Black Beauty The Autobiography of a Horse
Book Author Anna Sewell
DescriptionBlack Beauty is a novel written in 1877 by Anna Sewell about the life of a horse from his carefree days as a foal on an English farm enjoying the countryside with his mother, to his sale and his career pulling cabs and wagons in London. Along the way, he meets with many hardships and recounts many tales of cruelty and cowardice, as well as heroism, courage and kindness.
By telling the story of a horse's life of in the form of an autobiography, Anna Sewell broke new ground. It was unusual to let the narrator of a story be a non-human, but more importantly her sympathetic portrayal of the plight of working animals led to a vast outpouring of concern for animal welfare.
Sadly, Sewell did not live to see her words wield their power. She died on April 25, 1878, just four months after Black Beauty was published. "If we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt," she wrote." More than a century later, it is a philosophy that continues to shape hearts and minds everywhere.
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