Describing his life as a horse in Victorian England, he tells of his equine companions and human carers, and of the unthinking brutality to which horses were often subjected. A sympathetic hero who faces danger and excitement, Black Beauty never wavers in his principles, and the powerful lessons he teaches influenced animal welfare in England and America. This edition restores the original 1877 text and explores the multiple ways in which the novel has been read: as accessible horse-care manual, protest novel, feminist text, autobiography, slave narrative, and classic animal story.
