Black Beauty by Anna Sewell — a book for the night: the opening, the author and a Norfolk trail

On an evening when you want quiet and something kind, Black Beauty is the book to open. It is Anna Sewell’s only novel (1877) and one of the most famous stories ever told in an animal’s own voice: the narrator is the horse himself — a handsome black who looks back on his life, from a foal in a peaceful meadow to the hard streets of London. Sewell wrote it housebound, in her last years, and not for children at all: she meant it for the grooms and coachmen who handled horses, hoping they would be gentler. It turned out otherwise — the book became a beloved children’s classic for a century and a half, and the first great voice for animal welfare. It reads warmly and slowly, with no frightening turns, and sits well in the last half-hour before sleep.

The opening

The book begins with the scene Beauty remembers first. In the original:

“The first place that I can well remember was a large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it.”

Our translation back into Russian appears in the Russian edition; here is the line as Sewell wrote it. And here is the counsel his mother gives the foal, which runs through the whole book: “I hope you will grow up gentle and good, and never learn bad ways.”

The full English text is free and legal: Project Gutenberg, eBook #271.

Why read it tonight

Black Beauty looks like a book about a horse, but it is really about kindness and cruelty, and about how every living creature depends on whose hands it falls into. Beauty passes through caring owners and careless ones, through good work and punishing work, and never complains for nothing — he simply shows what it feels like to be treated well or badly. The book took direct aim at a fashionable cruelty of its day, the tight “bearing rein” that forced a horse’s head up for show, and it genuinely changed how horses were handled in Britain. The first chapter, “My Early Home,” is short — about five minutes aloud — and wholly gentle: a meadow, a pond, his mother nearby. Sadder things come later, but it ends in peace, which is why it is such a loved bedtime read. No spoilers — 12,000 copies sold in the first year, and it has been called “a hymn to a horse” ever since.

About the author

Anna Sewell was born on 30 March 1820 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and died on 25 April 1878 at Old Catton near Norwich — more than seventy years ago, so her text is in the public domain today. Three things worth knowing. First, she was housebound for most of her life: she injured her ankles at fourteen, never walked easily again and got about by carriage — which is where her closeness to horses came from. Second, Black Beauty was her only book: she wrote it from 1871 to 1877, seriously ill and often lying down, dictating parts to her mother, Mary Sewell, herself a children’s author. Third, she lived just long enough to see it printed — she died only five months after publication, as the novel began its path to millions of copies.

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A trail to her places

Sewell’s places are not in London but in Norfolk; this is a day out rather than a walk. All addresses were checked today.

Anna Sewell House, 26 Church Plain, Great Yarmouth (NR30 1NE) — the house where Anna was born in 1820. Since 2022 it has been opened to visitors by Redwings Horse Sanctuary. Entry is free (donations towards Redwings’ work are welcome), open Tuesdays and Wednesdays 10:30am–2:30pm. It closes from 23 December through January for the winter and reopens in February. The rota is run by volunteers, so it is best to call before travelling: 01508 505246.

The White House (Anna Sewell House), Old Catton near Norwich — on Spixworth Road Sewell spent her last years, wrote Black Beauty and died in 1878. It is now a private home: you cannot go inside, but the house, with its memorial plaque, can be seen from the street.

The Quaker burial ground at Lamas (near Buxton, Norfolk) — where Anna Sewell is buried; she was laid to rest on 30 April 1878. A small, quiet roadside ground; free to visit in daylight.

Where to find it

Free. The full English text is in the public domain: Project Gutenberg, eBook #271. To see which British libraries hold it, use the Library Hub Discover catalogue.

Buy it in Russian. «Чёрный Красавчик» is a staple classic in translation (Eksmo, AST and others); search for «Чёрный Красавчик» at the UK Russian bookshops Notre Locus and Bookashka. We do not fix stock or price here — check the shop’s website; the English paperback is widely stocked by ordinary British bookshops too.