text: The book is considered to be one of the first English novels to be written from the perspective of a non-human animal, in this case a horse. Although it is considered a children's classic, Sewell originally wrote it for those who worked with horses. She said "a special aim was to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses". In many respects the book can be read as a guide to horse husbandry, stable management and humane training practices for colts. It is considered to have had an effect on reducing cruelty to horses; for example, the use of bearing reins, which are particularly painful for a horse, was one of the practices highlighted in the novel. In the years after the book's publication, they eventually fell out of favour.
  Sewell sold the novel to Norwich publisher Jarrolds on 24 November 1877, when she was 57 years old. She received a single payment of £40 (£3,456 or US$4,630 in 2017) and the book was published the same year.
  Death
  After the publication of her only novel, Black Beauty, Sewell fell seriously ill. She was in extreme pain, discomfort and completely bedridden for the following months, and she died on April 25, 1878, aged 58 of hepatitis or tuberculosis, only five months after the publication of Black Beauty. She was buried on 30 April 1878 at Quaker burial ground in Lamas near Buxton, Norfolk, not far from Norwich.
  Memorials and monuments
  Sewell's birthplace in Church Plain, Great Yarmouth has been the home to a museum and a tea shop and is leased by Redwings Horse Sanctuary. The house in Old Catton where she wrote Black Beauty is known as Anna Sewell House.