Collector"s Library Black Beauty tells the story of the horse"s own long and varied life, from a well-born colt in a pleasant meadow, to an elegant carriage horse for a gentleman, to a painfully overworked cab horse. Throughout, Sewell rails - in a gentle, nineteenth-century manner - against animal maltreatment. Young readers will follow Black Beauty"s fortunes, good and bad, with gentle masters as well as cruel. Children can easily make the leap from horse-human relationships to human-human relationships, and begin to understand how their own consideration of others may be a benefit to all.