National Velvet (Paperback)

by Enid Bagnold (Author) "Unearthly humps of land curved into the darkening sky like the backs of browsing pigs, like the rumps of elephants..." (more)
Key Phrases: chalk road, weighing room, piebald horse, Miss Ada, Sir Pericles, Grand National (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Story of a 14-year old girl with a passion for horses, who trains her outlaw piebald and wins the Grand National. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
The timeless story of spirited Velvet Brown and her beloved horse has thrilled generations of readers. And now the republication of this classic story in a fresh, up-to-date package will charm confirmed fans while captivating new ones. Fourteen-year-old Velvet is determined to turn her untamed horse into a champion and personally ride him to victory in the world's greatest steeplechase, the Grand National.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (December 8, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380810565
• ISBN-13: 978-0380810567
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #685,169 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Priceless Slice of Time, April 6, 2002

By	W. Kaplan "calyndula" (Wynnewood, PA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Forget Elizabeth Taylor and her impossibly gorgeous wide mauve eyes. Forget Mickey Rooney. "National Velvet" has nothing to do with Hollywood, and everything to do with a microcosm of time, England between the Wars, in a working-class society that no longer exists.

The Brown family, staunchly working class, gets by on a pittance. The hugely obese mother, who misses nothing through her "hooded eyes," was once a world champion swimmer, the first woman to swim the English Channel. It is her spirit, her sense of competition and the right of women to step out of their structured lives, that has been passed down to her youngest daughter Velvet. And THAT is what this story is about: the strength of one young girl to rise above every restriction of her class and society, and to excel where no woman has ever excelled before.

So in one sense, yes, this is the story of a young girl and her love of a horse. And it is thrilling on that level. It is also the story of a society that cannot ever exist again, but that, for all its restrictions, was ruled by love of family and a strong sense of right and wrong. And third, it is the triumphant story, long before feminism was in vogue, of one small woman who overcomes centuries of prejudice to become a champion. What else does one need?

There are other characters in this book who are as interesting as Velvet: Her older, beautiful but vacuous sister Edwina, who slithers out at night to meet her boyfriend; her second oldest sister Malvolia, another "thoroughbred beauty," her impossible baby brother Donald, who collects his own spit in a bottle he keeps on a cord around his neck; her staunch, but mostly silent working-class father; and of course, Mi, the groom whose love of horses and fierce loyalty to the Brown clan hides some terrible secrets he refuses to reveal.

Add the Piebald, the most wonderful fictional horse ever, and you have a story for the ages: the story of a young girl who finds and trains a wayward horse, and takes him all the way to England's famed Grand National, where she dresses as a boy (no female was allowed to ride) and takes her horse--and hersef--to glory.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An amazing novel that is meant for all horse lovers to read, February 16, 2000

By A Customer

This novel is an amazing novel about Velvet, a 14 year old girl, and a young, green, piebald (a spotted/two colored horse) that she wins. This story is not that exciting at the beginning as it introduces you to Velvet's and her family's personalities and daily life. The book becomes more alive when Velvet hears that a horse is being given away by raffle. Velvet quickly gathers all the money that she has and buys a ticket for the raffle. Amazingly the wining raffle ticket is Velvets' and she wins the piebald. After showing him is a typical/normal show, Velvet realizes he is not meant for those types of shows and decides to go bigger. After seeing how high the piebald can jump, Velvet chooses to train the piebald for the Grand National, the biggest steeplechase in the world. Throughout the whole book there are disappointing parts and parts where you smile all over. This book is like a sister to the classic novel Black Beauty. Overall National Velvet is a book for horse lovers of all ages to read; in fact it is a book everyone should read.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better Than the Movie, August 7, 2002

By	Katherine Woodbury "Woody" (Portland, ME) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The most remarkable aspect of National Velvet is that it was written in 1935. The story of a girl who pushes beyond her culture, age and social position to achieve unprecedented glory is told without condescension or preachifying. In this, it outstretches books of its own time, many more modern books and even its own movie. Enid Bagnold isn't trying to make a point, she is telling a story with wit, vivacity and considerable insight.

This lack of moralizing is due mostly to Ms Bagnold's characterizations. The most important of the characters--Mi, Velvet and Mrs. Brown--are portrayed as complete individuals with thoughts and flaws and attitudes that are a reflection not so much of their surroundings but of their innerselves. They are human, not representative.

The story moves quickly, apropos to a novel about a horse and a horse race. The dialog between the family members takes getting used to, being cryptic and more unsaid than said, as is typical with family communication. The average reader is confronted by unfamiliar vocabulary and references, which have to be accepted and then ignored. If this can be accomplished, the passion of Velvet will carry the reader through to the end.

Recommedation: Buy it.