Literature Network » Anna Sewell

Which book, poem or play has made you cry more than any other? Continuing our series, the novelist Muriel Spark chooses Anna Sewell's Black Beauty

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From: The Sunday Telegraph London
Date: 20040201
Author:by Muriel Spark

I HAVE often thought of this question from an author's point of view. For myself, I know I can make people smile, but have I ever made them cry? I don't know.

As a schoolgirl I was given Black Beauty by the Scottish S P C A, as a prize for an essay. It is the story of a lovely black horse which fell on hard times. I cried over Black Beauty. Death scenes in the cinema usually leave me dry-eyed but I weep for the 23rd or 100th Psalms at Scottish funerals.

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