Books with title Black Widow Beauty

Black Beauty is Anna Sewell's only novel, composed in the last years of her life between 1871 and 1877 while confined to her house as an invalid.The story is told in the first person as an autobiographical memoir told by a horse named Black Beauty—beginning with his carefree days as a colt on an English farm, to his difficult life pulling cabs in London, to his happy retirement in the country. Along the way, he meets with many hardships and recounts many tales of cruelty and kindness. Each short chapter recounts an incident in Black Beauty's life containing a lesson or moral typically related to the kindness, sympathy, and understanding treatment of horses, with Sewell's detailed observations and extensive descriptions of horse behavior lending the novel a good deal of verisimilitude.

A stunning picture-book introduction to the first famous fictional horse!Anna Sewell's classic Black Beauty comes vividly to life in this 40-page picture-book adaptation by Sharon Lerner. Follow the famous stallion as he meets many masters, from Squire Gordon, whose wife Black Beauty saves nearly at the cost of his own life; to the cruel Nicholas Skinner, who drives horses to death; and finally to a reunion with Joe, the kind groom he knew as a colt. Caldecott Award winner Susan Jeffers illustrates this beloved tale with lush watercolor drawings guaranteed to delight and enchant children.

A novel that has enjoyed remarkable success and enduring popularity, Black Beauty is the classic story of a courageous horse.A fictional tale told from an animal's point of view, Black Beauty offers the listener a unique perspective of the human world. Through tales about his various owners, he encourages the virtues of having a kind and compassionate spirit, particularly toward animals. Upon its first publication, Black Beauty was an immediate success, and author Anna Sewell passed away knowing that her words had indeed encouraged others to treat animals well.

A perfect first illustrated introduction to the classic horse story for younger readersBlack Beauty has been sensitively abridged and retold to make it suitable for sharing with young children, while retaining all the key parts of the story including Black Beauty's friendship with Ginger, his treatment at the hands of his owners, and fascinating historical detail about how how horses had many different uses in the days before cars.

Continuously in print and translated into multiple languages since it was first published, Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty is a classic work of children’s literature and an important text in the fields of Victorian studies and animal studies. Writing to “induce kindness, sympathy and an understanding treatment of horses,” Sewell realistically documents the working conditions of Black Beauty, who moves down the social scale from a rural carriage horse to a delivery horse in London. Sewell makes visible and tangible the experience of animals who were often treated as if they were machines. Though she died shortly after it was published, Sewell’s book contributed significantly to late nineteenth-century campaigns for humane treatment of horses and remains a seminal anti-cruelty text today. The Broadview Press edition reproduces the first edition of 1877, restoring material often abridged in other modern editions. Appendices include materials on contemporary animal-rights movements, “equine management,” and Victorian understandings of animal emotions.

The story begins in a meadow of 19th century England, where the young horse, Black Beauty, has just been born. There, his mother nurtures him, raises him and gives him advice which he remembers and acts on for the rest of his life: do good and give your best effort always and everything will work out. The story of his life is this advice in living form. As his youngest days pass in that meadow, he witnesses the death of his own brother and a rider in a hunting accident. Soon after, he must undergo the breaking-in process where his trainer gently teaches him to bear a rider, wear a saddle and bridle and respond to the rider’s driving signals. After this coming-of-age training, he is ready to leave the meadow of his youth. He is sold to Squire Gordon, a man who takes a liking to this strong, young, beautifully dark coated horse. Squire Gordon’s residence, Birtwick Park, thus becomes Beauty’s new home. There he meets those who will become among his dearest friends: Ginger, Merrylegs, John Manly and James. John is his new coachman, and a good, wise, gentle old fellow. James and Joe, his two successive grooms, were also quite caring and well-intentioned. So he soon falls in love with his new home and is happy there, except for one problem: he misses his liberty. Never again is he left to do just as he wishes; instead, he will be ordered and ridden by this human or that human without break. The earliest days of his youth are over and he can no longer roam around meadows and spend his days resting with his mother anymore. Despite this loss of liberty, Beauty is still happy to be in this situation rather than a situation where the owner was cruel or neglectful, and soon enough he becomes accustomed to the life-long burden of servitude towards humans. One day when in conversation with his friends Ginger and Merrylegs, he hears stories of wicked masters. The former horse, a powerful, lively mare, tells of her harsh upbringing and how it scarred her for life to have a neglectful master. Thus the horses of Birtwick begin their long discussion amongst themselves concerning the faults in humans rule over horses and the cruelties horses often face.

A classic tale of adventure—straight from the horse’s mouth.This classic story allows the reader to hear about the adventures of a horse’s life, as told by the horse himself! Anna Sewell’s dependence on horses for transportation gave her keen insights into the lives of animals that most people of her day took for granted, and with Black Beauty, she wove a timeless tale of kindness and compassion for humans and beasts. Bound in a beautiful cloth cover with full-color illustrations inside and foil stamping on the front, this unabridged volume in our Illustrated Classics series will be a welcome addition to any home library.