Beautiful Joe

Beautiful Joe is an autobiographical animal novel published in 1893 by the Canadian writer Margaret Marshall Saunders, and the first book in Canadian history to sell more than a million copies. The story is told in the first person by a little dog named Beautiful Joe: though his name sounds lovely, Joe himself is anything but beautiful—his original owner, Jenkins, has mutilated him, cutting off both ears and his tail, leaving him covered in wounds and barely alive. The kindly Morris family—the Reverend Morris and his daughter Miss Laura—rescue Joe when he is near death, nurse him back to health, and give him his name. In the Morris household Joe finds warmth again, befriends the family's fox terrier Billy, the parrot Bella, the black cat Maltie, and other animal companions, and while being trained, has many amusing adventures; he once discovers a burglar in the house, fights him bravely, and finally recognizes the burglar as Jenkins, the former owner who had tortured him. Through a dog's ears and eyes, the book portrays both human brutality and human kindness toward animals, and became an important work in the spread of animal welfare ideas in the West. This edition is the Chinese translation included in the Global Children's Literature Classics series, translated by Feng Zhen.