Black Beauty is a Puffin Classic by Anna Sewell. 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 & their kind master. But when his owners are forced to sell him Black Beauty goes from a life of comfort & kindness to one of hard labour & 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 & will & is determined to survive... With a wonderful introduction by award-winning author Meg Rosoff Black Beauty is one of the twelve best-loved classic stories being launched in the newly branded Puffin Classics series in March 2008. Anna Sewell (1820-78) was born in Great Yarmouth Norfolk. Black Beauty her only book was completed & published in 1877 just a few months before she died so she did not live to know of the book's huge success. Apart from being a good story Black Beauty was instrumental in changing people's attitudes towards horses & domestic animals in general. The Puffin Classics: Red Badge of Courage; Anne of the Island; Wuthering Heights; Anne of Avonlea; Kidnapped; What Katy Did; The Happy Prince; David Copperfield; Robin Hood; Peter Pan; The Secret Garden; Black Beauty; The Call of the Wild; Huckleberry Finn; Sherlock Holmes; Little Lord Fauntleroy; The Wizard of Oz; Just So Stories; Treasure Island; Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; Little Women; Oliver Twist; The Wind in the Willows; The Secret Garden; & the Princess & the Goblin.