We hope you enjoy this preview of an episode from our back catalog available to our premium subscribers. Tonight, we'll read the opening to the 1877 novel, "Black Beauty" by English author Anna Sewell. To unlock full episodes, ad-free listening, and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

Due to a severe injury early in life, Sewell needed to use crutches to walk and developed a love for horses, as horseback riding gave her a sense of freedom.This novel became an immediate best-seller at the end of her life, with Sewell dying just five months after its publication, but having lived long enough to see her only novel become a success. 

With fifty million copies sold, Black Beauty is one of the best-selling books of all time. While forthrightly teaching animal welfare, it also teaches how to treat people with kindness, sympathy, and respect. 

— read by 'V' — 

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