Black Beauty

Anna Sewell

Sep 2000 · Naxos AudioBooks · Narrated by Jonathan Keeble

About this audiobook

Black Beauty, the friendly, patient stallion with a white blaze upon his forehead, is one of the most familiar figures in childrenÕs literature. After the first lively carefree years in the fields, Black Beauty learns to accept the saddle and bridle and the rule of his masters. But a succession of misfortunes shows that the life of a horse can be harsh and painful. This touching portrait, full of drama and sadness, is as moving now as when it was first written in 1877.

About the author

Anna Sewell, March 30, 1820 - April 25, 1878 Anna Sewell was on March 30, 1820 in Yarmouth, Norfolk, England. She was raised a Quaker by her father a bank manager and her mother, a children's novelist. At the age of fourteen, Sewell hurt her knee during a fall and the injury never healed right. Even though she could not walk well, she could still ride horses and drive a horse drawn buggy. It was this form of freedom that sparked her concern for the welfare of horses. She wrote "Black Beauty" when she was in her fifties, but died a year after it was published in 1877. While she never earned much from the book while she was alive, after her death, the novel snowballed into a something extraordinary. The book was about the abuses horses sustained in their lifetimes, but was told from the unique viewpoint of the horse. Even though the book was intended for children, it impacted all generations and caused everyone who read it to take a look at the inhumane treatment horses received. In the one hundred plus years since "Black Beauty" had been published, over 30 million copies have been printed. At least eight motion pictures have been made based on the novel and it is a well known children's classic. Anna Sewell died on April 25, 1878 in Old Catton, Norfolk.