Black Beauty

First published in 1877, this novel is narrated by a horse who begins life on a gentle farm and is then sold from owner to owner. As Black Beauty he knows kind drivers and grooms, then fashionable London harness work, a cab stand, and harder masters who use bearing reins or work a horse past its strength. He meets other horses, among them the spirited Ginger and the kindly Merrylegs, whose fates illustrate different human uses of animals. The book is a consecutive life story rather than a mystery: a record of how treatment, fashion, and money shape a working horse's body and temper in Victorian England.

Bound in black cloth blocked with a coloured image. Frontispiece and 5 colour illustrations.Running horse motif on text pages. Printed slipcase.