From the Bookshelf of The Reading Challenge Group…

Black Beauty

Anna Sewell

Start date: December 1, 2015

Finish date: December 31, 2015

Discussion: Group Read Archive 2014-16

Why we're reading this: Genre Group Read - December 2015
[close] Genre Group Read - December 2015

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Group Read Archive 2014-16

Genre Group Read (Humour) - December 2016 - You Are Not So Smart
By Allison , Quest Hound · 11 posts · 30 views

last updated Dec 28, 2016 04:05PM

Alternate Group Read (Classics) - December 2016 - Mansfield Park
By Allison , Quest Hound · 5 posts · 18 views

last updated Dec 04, 2016 09:34AM

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What Members Thought

Mar 31, 2018 Veena rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classic, children-s-fiction

The book begins with Black Beauty describing the very first place he ever knew at home.

The first place that I can well remember was a large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it. Some shady trees leaned over it, rushes and water-lilies grew at the deep end. Over the hedge on one side we looked into a pliers field, and on the other we looked over a gate at our master’s house, which stood by the roadside; at the top of the meadow was a grove of fir trees, and at the bottom a running bro The book begins with Black Beauty describing the very first place he ever knew at home.

The first place that I can well remember was a large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it. Some shady trees leaned over it, rushes and water-lilies grew at the deep end. Over the hedge on one side we looked into a pliers field, and on the other we looked over a gate at our master’s house, which stood by the roadside; at the top of the meadow was a grove of fir trees, and at the bottom a running brook overhung by a steep bank.

Black Beauty is taught manners by her mother. She asks him to not kick or bite. She teaches him with tenderness of a mother.

He soon grows up into a horse. It is time for him to leave the farm. But before that he is gently broken into. He learns the new ways of a horse and sent to another farm. Thankfully, he finds a nice home. The master treats him ever so well. He makes a few friends too. Merrylegs and Ginger keep him company in his growing up days. He gets to meet ginger once again after he changes multiple owners and not in a good way.

The story slowly goes from happy to sad when you see Black Beauty getting into the hands of bad owners. During the course of the journey he is forced to wear check reins, kept in a barn with no light which deeply affects his vision, kept in the barn with no exercise, sold to work as a cart horse etc.

Sewell not only puts the pains of the horses across but also talks about the meagre amounts the riders are paid. A poor man drives the cart seven days a week to make his end meets not because he is inconsiderate but because he needs to feed his family. He may love the horse but for him his family comes first. There are several issues drawn attention to in the Book with different standpoints. That is the beauty of it.

The book was written by Sewell who was in company of horse while she was growing up and this can be seen in the narration. Black Beauty is narrated extremely well with intimacy one seldom finds. The life cycle of a horse is sympathetically described and there is a constant appeal in the narration to treat animals better. This book incites all a spectrum of emotions in the reader from love to rage to sadness to pity.

This is a classic a child should grow up reading. I missed the boat, not really. ...more

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