Black Beauty

Published just five months before the author’s death in 1877, Black Beauty was Anne Sewell’s first and only novel. With 50 million copies sold, the novel is among the best-selling books of all time and is regarded as the first work of the pony book genre.  The novel is told in the first person by the horse of the title, beginning with his days as a colt on a farm with his mother, continuing through his days pulling wagons in London, and ending with his quiet retirement in the English country. Focusing on the contrasting ways people treat Black Beauty and other horses in the novel, Sewell created a work calling for a kind of social reform in regards to the treatment of the animals. Adapted into movies, television shows, cartoons, comic books and theatrical performances and continuously published in beautifully illustrated volumes, Black Beauty continues to be a popular story with a powerful message of animal welfare.