Told in the voice of the horse himself, this is the life story of Black Beauty, a handsome, good-natured colt who begins his days in green English meadows under the care of a kind master. His mother offers him gentle counsel, to be good and to do his work willingly, and his early life at a fine country estate is full of comfort and friendship with other horses. But a horse has no say in who comes to own him. Sewell's tender 1877 novel sets out on a quiet, hopeful note, with its faithful narrator about to learn how much his fate rests in human hands.