A timeless classic, this wonderfully evocative account of the joys and tribulations of a noble-hearted horse is one of the best loved of all animal stories
Black Beauty is handsome and spirited, with a sweet temper. When he is four years old he is sold to a new owner who gently breaks him in. He is no longer free to gallop around the fields yet there is happiness and adventure among the hardship as his situation changes from being a carriage horse on a country estate to a cab horse in town. At the same time he is aware that his well-being and future fate depend very much on the kindness or cruelty of his various masters.
The author’s only book, Black Beauty was a huge success when it was first published in 1877. Its exposure of the ill-treatment of horses at the hands of their owners’led to a change in people’s attitudes towards horses and domestic animals in general.
PART ONE
1. My Early Home
2. The Hunt
3. My Breaking In
4. Birtwick Park
5. A Fair Start
6. Liberty
7. Ginger
8. Ginger’s Story Continued
9. Merrylegs
10. A Talk in the Orchard
11. Plain Speaking
12. A Stormy Day
13. The Devil’s Trade Mark
I4. James Howard
15. The Old Ostler
16. The Fire
17. John Manly’s Talk
18. Going for the Doctor
19. Only Ignorance
20. Joe Green
21. The Parting
PART TWO
22. Earlshall
2.3. A Strike for Liberty
24. The Lady Anne
25. Reuben Smith
26. How it Ended
27. Ruined, and Going Down-hill
28. A Job-Horse and his Drivers
29. Cockneys
30. A Thief
31. A Humbug
PART THREE
32. A Horse Fair
33. A London Cab Horse
34. An Old War Horse
35. Jerry Barker
36. The Sunday Cab
37. The Golden Rule
38. Dolly and a Real Gentleman
39. Seedy Sam
40. Poor Ginger
4I. The Butcher
42. The Election
43. A Friend in Need
44. Old Captain and His Successor
45. Jerry’s New Year
PART FOUR
40. Jakes and the Lady
47. Hard Times
48. Farmer Thoroughgood and His Grandson Willie
49. My Last Home