Black Beauty: The autobiography of a horse
Anna Sewell
Black Beauty: The autobiography of a horse
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A horse tells his own story: a good home first, then a job in London pulling a cab, then the work that is given to animals nobody is watching. Anna Sewell wrote it for the men who drove horses rather than for children, and it changed how a great many of them did the job — the fashion for the bearing rein did not survive it.
About the book
Published in 1877, Black Beauty is narrated by the horse: a good start in a kind home, training under a master who insists he is never frightened, and then the long descent that follows a bad fall and a change of owner. He is sold from a great house to a job in a London cab rank, and from there to the work given to animals whose owners are not being watched. Along the way he meets Ginger, whose spirit has already been broken by the bearing rein, and Merrylegs, who has not yet been anywhere. Anna Sewell was in her last illness and could barely write, and she did not mean it for children: it was addressed to grooms, carters and cabmen, to induce, as she said, kindness and sympathy in the treatment of horses. It sold in millions, was distributed to drivers by animal-welfare societies, and is generally credited with ending the fashion for the check rein in England.
Characters
Black Beauty — Narrator
A well-bred black horse telling his own life, from a sheltered start to the cab ranks of London.
Ginger — Stablemate
A chestnut mare handled badly from the beginning, whose temper is the result and not the cause.
Merrylegs — Pony
A good-natured grey pony who carries the children and knows exactly how much he can get away with.
Squire Gordon — First owner
A kind master at Birtwick Park whose wife’s illness forces the sale of the whole stable.
John Manly — Coachman
The coachman at Birtwick, patient, observant, and the standard every later groom is measured against.
Jerry Barker — Cab driver
A London cabman who refuses to overdrive his horse for a fare, and pays for the principle.
Reuben Smith — Groom
A capable man when sober, whose one night of drinking costs Beauty his knees and his position.
About the author
Anna Sewell (1820–1878) was an English writer who published one book. An ankle injury at fourteen left her unable to walk far for the rest of her life, so she depended on horses to get anywhere, and she wrote Black Beauty from a sofa in her last years in failing health, dictating to her mother when she could no longer hold a pen. She meant it for the men who worked with horses rather than for children — to teach, as she put it, kindness and sympathy towards them — and it is credited with helping to end the fashion for the bearing rein. She died five months after it was published, in time to see it begin to sell.