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