Damn you Anna Sewell!

[OrmIrian]

Thanks to you I spent about an hour last night comforting DD who has been reading Black Beauty. She watched the DVD last night having read a bit of the book. OMG! Tears, sobbing, snot, the works. 'But darling it's only a story' - 'Yes but things like really ha-a-a-ape-e-en.....' Sob sob.

She loves horses (well all animals). Problems is I sympathise and started welling up too

She made me take the books and DVD away and thrown them in the bin! I didn't. I hid them.

We had this when DS#1 watched Animal Farm when Boxer was taken away.

I really should learn my lesson.

Black Beauty was on telly over Christmas and I wept like a baby the entire time. Haven't enjoyed myself so much in ages. It's good to cry. She'll remember this for ages and look back on it fondly.

Would it be a bit sad of me to go buy these books & read them again? . I loved all of them, not sure if my ds's would though!

Little Joy dying is in Anne's House of Dreams, not Anne of the Island. Anne of the Island is all about her college days.

georgimama you cna read them online for free here!

seeker - I agree, but they were boys so probably why they didn't know...

Oh thumbwitch - that baby dying -'the wee white lady"- has scarred me for life!

My two cried buckets over "Goodbye Mog"

Well is wer're talking about babies dying, the little boy in Our Mutual Friend is a real choker. I want to know how a sentimental old Victorian man can make me weep real tears

Nothing wrong with blubbing at Dickens -Little Dorrit had the nation in fits of grief when it was published.

Bleak House made me cry OrmIrian (when Joe the crossing sweep dies and the doctor is teaching him the Lord's Prayer because he is afraid), I read it for an English tutorial and everyone else - including prat trendy lecturer - were mocking the whole scene, the writing, the melo drama of it etc.

I pointed out that Dickens wrote stories published chapter by chapter for mass consumption and 1) he was trying to create tension and drama so people would buy the next installment 2) he was also a social commentator and 10 year old boys worked to death were dying all around and er, that wasn't actually funny. They all shut up then.

twoluvlykids Goodbye Mog is one of the saddest books I have ever read.

well done georgimama - too much sneering at things like that in the world - good for you putting it into context to show them.

Don't let her see or read Charlotte's Web then! It's the only film that's had my hard as nails uber-cynical son in tears.

That apart, a bit of sadness, particularly only vicarious sadness, is a good thing in a child's life. I think it develops their emotional compass.

I don't remember being particularly upset by Black Beauty or Charlotte's Web as a child but the film of BB had me in tears as an adult. I used to have a horse called Ginger who had to be put to sleep so when she died in the film it set me off. The horse in the film even had similar markings to my Ginger.

Jennie by Paul Gallico - sobbed my heart out.

Waterbabies - so so sad. Beth dying - you can almost glory in the sadness. I also sobbed at Laurie finally realising that Jo would never be his.

Did anyone else read "the house that wouldn't go away" by Paul Gallico.

I remember being quite disturbed by it particularly the bits about the baby.

Metatron I agree - "the howling wilderness" description stuck with me for years.

I was very sad when Charlotte died in Charlotte's web and I refuse to read Animal Farm ever again because Boxer being taken to the glue factory upset me so much.

Oh dear yet more proof that I have a hard boiled egg for a heart.

Charlottes Webb: I think I actually nodded off a bit during the film. That annoying American piglet had me glazing over and dreamimg of a nice bacon sarnie at one point, although I've never read the book so maybe I'm missing something vital.

Mind you I watched the last bit of Ice Age last night with the children and I did have a tear when the baby was handed over by the mammoth to his dad so maybe all is not lost.

Born Free gets me every time though. The music, the lion cubs oh it's all so wonderful and unfair...

Oh and Bambi...

I walked out of Bambi at the age of three as soon as the mum got shot. I spent the rest of the film sitting on the steps outside the box (v old theatre) in the huff being even ice creams by the Usherettes.

I have never seen any more of the film!

Oh,yes, Bambi - did you look like this TsarChasm?...

haven't seen the film of Charlotte's Web, only read the book. That affects me more than films sometimes because I really get absorbed into books, like I'm living in it.

Born Free, now there is a blub fest. Love it.

Lol

Oh yes indeedy that's me alright Rusty!

re BB
I may be wrong but I have an idea that AS wrote it in part as a campaigning/conciousness raising exercise, and that animal welfare legislation was an indirect result. You'd need to check this, but if true, may comfort your DD?