Anna Sewell - Black Beauty
Genre: Literature
Format: Paperback
Pages: 201
Synopsis (GoodReads): A horse is a horse of course unless of course the horse is Black Beauty. Animal-loving children have been devoted to Black Beauty throughout this century, and no doubt will continue through the next.
Although Anna Sewell's classic paints a clear picture of turn-of-the-century London, its message is universal and timeless: animals will serve humans well if they are treated with consideration and kindness.
Black Beauty tells the story of the horse's own long and varied life, from a well-born colt in a pleasant meadow to an elegant carriage horse for a gentleman to a painfully overworked cab horse.
Throughout, Sewell rails - in a gentle, 19th-century way - against animal maltreatment. Young readers will follow Black Beauty's fortunes, good and bad, with gentle masters as well as cruel. Children can easily make the leap from horse-human relationships to human-human relationships, and begin to understand how their own consideration of others may be a benefit to all.
My thoughts: I read this book for the read-a-thon. I really liked it! They may say it's a children's book but I think I would've found the language difficult. I don't know some terms related to horses, in English, so sometimes had to guess what it really meant. I'm unsure if I would've known these terms in Dutch, either. I'm actually allergic for horses and thus hardly ever go near any. I've never been particularly fond of horses, they frighten me, maybe because I've never been near them. I've had friends who were really into horses, at least when we were children. I've always liked smaller pets, cats and dogs.
Anyway, the book was really good! I loved reading about the horse, and the horse's perspective really added to this. I'm glad I enjoyed this book. After the previous classic I read (Truman Capote - Breakfast at Tiffany's) I was a bit hesitant to read another one. I'm glad I did! I learned a lot about horses and how they were treated back then (depending on the people). I even learned some history about the Crimsean War, I'd never heard of this English term (never having encountered it before), so I looked it up (curious to see if there was a Dutch name to match etc). All in all I'd definitely recommend this book, I really enjoyed it.
Rating: ***** (9/10)