ANNA SEWELL BLACK BEAUTY(ILLUSTRATED)
Black Beauty
Anna Sewell
With an Afterword by Ned Halley
Illustrated by Cecil Aldin
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, 19th-century manner – against animal maltreatment. 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.
The Collector’s Library restores traditional visual and tactile pleasures to the joy of reading.
Each book is designed to appeal to the book-lover; in every case the type is re-set, illustrations, where appropriate, are selected from sources as close to the period of the book as possible, and the books are printed on high-quality paper, section-sewn and bound in real cloth. Each book has endpapers, a satin ribbon marker, head and tailbands and gilt edges. They represent the marriage of great literature to high aesthetic and craft standards, using the technology of the 21st century to produce something classic and at the same time unmistakeably modern.
Their handy size means that they can be slipped into the pocket, handbag or briefcase, and their robust manufacture makes them ideal travelling companions as well as comfortable bedside reads at very affordable prices.
‘I cannot imagine a more heavenly present; they are so beautifully produced and illustrated.’
Jilly Cooper, novelist
‘It is delicious to see gilt edges again. ... They are far more pocket-sized than any paperback.’
Joanna Trollope, novelist
