, a few women talk about the horse for a while.
Strong person of color character?FailTo my knowledge, there are no people of color, but there is a racial slur.
Queer character?FailThere are no queer characters.

Quotes

  • Do you know why this world is as bad as it is?... It is because people think only about their own business, and won't trouble themselves to stand up for the oppressed, nor bring the wrong-doers to light... My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt.

Links

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