Black Beauty is an 1877 inspiring novel by a bedfast invalid Anna Sewell, written during the last years of her life. The story of courage of a beautiful black horse, it became an immediate bestseller, but Sewell died five months after its publication – just long enough to see its success. Today with 50 million copies sold, Black Beauty remains an inspirational favorite – even though it is the first-person autobiography of a horse. The story begins with his carefree days as a colt on an English farm, through his difficult life pulling cabs seven days a week in London, then his happy retirement in the country. Each chapter recounts an incident in the animal’s tumultuous life that relates our need to treat horses and people with kindness, sympathy and respect. “There is no religion without love,” observes the equine narrator, “and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast, it is all a sham."  

~ Rob Kerby

Purchase "Black Beauty" here.