Black Beauty vs The Lilac Fairy Book: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Fairy Tales, Children's fiction
Black Beauty
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An Apple Books Classic edition.With Black Beauty, author Anna Sewell hoped to make people care about the cruel abuses that cab horses were suffering—bought and sold, whipped, and worked to exhaustion. Sewell tells the…
The Lilac Fairy Book
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Thirty-three fairy tales including The one-handed girl and The raspberry worm.
Side by side
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- Black Beauty has the widest readership — 303199 ratings behind its score.
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How to choose
Scores by source
| Black Beauty | The Lilac Fairy Book | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 4.0 (303199) | 4.1 (1332) |
| Hardcover | 3.8 (271) | 3.4 (8) |
| Apple Books | 4.5 (789) | 4.5 (5) |
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Reception
| Black Beauty | The Lilac Fairy Book | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 303199 | 1332 |
| Editions | 40 | 325 |
| Citations | 36 | — |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | — | 2965 |
| Reading it now | — | 167 |
| Written reviews | — | 44 |
| Wikipedia attention | 9579 | 3679 |
| Pages | 224 | 186 |
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Questions readers ask
Which is rated higher: Black Beauty or The Lilac Fairy Book?
The Lilac Fairy Book has the higher combined reader rating across sources (The Lilac Fairy Book 4.1/5, Black Beauty 4.0/5).
Which is shorter to read: Black Beauty or The Lilac Fairy Book?
The Lilac Fairy Book is the quickest read. Estimated at 225 words per minute: The Lilac Fairy Book (186 pages, ≈ 3 h 27 m); Black Beauty (224 pages, ≈ 4 h 09 m).
Which is harder to read: Black Beauty or The Lilac Fairy Book?
Estimated difficulty, based on era, reader shelves and length — Black Beauty: Moderate; The Lilac Fairy Book: Moderate.
Have both books been made into films?
Black Beauty: 5 film adaptations; The Lilac Fairy Book: no film adaptation on record.