Flashback Friday: Learning compassion with “Black Beauty”

Belinda Huang ’17 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

Written in the twilight of Anna Sewell’s life, Black Beauty is a children’s classic with the capacity to teach audiences of all ages about love, respect, and true kindness, providing a clear insight into the world of nineteenth century London through the eyes of an eponymous horse.

The book was first published in 1877 by Jarrold & Sons, and has since been translated into more than eight films and a theater production. It has also been listed as one of the top twenty best-selling books in the English language. With all this in mind, it is obvious that the story has withstood the test of time.

But what can explain the enduring popularity of a book about a horse? Well, it’s not just about a horse—it’s about the people he meets and the lessons he learns along his journey. Framed as an autobiographical memoir, the novel is unusual in being a first person narrative from the perspective of an animal. However, the high level of characterization and detail that Sewell uses creates a realistic tone and style, which is easy to read and very believable. At no point in the book is the reader skeptical of the horse’s perspective.

In fact, the first person point of view is so successful that the novel’s main drawing point is in making the reader feel sympathy for Beauty and his plight—his joy at the hands of a tender master and his unhappiness when treated unfairly. The ability to empathize, with people as well as animals, is what drives Black Beauty’s more overt theme of animal cruelty—the novel, and Sewell’s work, is also credited with redefining how people look at animals, even helping animal welfare activists abolish the bearing rein, a painful device used in the book to hold up a horse’s head unnaturally.

The actions of each master towards his horses also informs Black Beauty’s critique and reflection of English class systems. From the heights of London society to the ruthlessness of cab drivers, Black Beauty’s treatment shows the reader that love can come from the humblest of places, and cruelty from the fanciest. As Beauty changes his name many times to suit the needs of his owner, his journey from the fields to the city also helps illustrate a cross-section of life in England at the time, showing people of all classes and ages as human beings.

Although it was not intended for children, Black Beauty is a wonderful story of compassion that deserves to be read by all. For young people, it can provide a window into the lives of the oppressed and unheard, provoking empathy and thoughtfulness in everyday life. Whether it’s a call to end animal cruelty or a critique of class, the humanity in Black Beauty’s optimism and strength is what makes the novel one to be remembered.