National Velvet
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National Velvet is a novel by Enid Bagnold, first published in 1935.
Plot introduction
National Velvet is the story of a girl, Velvet Brown, who attempts to ride her horse to victory in the Grand National steeplechase. The fictional horse which Velvet Brown trained and rode in the National is called "The Pie".
Velvet Brown is an awkward teenager living in a small English village and dreaming of owning horses. Her mother is a large taciturn woman who was once famous for swimming the English Channel; her father owns a butcher shop. One day when Velvet is sent on a delivery for her father, she encounters a man who, after a brief conversation with her, leaves all his horses to her in his will, then commits suicide.
Velvet and her sisters manage to feed and keep the horses, and they have moderate success entering in local gymkhanas. Meanwhile, Velvet wins yet another horse in a local raffle - an ungainly, strong-willed piebald gelding known only as The Pie. This is the horse she falls in love with and, together with her father's apprentice, Mi Taylor, she starts imagining entering the Grand National.
After scraping together the entry money and figuring out how to conceal Velvet's gender, Velvet and Mi make the trip to the track and the race is on.
Adaptations
- In 1944, the novel was made into a highly successful film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Mickey Rooney.
- From 1960 to 1962 there was a television series based on the book which aired on NBC.
- In 1978 a sequel film, International Velvet, was made starring Tatum O'Neal.