The sentimental novel that acted as a catalyst for the American Civil War
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Uncle Tom's Cabin is one of the most important and popular novels in literary history. One hundred and fifty years on it remains as controversial as it was at the time of its publication and has spawned the term Uncle Tom to describe black people who are excessively meek and submissive in the face of racial abuse and prejudice. The debate today though is not about the morality of slavery, which is universally reviled, but instead focuses on whether or not the author inadvertently demeans and degrades the very people for whom she sought both dignity and liberation.
The novel begins in relatively liberal Kentucky in the home of a `liberal' slave owner and his wife who are reluctantly forced to sell two of their slaves to an unscrupulous dealer due to severe financial difficulties. On hearing that her son is about to be sold, mulatto Eliza flees across a frozen river with her little boy and heads for free Canada with the aid of sympathetic Quakers, meeting up with her bitter, estranged husband along the way. In contrast, pious Tom accepts severance from his family and his fate at the slave auction with resigned docility and is fortunate at first to be reassigned to a family headed by another liberal-inclined slaver. It is here that we meet the golden-haired (of course) little angel Eva, daughter of Tom's new master and his unsympathetic wife. Eva has bottomless compassion for Tom and the other slaves and servants and is adored in turn until she dies in one of the most saccharine death scenes in literature, reminiscent of the death of Bambi's mother. Eva's father promises his daughter on her deathbed that he would grant Tom his liberty but this promise is ignored by Eva's mother after his death and Tom is resold to the theatrically evil dealer Legree.
If Uncle Tom's Cabin did not contain scenes of emotional power and lyrical writing it would have been long-since forgotten. Despite Tom's cringing servility and all the black characters being apparently trapped in some kind of evolutionary stasis, a moving sincerity flows throughout the book and the effect it had on the conscience of nineteenth century America cannot be overstated. However, the world has moved on (allegedly) and in the end, the cloying sentimentality and the disturbing notion that Congregationalist Christianity is the only means available for gaining the freedom and dignity of the gentle, saintly slaves and redeeming the souls of their corrupt masters become overwhelming.
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Incredible. I commend you, Mrs Stowe.
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Uncle Tom's Cabin, is a fictional novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. A novel that eventually caused the outbreak of the great American civil war, and the novel that accomplished the Abolitionist in their mission of emancipation of captives, the slaves. A novel that made Stowe the most famous woman in literature, albeit the most controversial. Though it is a fictional novel, but Stowe insists that many parts of the novel are the excerpts from true accounts of slaves and fugitives. And that many similar parables were to be found in the slave states of America, at that time. Stowe, intially anticipated much less of the novel that it would just buy her a new dress, but, as the time unfolded, it escalated her to the heights of fame and controversy. At that time, it sold millions of the copies and made Stowe the most famous and wealthy writer of her era.
The novel is full of emotions and makes you get in their (slaves) shoes. I felt ecstatic when they were contented. I felt doleful when they are traumatised. A person so rigid like me, got his throat dry at some incidents. At the same time, makes you sympathetic towards them. The most distinguished hallmark of Stowe's work is her mesmerising depiction of characters, places and situations. Very artistic, indeed! The novel is so full of emotions, that if you stab the book, it will bleed. Bleed with the pathetic accounts of fugitives, slaves and utter and gross discrimination of the blacks at that time. Moreover, the novel also points out the religious inclination of Stowe, after going through characters of little Eva and the Christ like, Uncle Tom at his death bed. Though the religious exaggeration at few places reaches the frontier of fakery.
Let it as it may be, I will, without a doubt, recommend this to any one who really wants to read an emotional and touching novel. According to my presumption, the children under the age of 15 may not feel the granduer of novel, as adults.
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A wonderfully hopeful and uplifting story
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By the time I had got to page 47 I was hooked! I found the language a little slower to read than normal, having to get used to the speech of the slaves being written as it sounded, but I actually got to quite like that.
Harriet Beecher Stowe writes as if she's the narrator and I could almost see her at the side of the stage inviting us to see the next scene.
As we follow the lives of Uncle Tom, Eliza and George, the many people they encounter and whose lives they touch, and whose lives touched them, I cried and I smiled and I felt very humble. This is a very moving book yet oddly without being sentimental and that is to the author's credit. She writes well and makes every character very real and their situations both heartwrenching yet uplifting. A book that not only gives a valuble insight into life at the time in 'Kentuck' and what it was like to be 'sold down the river'....but one that gave me a hope and uplifting that I'd like to stay with me for some time to come.
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An outstanding story
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Uncle Tom's Cabin is a very melodramatic book. I have read it several times over the past twenty years and must say that it has something new for every decade or even for every generation. When considered for our time, Uncle Tom's stands out as a classic prose that hits directly at those turbulent times before the Civil War, and reflects issues of war and principles today. Harriet Beecher Stowe had a great cause to write about and wrote a work that still is as relevant today as it was during his time. The author's masterful story summarizes the conflicting attitudes of a nation on the brink of civil war. Melodramatic though it is, it was written in the style of the times and for a situation that required it. This is a highly recommended book. Also recommended: DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE, WAR AND PEACE, THE USURPER AND OTHERS
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An utterly moving book
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This book has to be amongst the most powerful and emotional book on slavery that I have ever read. The other reviewers have said all there is to say, so all I can add to that is READ IT! I totally admire this author for speaking out and stirring up emotions as she has, it is a masterpiece - I rest my case.
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