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 . . .
This book features in the following series: Childrens Classics, Puffin, Puffin Classics .
This book has been graded for interest at 9 years.
This book was published in 2008 by Penguin Random House Children's UK .
Anna Sewell (1820-78) was a British novelist. Black Beauty was her only published work. Martin Jarvis, who has adapted the stories in this book for younger readers, first discovered Just William when he was nine years old. He made his first adaptation of a William story for BBC radio in 1973 and since then his broadcast readings have become classics in their own right. Martin is an award-winning actor who has appeared in numerous stage plays, television series and films
This book contains the following story:
Black Beauty
When he comes of age, the horse Black Beauty is sold to a grand house to be a carriage horse. The groom, Joe, is kind but his masters are cruel. Every day Beauty and his fellow horse, Ginger, are shackled to the carriage with a tight bearing rein to keep their heads held high, and the two horses are whipped and generally mistreated. When Ginger misbehaves she is taken away. When Beauty smashes his knee he is sold to a London cabby. Pulling a cab through all the weather is hard work but Jerry is kind to Beauty and he is happy. Then Jerry is offered a job as groom by a customer and has to sell Beauty. His next master is harsh and cruel. But then Black Beauty is rescued by a horse doctor and at the doctor’s stables he discovers that the groom is none other than Joe. Beauty lives out the rest of his life in the doctor’s fields, happy and cared for.
This book features the following characters:
Ginger
Ginger is the chestnut horse that becomes friendly with Black Beauty when they are both carriage horses at Birtwick Park. She has a rough life and is consequently pretty sassy. The two friends go separate ways but meet again as broken-down cab horses in London.
Jimmy Barker
This book features the character Jimmy Barker.
Joe Green
This book features the character Joe Green.
Black Beauty
Black Beauty is a handsome black horse who narrates his story in the novel of the same name. He begins his career as a carriage horse for wealthy people but after a fall he is sacked and made to do much harder work. Beauty always tries his best despite the difficult circumstances he finds himself in.
