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Beauty is a characteristic of a person, place, object or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning or satisfaction . Beauty is studied as part of aesthetics, sociology, social psychology and culture. As a cultural creation, beauty has been extremely commercialized. An "ideal beauty" is a person who is admired, or possesses features widely attributed to beauty in a particular culture. |
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Black Beauty Black Beauty (in full: Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse, first published November 24, 1877) is Anna Sewell's only novel, composed in the last years of her life between 1871 and 1877 while confined to her house as an invalid. The story is told in the first person (or "first horse") as an autobiographical memoir told by a highbred horse named Black Beauty—beginning with his carefree days as a colt on an English farm, to his difficult life pulling cabs in London, to his happy retirement in the country. Along the way, he meets with many hardships and recounts many tales of cruelty and kindness. Each short chapter recounts an incident in Black Beauty's life containing a lesson or moral typically related to the kindness, sympathy, and understanding treatment of horses, with Sewell's detailed observations and extensive descriptions of horse behaviour lending the novel a good deal of verisimilitude. The book became an immediate best-seller, with Anna living just long enough (five months) to see her first and only novel become a success. Anna said of her purpose in writing "its special aim being to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses"—an influence she attributed to an essay on animals she read earlier by Horace Bushnell (1802-1876) entitled "Essay on Animals". Her sympathetic portrayal of the plight of working animals led to a vast outpouring of concern for animal welfare and is said to have been instrumental in abolishing the cruel practice of using the checkrein (or "bearing rein", a strap used to keep horses' heads high, fashionable in Victorian England but painful and damaging to a horses' neck). Black Beauty also contains two pages about the use of blinders (calling them blinkers) on horses, concluding that this use is likely to cause accidents at night due to interference with "the full use of" a horse's ability to "see much better in the dark than men can." Characters Horses: Black Beauty/Black Auster/Jack/Darkie—The narrator of the story who earned his name from his dark coat. He always tries his best to serve humans despite the circumstance. Duchess/Pet—Beauty's mother, who encourages Beauty to be good from a young age. Rob Roy—A fellow black horse from Beauty's original farm. It is later alluded that he was Beauty's half-brother, an older son of Duchess. Ginger—Named so because of her chestnut color, Ginger is a more aggressive horse due to her traumatic upbringing. Merrylegs—A short, handsome pony who is polite to humans and horses alike. Sir Oliver—A horse who had his tail removed for fashion purposes to his great annoyance and discomfort. Rory—A job horse who usually got paired up with Black Beauty/Black Auster/Jack/Darkie. Became a coal carting horse after getting hit in the chest by a violent cart. Peggy—A hired horse who cannot run so fast due to her short legs. Captain—A former army horse who witnessed horrific incidents in the Crimean War, although he was well treated and received no wounds. Hotspur—A five year old horse bought to replace Captain. Justice—A calm, peaceable horse Beauty meets at Birtwick Park. Beauty's owners Farmer Grey—Beauty's first owner. Squire Gordon—owner of Birtwick Park, a fine rider, and boss of John, James, and Joe. John Manly—A coachman who treats his horses with care and respect. James Howard—John's stable boy. Joe Green—John's younger and less experienced stable boy that comes about when James has to leave. Earl of W-—An unnamed Lord who uses Beauty as a carriage horse. Reuben Smith—A handsome and charming young man whose downfall is caused by his alcoholism. Mr. Barry—A man who tries to treat horses well, but lacks knowledge on horse care. Filcher—Barry's horse groom who steals food from the stable (Note: the verb 'to filch' means 'to steal'). Jerry—A kind owner who uses Beauty as a cab horse. AKA Jeremiah Barker. Also owner of Captain and Hotspur. Jakes—An owner who uses Beauty as a work horse, forcing him to carry heavy loads. Nicholas Skinner—A ruthless cab horse owner who wears out horses through hard work and mistreatment. Farmer Thoroughgood—A kind owner who cares for Beauty when he is at his weakest.
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