One of the first animal viewpoint novels published in the United States, Margaret Marshall Saunders's Beautiful Joe (1894) tells the story of an abused dog and his rescue by a humane family. A catalogue of animal rights and wrongs, the novel fuelled humane sentiments worldwide.

This annotated, illustrated edition draws on archival collections to trace the novel's impact on the nineteenth-century animal protection movement. The introduction also highlights some of the key social issues surrounding the substantive revisions and omissions in ensuing editions of the text.

The historical appendices place the now-obscure novel in its rich milieu as an international bestseller that taught a generation of children to practice kindness towards animals.