Black Beauty

Anna Sewell, 1877

Children's classics Victorian novels

A horse tells the story of his upbringing and work, observing human behaviour from the receiving end.

Read the book Contents

Listen free: the LibriVox audiobook, read by volunteers. Press Listen in the reader to hear each chapter as you read.

Length: 49 chapters
Reading time: About 4 hr 10 min
Words: 59,456

About the book

Black Beauty remembers a sheltered meadow, his mother's advice and the first lessons of life among other horses. His account begins with ordinary pleasures and precautions, establishing a point of view from which human decisions have immediate physical consequences.

Sewell's choice of narrator makes handling, equipment, temper and working conditions subjects of personal experience. Instead of looking at a horse from outside, the reader hears a worker describe what he understands, what he fears and what depends on the people responsible for him.

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Children's classics Victorian novels

This edition

Text from Standard Ebooks, who proofread and typeset it and dedicate their edition to the public domain. Anna Sewell died more than 70 years ago, so the work is out of copyright in the UK.