About this title: Harriet Beecher Stowe's powerful but sentimental and stereotyped anti-slavery novel, published in 1852, was an inspiration to the abolitionist cause.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: Reprint. Original copyright 1952;
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 1981
ISBN-13:9780140390032ISBN:0140390030
Description: Cover illustration is a detail from SLAVE MARKET by an unknown nineteenth century American artist; Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Front & back cover look good; spine shows mod. creasing & slight curling; pages are clean and unmarked; Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 640 p. Penguin American Library. Audience: General/trade. There are many differing opinions about this book; Leo Tolstoy hailed it as, "one of the greatest productions of the human mind. " read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: international Collectors Library
Description: Fair. Decorative hardcover. spinr bump. edgwear to covers. soilining to edges. pages has very light moiture damage. clear text. tight binding. no writing. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Date Published: 1981
ISBN-13:9780140390032ISBN:0140390030
Description: Acceptable. MAY HAVE COVER WEAR, SPINE CREASES, HIGHLIGHTING, UNDERLINING & PAGES YELLOWED FROM AGE. FASTER SERVICE FROM US! ! ! read more
"Finally finished! Okay, so the writing wasn't always the best, and I could wish for a little more character development, but despite these I still have to give this book a 5. It was such an experience!
As an aside... I find fault with many of the serious criticisms of the novel. All most popular novels seem to undergo excessive criticism. We've seen a recent example in the Harry Potter controversy. They are wizards and witches and it's about magic, and therefore evil? We should forget all the moral tales and overarching good-triumphing-over-evil theme? Ridiculous. Uncle Tom's Cabin may have further spread stereotypes, so now it's a bad novel? We should forget that it was, rightly, a motivational force in hurrying along the abolitionist movement? Again, ridiculous. For that outcome, hurrah for it being sensationalist at the time. Attention and shock were needed then. And who can doubt that such evil characters did exist? We may be a free country now, but evil people still exist. Surly they existed (and with the force of the law to back them!) during the times of slavery. How can people take issue with Stowe's account, and her lack of direct experience, when the informed mind can easily imagine similar experiences happened many times over.
Anyway, I think the nay-sayers should place less emphasis on the ridiculous and more on the intention. There's an obvious reason this celebrated novel is such a force in classical American literature. Okay, I'm stepping down now. :)"
"I took up this book with dubious expectations. Even the title itself sounded like an unimaginative prologue to a maudlin tale from a haughty female. (In the final pages, the title is given meaning.) But it took only a few chapters before I realized that I was experiencing a true classic. The book has five virtues. One, it is a historic artifact, something from the distant past, describing events and thoughts experienced by people of another age, an age not so distant in chronological years, but of a vastly distant world, an age where somehow human bondage was an accepted part of the culture. Two, it has historic import-it is a book that was very influential in its time, and its power is evident from the passion with which the writer tells her story. Three, it is a well told story, exciting in its drama. Four, it is not mere storytelling, but is an impassioned moral and political essay. The message it delivered was urgent. Five, it is written with great literary skill. This is among the most eloquent prose I've read in some time. It was a pleasure to experience the well-formed sentence structure, the adroit vocabulary, the use of various dialects in the character dialogue, and the writer's command of the English language. Yet it was grounded enough in historic fact and message that the writing was not mere fanciful entertainment. There was only one point in the narrative that I thought slowed and lost some of its vigor. And, granted, the story had moments of incredulity and may not be a balanced portrayal of slave conditions. But these did not serve to significantly undermine of overall force of the work. My complements go to "the little woman who started the big war," as Lincoln called her."
"Wow. An important book, surely, historically, and I found the forward more interesting than most as it argued about the book's place in American Literature. (Though, sadly, like most academic forwards, rife with spoilers. Lady! I'm reading this for the first time, don't tell me who dies and who gets married and who goes to Africa!)
Stowe's strength is in her more merry passages, particularly when she can put her bible down for five seconds and turn a wry, Twain-like eye on popular culture. Sadly, these passages are too few and far between, drowning under gallons of preaching and an over-sentimentalized series of accounts that rob the actions of their innate horror. She did her homework, and the accounts of atrocities of slavery jive with those I've read in Frederick Douglas' autobiography, but I would recommend Douglas' work over hers twenty-to-one. It is more compassionate, more rooted in reality, and lest damn preachy.
Also, there are a few very very offensive passages that just made me gasp and want to look away..."
"Aside from the important and sensitive subject matter: Yes, the writing is sometimes overblown. Like Charles Dickens novels, Harriet Beecher Stowe wants to impart (very!) important moral lessons, prodding with scenes of heartwarming carrots and heartwrenching sticks of degradation. Stowe's literary talents don't quite match Dickens', so the overdone kitch is kind of like a Precious Moments figurine compared with a rare Meissen figurine from Dickens.
But I'm not immune, and I did sob. I loved reading Uncle Tom's Cabin and appreciated what I imagine was a fair amount of courage, conviction and candor for the time.
I also appreciated some of what I remember as Stowe's instructional, but less sentimental points. A young slave, Topsy, is at first treated with prejudice and without much respect as an incorrigible imp. But ultimately she emerges as an intelligent, valuable and trustworthy person. This illustrated - in an 1852-kind of way - how prejudice works, and how equal opportunity can change it.
I do not at all intend to downplay the bigger message of slavery, pernicious stereotypes and a broader history of racism in the U.S."
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