Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse, first published in 1877 is Anna Sewell's only novel. 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 foal on an English farm, to his difficult life pulling cabs in London, to his happy retirement in the country. Influential as animal-rights propaganda, this tale is also an exciting and moving children's story.