Black Beauty

"It is a bit pedantic, with no real plot; just a series of episodes in the life of one extremely unlucky horse. It's similar to Uncle Tom's Cabin: both were written by religious 19th century women to condemn a social ill. Both feature goodhearted, intelligent protagonists who refuse to hate or condemn their oppressors, but who suffer due to the cruelty and stupidity of their owners.Through Beauty's experiences, we see all the misery caused by poverty, alcohol, war, fashion, callousness and just plain stupidity. The human misery is intertwined with that of the animals, Sewell makes it clear that abused people tend to abuse animals, sometimes unwillingly. Lots of speeches about ignorance, alcohol, and the importance of a Sunday off.<br/><br/>Still there are a lot of good lessons. I like the juxtaposition of the good poor family and the good rich family; there are also stupid, mean poor people AND rich people, good children AND bad children. Sewell's point seems to be that though poor people may have a better excuse to treat their animals poorly, this is still a choice, and everyone is happier when they make an effort to be humane.<br/>"

"I always thought this was a children's book, but I now think it is a treatise on the ill use of horses in the time it was written."

"Yes this book actually "

"A bittersweet tearjerker that opened my eyes to mistreatment of horses."

"I love this book, it’s one of my all time favorites. Ginger had such a sad ending. I love how the book comes full circle with Joe Green being the new groom for Black Beauty and Miss Ellen saying that she was going to mention this to Mrs. Gordon. This was a great book and I recommend this for people in a reading slump, it got me out of mine."

"10/10 very cute classic story from the horse’s POV"

"I adore the Pegasus and Titans book series by Kate O'Hearn. They are really good. "