Reading Through the Centuries Project: Black Beauty

So y'alls, guess what? A year late...I met my goal of reading Black Beauty! Hoo boy, that's right, it only takes me a year to finish reading a book normally assigned to school children.

Goals: I meet them.

Now I can watch the movie that I got "for the family" last Christmas- I told myself I wouldn't watch it until I finished the book. Clearly it wasn't enough motivation to get the thing finished quickly. I will give a report on how the movie is. Hopefully it won't take me a year to watch.

My verdict on the book- worth reading. It's a really interesting historical lesson in the living conditions of people and horses in different social circumstances in the middle of the nineteenth century. I think it definitely served Anna Sewell's purpose of informing her contemporaries about things they might not have realized were cruel or inhumane- and might have made people think about the way they treated the animals they used on a daily basis. For example, the popular custom of making carriage horses wear 'bearing reins'.

These reins, which by themselves are not necessarily cruel, but when over-tightened- which was the fashion during this era- forced horses to carry their heads unnaturally high- cutting off the horses' breath and placing serious strain on their neck muscles. Sewell devoted a lot of the book to mentioning these reins and describing their effects on the horses- they went out of style in her lifetime, I wonder how much affect Black Beauty had on that- the book was very successful at the time it was published.

It's a really quick read- not that you'd know it from my pace, but the chapters are short and easy to read. If you're looking for something to read, try it- it's free on most e-readers too! Score!

Anna Sewell- ca. 1878

Poe Poe...and I don't mean the Fuzz

I am reading a new book! Its not part of the Reading Through the Centuries Project (that sounds so official and important, no? "The *insert Public Radio voice here* Reading Through the Centuries Project"), because I'm still on Black Beauty. Since I'm using that one as part of my posts over at The Queen's Scullery, I am taking my time to dissect it. However, I read before bed every night, and I quickly found that I had to stop using that time for Black Beauty reading- I would read a chapter, turn the light out, and then sit there awake thinking of all the things I need to incorporate into posts about Victorian horsemanship. After two nights of that, I decided that a new book was needed for before bed time. It's wind down time, not wind up time if ya know what I'm sayin'.

So, new Bed Time book. I had this one in my collection, and I started reading it months ago, but then got distracted with something else. Well I'm glad did, because although it was written in the current era, this one is a perfect companion to my study of Victorian stuff. 

The Poe Shadow, by Matthew Pearl. I don't know why I wasn't so into it before, because its really good. I guess I'm really mood based when it comes to books- sometimes a book won't hold my attention and I'll get distracted by something else, but then a few months later I'll have some different frame of reference and then I'll be totally into it. That's what happened with this one.


Poe Shadow is really well written, and it's written in the style of books written in the time it was set (1849-1850's), which makes it really fun to read while doing the Victorian stuff. The fact that it's set in Baltimore is of course an added bonus, since I live here.

The basic premise is that the main character, Quentin, sees the sad little funeral of Edgar A. Poe and becomes obsessed with finding out why Poe died and pulling Poe's much maligned name out of the proverbial gutter.

I'm only halfway through it, but I'm finding myself staying up later and later reading. Check it out if you have any interest in Poe or that time period, or just enjoy a good book, I don't think you'll be disappointed!

Black Beauty

 

I'm actually really enjoying Black Beauty, but in a much more intellectual way than I did when I originally read it- probably because I'm not 12. When I first started rereading, my initial reaction was along the lines of "oh...this is a mistake", because the sentences are really short and so I started to think there was a reason I read it when I was 12.  It comes off a little like a kids book at first. But I persevered, because I was all bundled up in bed, and putting it down would have required not reading at all, or going to the basement to find a new book, or reading the Scarlet Letter; and I wasn't really feeling any of those options.

I'm glad I kept going, because its proving really interesting to reread at twice the age I was originally (ok fine...I'm being a little generous on the twice). It has the reputation as a children's book, I suppose because it's about horses (and maybe because of the short sentences), but it wasn't written as such, and it's actually really ahead of its time in regard to discussion of animal welfare issues.

I'm only up to about page fifty- I haven't had much reading time lately- but I'm actually going to use it as the basis of a little research on Victorian era horsemanship over at The Queen's Scullery.  If you're interested in a more analytical look at the book and its social commentary on animal welfare in the Victorian era, or in any other aspects of Victorian culture (like keeping bees or cooking whole rabbits), The Queen's Scullery is all about it.  

Over here I will be continuing with my book project and with more trivial observations about life in general. :)