Thursday, April 22, 2010

The Pretty Horse-Breakers



The Pretty Horse-Breakers by Barbara Cartland is the story of Candida Walcott, who needs to sell her most cherished possession: her horse. The man she tries to sell him to offers her a job as a horse-breaker in his riding school. She accepts, not realizing that it's really a world of high-paid mistresses and that causes a problem when she meets and falls in love with Lord Manville!

Francis Marshall illustrated two different covers for this story and the Pyramid (US) one from 1977 shows our couple out riding in the park during the horse-breaker's event. Our heroine is very pretty in a white riding habit which sets off her black horse! We see our hero looking on behind her and others in the park.

The Arrow (UK) cover from 1973 emphasizes the park and the event. We see our heroine in the same outfit, but the hero is more defined and also are the other horse-breakers and men watching them. The statue in the park is also clear as well as Candida's horse!

Horse-breakers were real and described just as Cartland stated during the 1800's in London.

1 comment:

  1. I like the early Cartland books that contained some research. To date no known book to me was written about this phenomenon as a plot.

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