Black Beauty
Anna Sewell
Age 12 +
06 September 2018
9781509865987Synopsis
Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector’s Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector’s Library are books to love and treasure. This edition of Black Beauty features illustrations by Cecil Aldin and an afterword by author and conservationist Lauren St. John.
Black Beauty enjoys a carefree upbringing in a pleasant meadow with his mother, where his gentle first master trains him well – until he is reluctantly forced to sell him. Through a long and varied life, Black Beauty passes from one owner to the next; some treat him well, others are so cruel that they inflict lasting damage.
Anna Sewell’s biographical novel about a horse is one of the bestselling books of all time, and her depiction of Victorian society’s harsh treatment of animals inspired significant changes to animal welfare in both the UK and America.
Laced with generous doses of moral virtue . . . Black Beauty has more integrity and decency than the average humanJustine Hankins, the Guardian
Sewell’s novel should be regarded as a work of protest literature, the forerunner less of Lassie or the novels of Christine Pullein-Thompson than of today’s animal rights activism and anti-hunting lobbyTelegraph
With vivid detail and simple, yet lyrical, prose, Black Beauty describes both the cruelty and kindness that an ebony-coloured horse experiences through his lifetimeNPR
