New Releases by Anna Sewell

"Black Beauty is an 1877 novel by English author Anna Sewell, and is one of the most beloved horse stories of all time. As a young horse, Black Beauty is well-loved and happy. But when his owner is forced to sell him, his life changes drastically. He has many new owners, some of them cruel and some of them kind. All he needs is someone to love him again.

Overview "A horse never knows who may buy or drive him; it is all a matter of chance for us"--Black Beauty's mother once told him. And indeed, life is a journey of chance for Black Beauty as he passes from one owner to another, some of whom are kind and thoughtful, while others, cruel and indifferent.

Black Beauty is an 1877 novel by English author Anna Sewell. It was composed in the last years of her life, during which she remained in her house as an invalid. The novel became an immediate best-seller, with Sewell dying just five months after its publication, but having lived long enough to see her only novel become a success.

Told through the eyes of a handsome young foal named Black Beauty, this classic novel is a story of kindness, strength, and unbreakable spirit. Good-natured and carefree, Black Beauty has a luxurious childhood surrounded by his mother, their kind owner, and the rolling hills of the Victorian English countryside. But when the foal’s master is forced to sell him, his comfortable life becomes one of hard labour. He endures cruel treatment and terrible suffering, yet no matter how much the young foal wishes to give up, he remains hopeful and determined that better days are ahead. Written while Anna Sewell was on her deathbed, Black Beauty was first published in 1911, just five months before the author’s death. The bestselling novel had great influence in improving animal welfare in nineteenth-century England due to its unblinking portrayal of the cruel and inhumane treatment of animals at the time. Teaching its reader how to treat others with kindness and respect, this charming book is perfect for young minds.

Narrated by Black Beauty himself, he experiences happy youthful days as young horse on an English farm with his mother. He recounts his memoirs and story in life and goes on to grow up and become quite a handsome and capable horse. He experiences both tragedy and happiness and eventually finds himself in difficult days pulling cabs in London under harsh conditions. Each chapter of the story covers a moral lesson typically relating to kindness, sympathy and understanding. He eventually gets out of hardship to experience joy and relief in retirement.

"A horse is a horse of course unless of course the horse is Black Beauty. Animal-loving children have been devoted to Black Beauty throughout this century, and no doubt will continue through the next. Although Anna Sewell's classic paints a clear picture of turn-of-the-century London, its message is universal and timeless: animals will serve humans well if they are treated with consideration and kindness.Black Beauty tells the story of the horse's own long and varied life, from a well-born colt in a pleasant meadow to an elegant carriage horse for a gentleman to a painfully overworked cab horse. Throughout, Sewell rails--in a gentle, 19th-century way--against animal maltreatment. Young readers will follow Black Beauty's fortunes, good and bad, with gentle masters as well as cruel. Children can easily make the leap from horse-human relationships to human-human relationships, and begin to understand how their own consideration of others may be a benefit to all. (Ages 9 to 12)"

Black Beauty 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.The story is told in the first person as an autobiographical memoir told by a 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.

“Where we saw people who loved their neighbors, and were kind to man and beast, we might know that was God’s mark.” —Anna Sewell, Black Beauty Anna Sewell’s 1877 classic, Black Beauty, is considered to be one of the foremost works in animal welfare literature and a leading work in the children’s pony book genre. Narrated by the horse himself, the book follows his trials and tribulations as he passes from one owner to another and experiences the full spectrum of human treatment—from the knowledgeable and kind to the ignorant and cruel. Beloved by children and animal lovers alike, Black Beauty is now available as part of the Word Cloud Classic series, making it a chic and affordable addition to any library.