Book of the week: Black Beauty: Anna Sewell

The book this week is another classic: Black Beauty. I remember reading as a kid and it fueling my love of horses even more. Though as I started this copy, I realized the only thing I had in my head was the movie version of the scene in which he and Ginger partner together for a carriage run(s) with the high fashion of holding the horse's neck high and keeping it there while they pull heavy, sometimes overly heavy loads. As a kid, I was fascinated by the horse and the characters it spoke of and about, the experience it had. This time around I noticed the setting and the over-layer (or is it the under-layer) of the book itself. The swishing of the layers of silk from the misteresses outfits and the scenery the land they inhabit. The high-bred land of country roads to the busy crowded streets of London. The comparison to human nature/society is stamped in its reality; all played out in the perspective of this high-bred born horse that ultimately gets messed-up by the mistreatment of its handlers-though Black Beauty does end happily and content at the end of the book. This book also confronts head-on issues, such as the character of Ginger, in which she, in contrast to Black Beauty, has had a hard life from the get-go and only sees and tastes snatches of the good treatment he encounters for most of the book-she ends as she started: in tragedy, but by the end, it's merciful (I believe.) After this read, I think it will be a book I return to more frequently. Yay for reading!