Black Beauty

Anna Sewell

Mar 2008 · Puffin · Narrated by Martin Jarvis

About this audiobook

The abridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Anna Sewell's Black Beauty, one of the best-loved childrens tales of all time, read by Martin Jarvis.

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 . . .

About the author

Anna Sewell (1820-78) was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Black Beauty, her only book, was completed and published just a few months before she died in 1877, so she did not live to know of the book's huge success. Apart from being a good story, Black Beauty was instrumental in changing people's attitudes towards horses, and domestic animals in general.