Reflections on "Black Beauty" in honor of Anna Sewell's 200th birthday

Author Anna Sewell was born two hundred years ago today.

We intended to describe her as most famous for Black Beauty, which is accurate, but it's also a bit disingenuous — the novel is in fact the only thing she ever published.

Black Beauty — the story of a horse, told by that horse — was an immediate hit, but unluckily for Sewell, she died within six months of its publication.

That said, it has certainly not faded into obscurity.

On the 200th anniversary of Sewell’s birth, fan and fellow author Rachel Vorona Cote (Too Much: How Victorian Constraints Still Bind Women Today) posted an essay about Black Beauty’s depth and significance on Jezebel.