Black Beauty's literary qualities are best understood in the light of the tradition from which the novel came: the tradition of the nineteenth-century improving book. Black Beauty is very much in the tradition of the moralistic ballads and books of its time, especially those that present self-improvement and social justice lessons in a story written in simple language to suit the reading levels of their intended audiences—children and working class adults with limited education. Sewell's mother, Mary, wrote several popular improving books, which Sewell read and helped to edit. Of Mary Sewell's works, Black Beauty most closely resembles Patience Hart's First Experience in Service, Mary and Anna Sewell both use the literary device of giving some characters names that comment on their personalities. The main character in Mary's book on housemaids is Patience Hart, who is a girl with a patient heart.

Similarly, in...