Anna Sewell

A stunningly beautiful hardback edition of the most famous animal stories in the world. Black Beauty is a handsome, sweet-tempered colt with a strong spirit. As a young colt he is free to gallop in the fresh green meadows with his beloved mother, Duchess, and their kind master. But when his owners are forced to sell him, Black Beauty goes from a life of comfort and kindness to one of hard labour and cruelty. Bravely he works as hard as he can, suffering at the hands of men who treat animals badly. But Black Beauty has an unbreakable spirit and will, and is determined to survive . . . Also in Puffin Clothbound Classics: 9780241411155 Dracula9780241411162 The Secret Garden9780241411193 A Christmas Carol9780241411209 The Wizard of Oz9780241411216 Treasure Island

Black Beauty is an 1877 novel by English author Anna Sewell. It was composed in the last years of her life, during which she remained in her house as an invalid. The novel became an immediate best-seller, with Sewell dying just five months after its publication, but having lived long enough to see her only novel become a success. With fifty million copies sold, Black Beauty is one of the best-selling books of all time. The text advocates fairer treatment of horses in Victorian England. The story is narrated from Black Beauty's perspective and resultantly readers arguably gained insight into how horses suffered through their use by human beings with restrictive technical objects like the "bearing rein" and "blinkers" as well as procedures like cutting off the tails of the horses. For instance, Ginger describes the physical effects of the "bearing rein" to Black Beauty, by stating, "... it is dreadful... your neck aching until you don't know how to bear it... its hurt my tongue and my jaw and the blood from my tongue covered the froth that kept flying from my lips". Tess Coslett highlights that Black Beauty's story is structured in a way that makes him similar to those he serves. The horses in the text have reactions as well as emotions and characteristics, like love and loyalty, which are similar to those of human beings. Coslett emphasises that, while Black Beauty is not the first book written in the style of an animal autobiography, it is a novel that "allows the reader to slide in and out of horse-consciousness, blurring the human/animal divide".

The story of this novel is narrated in the first person as an autobiographical memoir told by the titular horse named Black Beauty-beginning with his carefree days as a colt on an English farm with his mother, to his difficult life pulling cabs in London, to his happy retirement in the country. Along the way, he meets with many hardships and recounts many tales of cruelty and kindness. Each short chapter recounts an incident in Black Beauty's life containing a lesson or moral typically related to the kindness, sympathy, and understanding treatment of horses, with Sewell's detailed observations and extensive descriptions of horse behaviour lending the novel a good deal of verisimilitude. The book describes conditions among London horse-drawn taxicab drivers, including the financial hardship caused to them by high licence fees and low, legally fixed fares. A page footnote in some editions says that soon after the book was published, the difference between 6-day taxicab licences (not allowed to trade on Sundays) and 7-day taxicab licences (allowed to trade on Sundays) was abolished and the taxicab licence fee was much reduced.

"Chernyj Krasavets" - zamechatelnaja kniga, napisannaja ot litsa krasivogo chernogo konja blagorodnykh krovej. U nego bylo schastlivoe detstvo, no v dalnejshem na ego dolju vypalo nemalo ispytanij: v silu raznykh obstojatelstv on perekhodil ot odnikh khozjaev k drugim. Nakonets Chernyj Krasavets vstretil svoego starogo druga, konjukha Dzho, kotoryj vykupil ego, i zhizn konja naladilas. Pisatelnitsa Anna Sjuell (1820-1878) v junosti slomala nogu i na vsju zhizn ostalas khromoj. Vsju zhizn ona prozhila s materju, pomogala ej v pedagogicheskoj dejatelnosti, a v svobodnoe vremja zanimalas zhivopisju i literaturnymi opytami, no svoi proizvedenija ne publikovala. Povest "Chernyj Krasavets" sozdavalas na protjazhenii shesti let, kogda pisatelnitsa byla tjazhelo bolna i pochti ne dvigalas. Materi, kotoraja v techenie vsej zhizni Anny byla ej samym blizkim drugom, prikhodilos perepisyvat nachisto nerazborchivye zapisi. "Ja sochinila etu istoriju, chtoby probudit v ljudjakh ljubov i simpatiju k zhivotnym", - pisala Anna Sjuell v dnevnike. Sjuzhet knigi ne ostavil ravnodushnym nikogo - ni detej, ni predpriimchivykh vzroslykh. Posle vykhoda knigi v Anglii byl postroen "Dom otdykha dlja loshadej". Predlagaem vnimaniju chitatelej neadaptirovannyj tekst povesti s kommentarijami i slovarem. Kommentarii i slovar E. G. Tigonen.

Azabache es una novela de 1877 escrita por la inglesa Anna Sewell. Fue compuesta en los ltimos a os de su vida, durante los cuales estuvo confinada en casa por invalidez. La autora pudo ver el inmediato xito que alcanz su obra, pero muri s lo cinco meses despu s de su publicaci n. Azabache es uno de los libros m s vendidos de todos los tiempos (cincuenta millones de ejemplares). Al educar acerca del bienestar de los animales, expone a la vez c mo tratar a la gente con amabilidad, simpat a y respeto.

Black Beauty's story improved the lives of horses all over the world. Seen through his own eyes, young horse lovers will be swept up in his incredible journey from a peaceful paddock to the streets of London. No matter what he encounters, nothing can break Black Beauty's spirit.