Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
A handsome horse with a glossy, black, coat and a pretty white star on his forehead, Black Beauty seems to lead a charmed life. Although his mother warns him that 'there are a great many kind of men...good thoughtful men and bad cruel men, who never ought to have a horse or dog to call their own', he begins life in a happy home, with a friendly groom to look after him and plenty to eat.
However, when a change of circumstances means that he is sold, he soon discovers the truth of his mother's words through a succession of new owners, good and bad. They range from Lady W., whose obsession with a fashionable turn-out leads her to torment her horses with bearing-reins, to the vicious Nicholas Skinner with a voice 'as harsh as the grinding of cart wheels over gravel stones', who makes Black Beauty's life so miserable that he wishes he could drop down dead at his work.
Anna Sewell's moving story is one of the best-loved animal adventures ever written, making Black Beauty the classic horse of childrens reading.
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