Holm is a short story and novel author, and a freelance writer. In this essay, Holm looks at how Sewell effectively uses a horse's point of view to address issues of cruelty, morality, and class in mid-Victorian England.

The author who decides to tell a story from the point of view of an animal has some tricky challenges. Somehow, the author must use this point of view so that it enhances, rather than detracts from, the story that the author puts on the page. But having an animal as a story's main point of view character also lends advantages. Because of an animal's assumed innocence (in comparison to humans, in this case), the author might more easily make points in the story that could appear preachy or dogmatic if these points were made through a human character. In Black Beauty, Sewell uses circumstance and Black Beauty's point...