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

I've read it many times, when I was little someone bought me a leather bound copy that I still have. Brilliant book, well written and sooooooooo sad. Never fails to make me blub when Ginger dies.

I have also read the books that follow it by the Pullen-Thompson sisters. My favourite was Black Velvet, where the horse is in the first world war.
 
yes it is a good book. I do think that some of the books that were classics were so for a reason. now days they tend to churn them out to a formula.

I loved the book flicka - because it was extremely well written, and justice was not done to it in any of the films. the conflict between the boy and the father, the mum stuck in the middle and the horses which is such an important part of them all, but especially the boy starting to become a man.

i loved all the marguerite henry books - so well researched, but use of imagination as well to fill in the gaps

I grew up on english horse story books, I was an avid reader as we did not get a tv until I was 13 years old, and it was black and white and pretty fuzzy with limited shows.

I did read russian novels(anna karenina ), shakespeare, someset maughn, oscar wilde, ts eliot, pg wodehouse, banjo paterson, patrick white, henry lawson, thomas hardy, etc all by the time i got to year 7 in high school as these were what were in the house, but my favourites were anything with horses in it (and still are - trying to get my hands on jump)
 
I've read it over and over, and when my daughter was small I read her a children's abridged version, and I always cry at the end.

As the OP says, it is a stark reminder of how much of a horse's life is down to chance, no matter how good (or not) they may be
 
I too have read it many times and still cry at Ginger's death and the fire. Read it to my daughter when she was very small, was many years since I'd last read it and forgotten how traumatic some of the scenes are; kept having to skip chunks but try and keep it flowing so she didn't notice the gaps!
 
Millikins said:
Read it to my daughter when she was very small, was many years since I'd last read it and forgotten how traumatic some of the scenes are; kept having to skip chunks but try and keep it flowing so she didn't notice the gaps!
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Yes I seem to remember quickly improvising for my daughter to skip a bit where there's mention of the screams of the dying horses which didn't make it out of the fire! :mad::eek:
 
sussexbythesea said:
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 ....
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These last three or four lines have stayed with me forever , and last year I finally managed to buy ( on eBay ) an early copy with colour plates by Cecil Aldin - priceless..to me.:)
 
Yep - have a lovely version that I got as a kid (some time ago...) and still have it - have lost count of the times I've read it and yep, I always cry at the fire, Gingers death and the ending.

Although the whole thing is a bit of a 'bosom heaver' to be honest. I have to have a massive box of tissues to watch the film (the proper film I mean) as I can just boo all the way through it!

Also read 'Black Beauty's family' that the Pullein-Thompson girls wrote - I love the story of Blossom. Anna Sewell's book highlighted cruelty to carriage and riding horses (well all horses but it focussed on this due to Black Beauty's type) but the life of a 'working horse' was even worse. Just terrible.

I also found it really sad that some horses never found their happy ending - like Ginger and another horse called Midnight in Blossom and those I could have really bawled for.
 
I last read it a long long time ago when I was about 11.

I collected the Classic Adventure series - a classic novel every week with a magazine about it. I still have the Black Beauty book and magazine. I lost most of the others.

I've read Flicka and a lot of the Black Stallion books too. My daughter is mad on the Black Stallion books.
 
I always liked Joe (or was it Will??)

Usually ended up crying when reading that he finally recognised him lol

These days the way he was gotten rid off after he broke his knees saddens me greatly as well, mainly because Rob has done the same (but worse) and it's pretty much ended his ridden career. There's no way I'm getting rid tho lol!!! Horrid deformed legs or not :)
 
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Read it loads of times and have at least 4 copies of it! (am a pony book horder)

Love Merrylegs & Ginger, Ginger dying always makes me bawl!

I have always thought that the kind lady who takes the bareing rein off so they can walk up the hill is Anna Sewell herself.........
 
Taffyhorse said:
Also read 'Black Beauty's family' that the Pullein-Thompson girls wrote - I love the story of Blossom. Anna Sewell's book highlighted cruelty to carriage and riding horses (well all horses but it focussed on this due to Black Beauty's type) but the life of a 'working horse' was even worse. Just terrible.
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I'm just re-reading this series in order to write something about them. Really great writing and social history!
 
Wonderful book, and is seems written by a marvellous woman, years ahead of her time.

It surprises me how many people here say they cried at the (probable) death of Ginger, but not at the end.

To me the ending is the real heart breaker. Although Black Beauty has found a good home to end his days, his reminising about his friends in the final paragraph is a device which reminds us that the other horses probably won't have been so lucky, and could still be living a life of cruelty and abuse, along with thousands of others round the country.

It was a plea on behalf of all the horses, everywhere. And that's what really sets me off. :(
 
Black Beauty is a fabulous book, such a beautiful and tragic story. The tv/film adaptions never do it justice the book stands head and shoulders above them all.

Has anyone read Black Beauty according to Spike Milligan? Very rude, definitely not suitable for children and incredible un-p.c. I haven't read if for years and years, but this part made me chuckle... "Then there was a small saddle strap that went under my tail: that was the crapper. I hated it, it stopped me having a crap"
 
John Manly was one of my favorite characters and the last chapter where BB is found by Joe green has to be the best bit a happy ending for BB
it has certainly inspired me and breed horses along with the book national velvet with Pie
 
scrunchie said:
I've read Flicka and a lot of the Black Stallion books too. My daughter is mad on the Black Stallion books.
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I remember being mad on the Flicka books for a while when I was a child. I rather suspect they were aimed at a very young audience!

The good think about Black Beauty is it can be read on many levels, it appeals to adults as much as children. It's so much more than just a horsey story, it's social history, a protest against cruelty & social comment about poverty, class divisions and the shallow fashions of the day.

Still pretty pertinent today though!
 
One, if not THE best book I've read. Read it loads of times.
(even went and got the book from the shelf, might read it in a mo! - Again!)
 
team barney said:
Black Beauty is a fabulous book, such a beautiful and tragic story. The tv/film adaptions never do it justice the book stands head and shoulders above them all.

Has anyone read Black Beauty according to Spike Milligan? Very rude, definitely not suitable for children and incredible un-p.c. I haven't read if for years and years, but this part made me chuckle... "Then there was a small saddle strap that went under my tail: that was the crapper. I hated it, it stopped me having a crap"
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I have and it's very funny :D - I must read it again - I forgot I had it.
 
I read it as a child and remember when too! I remember sitting in bed, it was around 3am reading Black Beauty while my dad took my mum to hospital to have my baby brother - I was just 8 years old and I was left alone at home - it was the days when children were not allowed at hospitals.

I still have my copy and every now and then I read it. Its a beautifully written book and will be read by many more generations of horse mad children - and adults.
 
Wonderful book which I read loads of times as a child.Lots of very emotive issues,far ahead of itself for the era in which it was written.Shame Anna Sewell did not write anything else.She was the "Harper Lee" of her time.My eyes still well up when I read the book,or see the film.
 
Ive read two different versions of it when I was younger so I could undertand it in a nutshell basically, then I read the original properly later :D Ive also got Black Beauty's Family book which I have read many a time! :D
 
I love this book.
I have read it many, many times since I was a child, and it never fails to tug at my heartstrings.
I have a wonderful hardback copy with colour plates that my grandfather was given while he was at school. It must be about 80 years old and is falling apart.
There are so many parts that set me off. His bravery in the flood, and his stoicism while in the hands of the "bearing rein lady", when he sees Ginger after all that time, close to death, and where he finally finds Joe again at the sales.
The bit that always gets me though, is the daydreaming at the end. More so in the film than the book though "They were dancing" ...

Ooops, there I go :(
 
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