According to Wikipedia, Black Beauty was published on 1877 and it was the only novel written by her author, Anna Sewell, whom sadly passed away a few months after its publication but, at the same time, she was fortunate to see her novel being a success, because Black Beauty instantly became a best seller and it is now considered a classic of literature.
Now, leaving the Wikipedia article aside. From my point of view, Black Beauty is a beautiful novel that tells the story of the life of a black horse from his point of view, this book it’s usually described as an autobiography of a horse. Because it is narrated in first person, so it really feels like a peak inside the thoughts of a horse, (in case they are capable to think).
I imagine that the reasons why this books was so popular back in the late 1800s it's because it attacks and criticizes the abuse of the Horses as the only way of transportation. Remember that back then, the cars didn’t exist yet. So horses were the only way we humans had to move around besides our legs. And I am sure this book changed the perspective of a lot of people. And I hope, it brought an easier life to the poor horses back then.
One of the things I loved about the book is how subtle Anna teach good lessons of empathy, acceptance, love and religion to the readers. They are all over the book, but they are so subtle and so well distributed that it's pleasant to read so you might found yourself smiling to her beautiful lessons and agreeing with her. Although, if you just read for reading you might miss this beautiful hidden messages, because despite being simple pieces of knowledge, you have to be engaged with the book to fully get them.
Another thing I loved was the language and the length. Black Beauty was so easy to read that it made it very enjoyable, and it is not a long book, but it isn’t short neither, it's in between which is perfect, I like this 300ish pages type of books. Because if it had been too short, it might have had to left something out, but at the same time, I certainly wouldn’t like to find myself reading a 1.000 pages book of a horse life, and I love horses, but that would have been too long.
The only negative aspect, and I am not sure to called it negative, because it's something that cannot be helped as the book was perfect for its time, it’s that unfortunately, Black Beauty nowadays might seem to be out of style, because we don’t use horses anymore as a way of transportation, but if we take the Disney's movie Cars and mix it with Black Beauty, it would adapt perfectly to the present. Although cars are machines, lifeless objects without feelings, that can be used and abused by human kind without consideration, unlike horses. But that’s just a thought I had while reading the book: “so this is what a Uber driver’s car would feel if it writes a book, lol”.
So to wrap this up, I totally recommend Black Beauty to everyone, for me is a must read novel, because you might end up being a nicer and better person after reading if you catch the messages within the lines. And also is a book for all ages, so even kids can and should read it. So they grow to be more empathic an caring humans beings.
You can download Black Beauty by Sewell for free on the Apple iBooks Store by clicking here and if you have read Black Beauty and would like to add or discuss something of this review, you can leave a comment below.
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