Black Beauty

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Black Beauty

This copy of the first edition of the book was dedicated by the author to her mother. It was auctioned off at Christie's in London in June 2006 for £33,000.
Author Anna Sewell
Country England
Language English
Genre(s) Novel
Publisher Jarrolds& Sons
Publication date 24 November 1877
For other uses, see Black Beauty (disambiguation).

Black Beauty (in full: Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse, first published November 24, 1877) is Anna Sewell's only novel, composed in the last years of her life between 1871 and 1877 while confined to her house as an invalid.[1]

The story is told in the first person (or "first horse") as an autobiographical memoir told by a highbred horse named Black Beauty—beginning with his carefree days as a colt on an English farm, to his difficult life pulling cabs in London, to his happy retirement in the country. Along the way, he meets with many hardships and recounts many tales of cruelty and kindness. Each short chapter recounts an incident in Black Beauty's life containing a lesson or moral typically related to the kindness, sympathy, and understanding treatment of horses, with Sewell's detailed observations and extensive descriptions of horse behaviour lending the novel a good deal of verisimilitude.[1]

The book became an immediate best-seller, with Anna living just long enough (five months) to see her first and only novel become a success. Anna said of her purpose in writing "its special aim being to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses"[1]—an influence she attributed to an essay on animals she read earlier by Horace Bushnell (1802-1876) entitled "Essay on Animals".[2] Her sympathetic portrayal of the plight of working animals led to a vast outpouring of concern for animal welfare and is said to have been instrumental in abolishing the cruel practice of using the checkrein (or "bearing rein", a strap used to keep horses' heads high, fashionable in Victorian England but painful and damaging to a horses' neck).[3] Black Beauty also contains two pages about the use of blinders (calling them blinkers) on horses, concluding that this use is likely to cause accidents at night due to interference with "the full use of" a horse's ability to "see much better in the dark than men can."

Crippled and unable to walk since a young child, Anna Sewell began learning about horses early in life, spending many hours driving her father to and from the station from which he commuted to work. Sewell's introduction to writing began in her youth when she helped edit the works of her mother, Mary Wright Sewell (1797-1884), a deeply religious, popular author of juvenile best-sellers. By telling the story of a horse's life in the form of an autobiography and describing the world through the eyes of the horse, Anna Sewell broke new literary ground.[3]

Black Beauty was not originally intended as a children's novel, but for people who work with horses. It soon, however, became a children's classic, a novel of education for generations of schoolchildren to the present day. While outwardly teaching animal welfare, it also contains allegorical lessons about how to treat people with kindness, sympathy and respect. Later student editions included further study questions, highlighting the moral theme of each chapter.[4]

Margaret Blount in her book Animal Land says Black Beauty is “the first real animal novel,” “the most famous and best-loved animal book of all time,” and “perhaps the last of the moral tales” (249-50). Susan Chitty calls it “probably the most successful animal story ever written” with more than 30 million sold.[3]

[edit] Characters

Horses:

  • Black Beauty/Black Auster/Jack/Darkie—The narrator of the story who earned his name from his dark coat. He always tries his best to serve humans despite the circumstance.
  • Duchess/Pet—Beauty's mother, who encourages Beauty to be good from a young age.
  • Rob Roy—A fellow black horse from Beauty's original farm. It is later alluded that he was Beauty's at least half-brother.
  • Ginger—Named so because she "snaps", Ginger is a more aggressive horse due to her traumatic upbringing.
  • Merrylegs—A short, handsome pony who is polite to humans and horses alike.
  • Sir Oliver—A horse who had his tail removed for fashion purposes to his great annoyance and discomfort.
  • Peggy—A cab horse who cannot run so fast due to her short legs.
  • Captain—A former army horse who encountered horrific treatment and incidents whilst being used for battle.
  • Justice—A calm, peaceable horse Beauty meets at Birtwick Park.

Beauty's owners

  • Farmer Grey—Beauty's first owner.
  • Squire Gordon—owner of Birtwick Park, a fine rider, and boss of John, James, and Joe.
  • John Manly—A coachman who treats his horses with care and respect.
  • James Howard—John's stable boy.
  • Joe Green—John's younger and less experienced stable boy that comes about when James has to leave.
  • Earl of W-—An unnamed Lord who uses Beauty as a carriage horse.
  • Reuben Smith—A handsome and charming young man whose downfall is caused by his alcoholism.
  • Mr. Barry—A man who tries to treat horses well, but lacks knowledge on horse care.
  • Filcher—Barry's horse groom who steals food from the stable (Note: the verb 'to filch' means 'to steal').
  • Jerry—A kind owner who uses Beauty as a cab horse. AKA Jeremiah Barker. Also owner of Captain and Hotspur.
  • Jakes—An owner who uses Beauty as a work horse, forcing him to carry heavy loads.
  • Nicholas Skinner—A ruthless cab horse owner who wears out horses through hard work and mistreatment.
  • Farmer Thoroughgood—A kind owner who cares for Beauty when he is at his weakest.

[edit] Film adaptations

The book has been adapted into film and television several times, including:

[edit] References from other works

  • Beautiful Joe was a best-selling 1893 novel about a dog that was directly influenced by Black Beauty and followed a similar path to fame through awareness of cruelty to animals.
  • Phyllis Briggs wrote a sequel called Son of Black Beauty, published in 1950.
  • The Pullein-Thompson sisters wrote several stories concerning relatives of Black Beauty. They are Black Ebony (1975; by Josephine), Black Velvet (1975; by Christine), Black Princess (1975; by Diana), Black Nightshade (1978; by Josephine), Black Romany (1978; by Diana), Blossom (1978; by Christine), Black Piper (1982; by Diana), Black Raven (1982; by Josephine) and Black Pioneer (1982; by Christine). The book Black Swift (1991) by Josephine is not about a Black Beauty relative. These were published in several compilations as well as some of them being available separately. Each compilation was subsequently republished, sometimes with a change of name.
  • Spike Milligan wrote a parody of the novel called Black Beauty According to Spike Milligan (1996).

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster (1995). "Black Beauty". Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature.
  2. ^ Gentle Heart: The Story of Anna Sewell, by Jen Longshaw.
  3. ^ a b c Anna Sewell, by Prof. Waller Hastings, Northern State University, 2004. Archive.org copy.
  4. ^ For example see the John C. Winston Co 1927 edition.

[edit] External links

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