Black Beauty (Summit Classic Collector Editions) Collectors edition

This collector-quality volume includes the complete text of Anna Sewell's timeless classic in a freshly edited and newly typeset edition, along with an original author's biography intended to give the modern reader useful background information on the author and the significance of this work.

With a generous 6"x9" page size, this Summit Classic edition is printed on heavyweight bright white paper with a fully laminated cover featuring an original full color design. Page headers and footers and modern design and page layout exemplify the attention to detail given this volume.

Upon its publication in England in 1877, "Black Beauty" was an immediate bestseller and has since become one of the most widely-read and best-loved books in the English language, with over 50 million copies sold and numerous adaptations to film and other media. The book was not originally intended as a children's story, nor was it received as such when published. But it has become a staple among young readers and is still widely enjoyed today by readers of all ages in many nations.

Written as an autobiography from the point of view of the horse, a unique literary device at the time, "Black Beauty" is an impassioned call for an end to cruelty to animals, and teaches the timeless values of kindness, respect and sympathy for all creatures, humans and animals alike. "Black Beauty" describes a horse's life through a series of owners and jobs and his relationships among the vast number of working horses which powered Victorian England in a variety of roles scarcely imaginable today. Through kindness, cruelty, neglect, injury and illness he maintains his dignity and integrity, remembering his mother's advice that while a horse can never control the actions of humans, he can always do his best and maintain his good name.

Anna Sewell (1820-1878) was born into a Quaker family in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, and first became involved with literary work by helping to edit the writings of her mother, a successful author of children's books. Disabled by a childhood injury to both ankles, Anna used a crutch and was unable to walk or stand for any length of time. Her dependence on horse-drawn carriages contributed to her admiration for and interest in horses, and trips to European spas in the hope of improving her physical condition exposed her to a variety of writers and artists. "Black Beauty," Sewell's only published novel, was witten between 1871 and 1877, when her declining health had left her a near invalid. While she lived long enough to see the immediate success of her work, she died only five months after its publication, perhaps from hepatitis or tuberculosis.