When it comes to classic literature, views that we hold dear now are not often reflected. Whether this is about feminism, LGBTQ+ rights, disability or racism, you often have to place a piece of work in its time. Or throw it in the air in frustration: that's up to you. What we don't often talk about is a dated view on the way we treat animals. 

There are many a dog and horse in a classic and they don't always get the humanity we give them now. So here are four books that show a love and fascination for animals. Be warned though: many of these books are a response to the times and therefore do contain animal cruelty.

1. Black Beauty

by Anna Sewell

Black Beauty is a perennial children’s favourite, one which has never been out of print since its publication in 1877. It is a moralistic tale of the life of the horse related in the form of an autobiography, describing the world through the eyes of the creature. (read more...)

2. The Wind in the Willows

by Kenneth Grahame

Far from fading with time, Kenneth Grahame’s classic tale of fantasy has attracted a growing audience in each generation.Rat, Mole, Badger and the preposterous Mr Toad, have brought delight to many through the years (read more...)

3. The call of the Wind

by Jack London

The Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906) are world famous animal stories. Set in Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 1890s, The Call of the Wild is about Buck, the magnificent cross-bred offspring of a St Bernard and a Scottish Collie. Stolen from his pampered life on a Californian estate and shipped to the Klondike to work as a sledge dog (read more...)

4. Alice in Wonderland

by Lewis Caroll

Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the Red Queen and the White Rabbit all make their appearances, and are now familiar figures in writing, conversation and idiom. So too are Carroll’s delightful verses such as The Walrus and the Carpenter and the inspired jargon of that masterly Wordsworthian parody, The Jabberwocky (read more...)