By Zhu Xiangjun

Bible

Unit 11 Black Beauty

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 bestseller, with Sewell dying just five months after its publication, long enough to see her first and only novel become a success. With fifty million copies sold, Black Beauty is one of the best-selling books of all time.

While forthrightly teaching animal welfare, it also teaches how to treat people with kindness, sympathy, and respect. Black Beauty became a forerunner to the pony book genre of children's literature. In 2003, the novel was listed at number 58 on the BBC's survey The Big Read.

Anna Sewell was born in Yarmouth, England and had a brother named Philip, who was an engineer in Europe. At the age of 14, Anna fell while walking home from school in the rain and injured both ankles. Through mistreatment of the injury, she became unable to walk or stand for any length of time for the rest of her life. Disabled and unable to walk since she was a young child, Anna Sewell began learning about horses early in life, spending many hours driving her father to and from the station from which he commuted to work. Her dependence on horse-drawn transportation fostered her respect of horses.

She never married or had children. In visits to European spas, she met many writers, artists, and philanthropists. Her only book was Black Beauty, written between 1871 and 1877 in their house at Old Catton. During this time, her health was declining, and she could barely get out of bed. Her dearly-loved mother often had to help her in her illness. She sold it to the local publishers, Jarrold & Sons. The book broke records for sales and is the “sixth best seller in the English language."

Sewell died of hepatitis or tuberculosis on 25 April 1878, only 5 months after the novel was published.

The story is narrated in the first person as an autobiographical memoir told by the titular horse named Black Beauty—beginning with his carefree days as a colt on an English farm with his mother, 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 behavior lending the novel a good deal of  verisimilitude.

The book describes conditions among London horse-drawn taxicab drivers, including the financial hardship caused to them by high licence fees and low, legally fixed fares. A page footnote in some editions says that soon after the book was published, the difference between 6-day taxicab licences (not allowed to trade on Sundays) and 7-day taxicab licences (allowed to trade on Sundays) was abolished and the taxicab licence fee was much reduced.

Summary: The book is an autobiography from the point of view of the titular horse, named Black Beauty. The first part of the book deals with Beauty's birth in a meadow, his time spent as a foal with his mother and the advice she gives him to behave well to be treated well. Then he is sold to the Squire Gordon who is a horse lover and cares very well for his animals. Here he meets the grooms John Manly and James Howard who are loving, neat and efficient. Beauty spends the better part of three years here and makes friends with the other horses: Ginger, Merrylegs and Sir Oliver. This idyllic life ends with the beginning of the second part where Beauty is sold, along with Ginger to Earlshall Park. The life is harder there and the painful bearing rein is used on the horses.

A riding accident causes his knees to be ruined and he is sold as a job horse to a new master who cannot take the trouble of rearing a horse and sells him again. Next, Beauty is sold to a hardworking cab driver called Jerry. On the runs in the streets he meets his friend Ginger who is miserable due to the harsh treatment meted out to her and subsequently he watches her corpse being carted away a few months later. Jerry falls ill and Beauty is sold again. The horse then passes from one master to another, most of whom overwork and mistreat him till at last he is sold to the Blomefield family for whom his old groom Joe Green is working. Green recognizes Beauty and he lives out his last days in peace and happiness. Get this e-book now at a very low price.

Darkie/Black Beauty/Black Auster/Jack/Blackie/Old Crony —The narrator of the story, a handsome black horse. He begins his career as a carriage horse for wealthy people but when he "breaks his knees" (i.e. develops scars on his knees after a bad fall) he is no longer considered presentable enough and is put to much harder work. He passes through the hands of a series of owners, some cruel, some kind. He always tries his best to serve humans despite the circumstances.

Duchess (nicknamed "Pet") —Beauty's and Rob Roy's mother, who encourages Beauty to be good from a young age.

Rob Roy —A fellow black horse from Beauty's original farm, who is killed in a hunting incident (along with his rider, Squire Gordon's only son). It is later learned that he was Beauty's half-brother, an older son of Duchess.

Ginger—A companion of Beauty's at Birtwick Park, she is named for her chestnut colour and her habit of biting, which is often how the spice, ginger, is described. Ginger is a more aggressive horse due to her traumatic upbringing. After being ridden by Lord George in a steeplechase her back is strained. Beauty meets Ginger for the last time as broken-down cab horses in London, and later a cart with a dead horse (whom Beauty believes is Ginger), passes by Beauty.

Merrylegs—A short, dappled grey, handsome pony who is polite to humans and horses alike. He is ridden by the young daughters at Bihari Park, then sent to live with a vicar who promises never to sell him.

Peggy—A hired horse who cannot run very fast due to her short legs. She runs at an odd hopping pace. When pulling a carriage she often gets whipped for not keeping up with a faster horses. Sold to two ladies who wanted a safe horse.

This book was written at the end of the 19th century by Anna Sewell, a lady who was crippled from her teenage. As a result she had a great interaction with horses and understood them well. This book was the first of it's kind, written from the point of view of an animal and hence it captured the imagination of the public in a very novel way. It went a long way in ensuring better treatment of horses, hitherto seen as mere beasts of utility and paved the way for humane treatment of all animals.

The book is written in the first person from the perspective of a horse. The language is extremely simple and the point of view is very consistent for its time. The book moves at a relaxing pace and is extremely absorbing without being dull or loose. Plot points are tight and the other characters, whether human or horses, are complex and completely fleshed out thus adding to the well crafted feel of the book. True to style, the human characters are explored more distantly than the other horses, as befits the perspective of a horse.

As a very young foal, the beautiful Black Beauty receives some very sound advice from his mother:

She told me the better I behaved, the better I should be treated, and that it was wisest always to do my best to please my master; 'but,' said she, 'there are a great many kinds of men; there are good, thoughtful men like our master, that any horse may be proud to serve; but there are bad, cruel men, who never ought to have a horse or dog to call their own. Beside, there are a great many foolish men, vain, ignorant, and careless, who never trouble themselves to think; these spoil more horses than all, just for want of sense; they don't mean it, but they do it for all that. I hope you will fall into good hands; but a horse never knows who may buy him, or who may drive him; it is all a chance for us, but still I say, do your best wherever it is, and keep up your good name.'