Have we all read black Beauty? (Film/tv series don't count!)

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FionaM12

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I notice how often Anna Sewell's work is mentioned in these threads. It's often quoted or used as an example of cruelty or kindness, or as a warning (eg the thread on smoking in stableyards). Amazing how influential a book can be, well over a century after it was written!

I read it as a child, then again to my daughter when she was little, and I think it's time I read it again. It's got so much in it, not just about the treatment of horses but about life generally.

Throughout the book and Beauty's variety of homes, the author covers all the causes of hardships which horses suffer. Ignorance (inexperienced stable hand who nearly kills him by accident), poverty (the lovely cab driver who treats his horse well but can't afford to keep him), vanity (cruel tack used by the rich for "fashion"). The list goes on.

It also has lots of good characters, kind owners who care for their horses, but it's a stark reminder that once you sell your horse on, his fate is out of your hands.

So, who's read it (no, not just seen the film!) and what's your favourite scene or character? And has anyone read the end without crying? :)
 
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I have read it many times and have it on my kindle. Can dip in and out at will

I have read the follow on books written by other authors eg Son of Black Beauty and the Black Beauty's relatives series written by the Pullein-Thompsons. My favourites being Black Velvet and Black Ebony.
 
Don't ever remember reading it when I was little (wasn't a horsey child) but have read it a couple of times as an adult I think :)

Loved Ginger, but then I do have a thing for chestnuts anyway :)
 
Read it lots of times. When I was about 6 the only book I wanted to be read to me was a childrens abridged version - I think my mum could have recited it in her sleep!

I have several copies of different ages including what is lefte of my much read childhood book and it was a huge influence on my love of horses and how they should be treated. I love it all hard to choose but it has to be the ending.

"My troubles are all over and I am at home; and often before I am quite awake, I fancy I am still in the orchard at Birtwick, standing with my old friends under the apple-trees"

And yes I am crying as I type this ....
 
I think I've read it over 5 times! :D:D I love this book! However it's been ages since I picked it up....hmm think that will be my next one.

My favourite home he was in is Berkwick (sp?) park - where he is with Ginger. Such a caring and horse friendly stables and I'm always gutted when I read they have to be sold on.

I liked the cabbie driver as a character - he tried so hard to look after beauty bless him. And there are a few other grooms I liked as well.

And best character - Black Beauty obviously! The most honest horse, anyone would be privilaged to own him - I think I might start reading the book tonight now ;)
 
I feel ashamed never to have read it!! I think I'll have to have a browse on Amazon...

I don't read a lot though...A Monty Roberts Book, Jackie Chan's book, Life of Pi, Battle Royale and The Wasp Factory...those are the books I've read cover to cover. Not including comics!

I have seen the movie plenty of times though :P hehe!
 
My favourite horse character has to be Ginger: feisty, but hard working in the right hands. She was cynical about peoples' intentions but could be won over. Haven't we all known a Ginger? And of course her end is a heart-breaker.

My favourite human character's the kindly cabbie too. He and his family love Beauty and their own lives are as hard as the horse's.

sussexbythesea said:
"My troubles are all over and I am at home; and often before I am quite awake, I fancy I am still in the orchard at Birtwick, standing with my old friends under the apple-trees"

And yes I am crying as I type this ....
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Yep. That's got me going. :(:(
 
Annielusian said:
I feel ashamed never to have read it!! I think I'll have to have a browse on Amazon...

I don't read a lot though...A Monty Roberts Book, Jackie Chan's book, Life of Pi, Battle Royale and The Wasp Factory...those are the books I've read cover to cover. Not including comics!

I have seen the movie plenty of times though :P hehe!
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Read it! There's so much more to it than the film. I'm sure you'll love it.
 
Yes read it loads when I was a kid and it still holds the same charm today.

I loved the little pony "Merrylegs" and wanted one just like him - and strangely my first pony was EXACTLY like him!

Anna Sewell was very brave to write this book in the day and time that she did - where horses were seen merely as a method of transport and there weren't the welfare organisations we have today; she was a true "natural horsewoman" and lover of horses and this leaps from every page.

A pity that whenever the book "Black Beauty" is serialised ........ for some reason the writers/producers never ever stay faithfull to the book! :( The story is good enough without needing to change it!
 
MiJodsR2BlinkinTite said:
A pity that whenever the book "Black Beauty" is serialised ........ for some reason the writers/producers never ever stay faithfull to the book! :( The story is good enough without needing to change it!
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This is true. I seem to remember a dreadful film in the 1970s (with Mark Lester from "Oliver!" I think) which didn't remotely resemble the book! And of course the corny tv series, nothing to do with the original.
 
I first read it when I was about 7 and then again when my daughter read it at about the same age.

I was shocked and upset by the fire both times.

The end didn't make me cry but Ginger dying did both times.
 
Also, as an interesting note I read and will never forget, when Anna Sewell died her coffin was taken in a horse drawn hurst. The horses were in a bearing rein and her mother insisted this was removed before they continued their journey. I always thought it was such a lovely touch, and I bet the horses were relieved too.
 
Yes! - I cried when Ginger died, and it has made me paranoid about people smoking on the yard.

- and although the TV series doesn't count I would like to point out that my mum was a regular extra in the series ;)
 
I read it as a child and have an annotated version now. It is still relevant now, but must have been a shocker when it was written. For a woman to be writing a book which questioned the status quo, at that time, was exceptional. I also read the story about her mother removing the bearing reins on the horses pulling the hearse, perhaps this explains why Anna Sewell felt able to express the opinions she did, because her mother had the same views.
 
I just found this on the Penguin Books site. I didn't know any of this:

"When she was about fourteen, she sprained her ankle and it was treated badly. That, and a bone disease, meant that Anna could never walk properly. As she couldn’t use her feet, Anna began to rely heavily on horses to pull her around in a cart or trap. Soon she grew to love horses and to be appalled by the careless and cruel treatment they often received from humans.

In 1871 a doctor told Anna that she had only eighteen months to live. She was very weak but very determined to write a book, “to induce kindness, sympathy and understanding treatment of horses”. Five years later, she was still working on Black Beauty, her only book. By this time she was so weak that she couldn’t get out of bed and she could only write a few lines at a time.

Anna died a few months after publication so never knew of the book’s huge success. It was distributed by animal rights campaigners as well as through bookshops – it really did change people’s attitudes to horses and other domestic animals. At Anna’s funeral, her mother insisted that the uncomfortable bearing-reins should be removed from all the horses in the funeral procession."

Even more of a heroine than I realised.
 
I'm not a huge book fan, however I have read black beauty a trillion times. It is just so beautifully written and once I start reading it I just can't put it down. Anna was so talented, and her story of becoming ill is heartbreaking - the fact that she never knew just how successful Black Beauty is. I actually live just around the corner from where she grew up in Norwich, think of the book everytime I go past that house.
 
I honestly have never read it or watched the film!!

I'm a massive reader, mainly Stephen king & anything to do with Henry 8th or Chinese history - don't know why I've never read it though!!!

Off on a book hunt now, I'm sure I've got it somewhere & I promise to read it this week :D
 
Yes yes yes!!! Hundreds of times!! Lovely book xx
I didn't know Anna Sewell's story either, shame she never got to see the impact that her book had on horsey and non-horsey people.
 
Read it several times as a child, and last year for the first time as an adult. I cried every single time. A wonderful, wonderful book - the sensitive first person narrative as Black Beauty really brought the plight of horses to light for so many people. A true classic 80)
 
It's my alltime favourite book, partly as it's about horses, partly as it's about horsecare and cruelty, partly as it's about horse transport and about living standards of rich and poor people in victorian england.

The bit that always gets me is where he's a cabhorse and a stray wisp of hay and he sees a long, thin ginger neck stretch out to reach it and it's Ginger who's also a cabhorse but in terrible condition and about to drop dead as horses often did between the traces. And then a short while later, he sees a cart go by with the lifeless dead body of a ginger horse on it, and he hopes it's Ginger so that she's no longer suffering.

I've also got a biography on Anna Sewell (Dark Horse, written recently) who was way ahead of her time, a woman writing about class, society, living and animal cruelty issues at a time when women didn't voice opinions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Sewell

http://www.sole.org.uk/darkhors.htm

Other authors' attempts at writing follow-on stories of the same ilk, I guess Son of Black Beauty comes closest in that it's not just about a horse but about travellers and society's attitude towards them (can't remember who wrote it). Only big wrong thing about it is Black Beauty was a gelding so no way could he have fathered a son. Would have been better if it had been written as Black Beauty's full brother, or full brother's son.
 
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Annielusian said:
I feel ashamed never to have read it!! I think I'll have to have a browse on Amazon...

I don't read a lot though...A Monty Roberts Book, Jackie Chan's book, Life of Pi, Battle Royale and The Wasp Factory...those are the books I've read cover to cover. Not including comics!

I have seen the movie plenty of times though :P hehe!
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Just spent this morning re ordering my books, thank you for reminding me, I seem to have lost life of pi, the wasp factory, and pride and ped.

Dam wanted to read the wasp factory again!
 
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