This Paperback Book item from Penguin Classics was reviewed on 8-Oct-2008.
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1) Paperback Book Uncle Tom's Cabin: Or, Life Among the Lowly (The Penguin American Library) by Penguin Classics. There are some books which one gets to know by reputation before one actually reads them. "Uncle Tom´s Cabin (or, Life Among the Lowly)" by Harriet Beecher Stowe is one of them. Whether from studying American History and slavery, and hearing the pejorative term "Uncle Tom", one gets a strong sense for certain aspects of the book. For whatever reason, I had not read the book until recently, when studying in more detail the history of slavery in the U.S. made this a necessity in my view.
The history of how this book came about is important to the overall experience as well. The 1850 Compromise had seemed to settle the slavery question, before Stephen A. Douglas used its existence as a justification for his argument that the Missouri Compromise had been overturned. However, part of the Compromise included a slave-catching bill which created outcries from the abolitionist movement, and led a thirty-nine year old Harriet Beecher Stowe to write what would become perhaps the most important publication in the history of the Untied States.
The change in public sentiment after its publication was dramatic. Its initial publication in the "National Era" as a 40 part serial, starting with the June 5, 1851 issue, did not draw a lot of notice outside of the abolitionist movement, but its publication as a complete book on March 20th of 1852 resulted in it being the most successful novel ever written up to that point. It was called by one critic at the time "The most valuable addition that America has made to English literature", and it has become a piece of history itself, as well as a classic piece of literature.
In the initial part of the story there are three key slave characters to this story: the title character, Uncle Tom, Eliza (there is also her young son Harry), and George Harris. George is Eliza´s husband and Harry´s father, and is owned by Mr. Harris, who abuses George, mainly due to his being jealous of George´s talents. Eliza, Harry, and Tom are owned by Mr. and Mrs. Shelby. The Shelby´s are good to their slaves, yet due to some financial mishaps, Arthur Shelby decides that he is forced to sell off Tom, and is then talked into selling Harry as well to fully clear his debt. This is the opening scene of the novel, and it sets the tone for the rest of the book.
Eliza learns of the sale of Harry and flees with her son in order to save him. She is also aware of her husband´s intent to flee from his brutal master. George does also flee and both of them make their way into Ohio where they manage to unite. Tom, learns the reason for his sale, and decides that it is best for his master and the rest of the slaves owned by the Shelby´s, and thus he obediently goes along with the sale. The fleeing slaves go north, while Tom is taken south.
The three characters are very distinct and important. Stowe uses Eliza to show the perspective of a female slave. Her family kept apart by slavery, and threatened to be parted from her son, she flees in fear and in do so gains freedom and her family reunited. George is equally important, as by defying an abusive owner, he too gains his freedom and his family by not following the law. In his words we hear the echo of Patrick Henry when he says "I´ll be free, or I´ll die!" Stowe uses these characters to show the fallacy of the common belief of the time that slaves don´t have the same sense of family. She also defies common belief by portraying George as smart and talented and passionate about his thirst for freedom. Of course, the comparison between the dire conditions for George in slavery as well as the broken family situation verses that which they have once they flee is significant. Stowe leaves George, Eliza, and Harry for a long period in the middle of the book, but she does return to them in a chapter near the end to finish their story.
The other character, Uncle Tom, is the most controversial. His almost infuriating obedience and subservience to his masters in the story resulted in the creation of the derisive term "Uncle Tom". His character today reads as one who is not intelligent, and someone who blindly follows his master and his religion. In my opinion, it was important to have him as the central hero of the story and important that he act as the "ideal slave" would act. One key point is the contrast between what happens to an "ideal" slave who does what the master tells him to do, and the "bad" slaves who run away. Unlike Eliza and George, Tom loses his wife and children when his master sells him.
Another important aspect of Tom is that he is always, by far, more moral than those that supposedly "own" him. Even the relatively benign Arthur Shelby allows his personal needs to not only sell Tom, but in doing so breaking his promise to free him, and beyond that, he fails to make a real effort to regain Tom, which he also promises to do. This contrast serves its purpose well. Tom is not dumb, and his faith is pure and true, unlike the faith of the slave-owners which they have had to twist to convince themselves that slavery is a moral good.
Tom´s second master is Augustine St. Clare, who inherited a plantation in Louisiana, and though he feels slavery is a sin, it is a sin he is unable to abstain from. His cousin, Miss Ophelia St. Clare, is from New England and argues with him to try to get him to give up his slaves. His response is to have her try to raise and educate a wild young slave girl called Topsy. Though separated from his family, Tom is still able to correspond through an exchange of letters, which gives both himself and his loved ones hope of being reunited. Tom´s obedience again earns his master´s trust, good treatment, and promise of freedom, but a tragedy results in Tom being sold again.
Tom´s third master is the infamous Simon Legree, a brutal master who trusts no slave, and who finds Tom too soft. At this point, Tom´s separation from his family is complete, there is no communication at all. It is here where Tom refuses to do as his new master acts, and the reader learns that Tom has never really been a slave, that his actions have always been carried out because he believed they were the best course of action. He will not let Legree turn him into a Slave Driver, and he will readily sacrifice himself for others, as he has done throughout.
Though the slang can be difficult to navigate, and there are certainly other weaknesses as well, such as a wrap-up which is a bit too neat and some ideas on Liberia which demonstrate the racism which was even there in those that were against slavery, this is a book which every American ought to read and experience. When initially published, the book did well not only in the Northern part of the United States, but in Europe as well. Stowe makes use of the current events of the time in her narrative. For example, in one of the narrative comments, Stowe makes a comparison to a runaway slave and a Hungarian defying the law and making his way to America, which is a clear reference to the Hungarian, Louis Kossuth, fleeing Austria and the hero´s welcome he received when he came to the United States.
The edition I am reviewing is the Penguin Classics which includes an introduction titled "The Art of Controversy" by Ann Douglas. It provides some good insight into Harriet Beecher Stowe´s life and her writing of this novel, but I did think she somewhat oversimplified some of the historical context. Nevertheless, I would definitely highly recommend the novel.
¤ 2) Paperback Book Uncle Tom's Cabin: Or, Life Among the Lowly (The Penguin American Library) by Penguin Classics. My one-star rating applies only to the Penguin edition of Uncle Tom´s Cabin. The Penguin edition, edited by Ann Douglas, has a high rate of transcription error. So it is not suitable for serious study.
I listed a selection (over 100) of the transcription errors in the Penguin edition for a presentation at the 2007 American Literature Association conference. For example, the Penguin edition on page 619 (in the 4 copies that I´ve examined) has the following line:
"If the laws of New England were so arranged that a master could [it]now and then[/it] torture an apprentice to death, would it be received with equal composure?"
In the 1852 Jewett edition (the first printing in book form), the sentence included an additional clause:
"If the laws of New England were so arranged that a master could [it]now and then[/it] torture an apprentice to death, without a possibility of being brought to justice, would it be received with equal composure?"
This error--the omission of "without a possibility of being brought to justice"--diminishes a key theme in Stowe´s work. I encourage scholars, teachers, and students to purchase Ammons´s or Sklar´s editions of UTC. Among editions that I´ve examined, those editions have more reliable texts. I have not examined the new Bedford edition (Railton) or the new Norton edition (Gates and Robbins).
If you choose to buy some other edition, perhaps your choice will encourage Penguin to publish a corrected edition. This edition was ranked 41,945 at Amazon when I wrote this review in July of 2007.¤ 3) Paperback Book Uncle Tom's Cabin: Or, Life Among the Lowly (The Penguin American Library) by Penguin Classics. I found this book very well written. It is interesting that the author chose not only to show the terrible suffering that came from slavery, but also she revealed how slavery extracts a toll on the master. Personally it exemplifies how religion can (as in many cases throughout history) support and justify cruelty and violence. This book should stir everyone at the gut level. I don´t want to forget to add that I like the Modern Library Classics format. At the end of the book is discussion questions and commentary by other famous authors.¤ 4) Paperback Book Uncle Tom's Cabin: Or, Life Among the Lowly (The Penguin American Library) by Penguin Classics. I wasn´t ready to enjoy this novel and the first 60 pp reinforced this prejudice. The beginning is filled with Stowe´s rendition of slave´s speech--"ah´s gwyne ter make corn pone fer Mas´r"--which most modern readers will find demeaning. Fortunately this tones down.
As a non-religious person I have a low tolerance for preachifyin, but it bothered me less as the novel progressed, as it became obvious that the most effective argument against slavery at the time was righteous Christianity. The issue was not the equality of the races, though Stowe does allow for that (not bad for 1850!), but that a Christian should not own humans, period. Whether the slaves were happy-go-lucky, sentimental, childlike, superstitious--all these supposed attributes of one race or another--all these were irrelevant to her.
Through the character of St Clare she argues that the greater sin of slave owners was their hypocrisy rather than the ownership per se. That owners might claim justification from some obscure passage in the Bible was an outrage. Better to simply admit that you hold slaves because you have the power to do so, and it makes your life easier. If you are to be wicked, admit it at least--don´t hide behind some nonsensical religious rationalization. If the slave owners could be honest about their reasons, then there might be hope of winning the moral argument.
The characters are one-dimensional--pure good, pure evil, not much in between. Most are what we now see as stereotypes. They merely function as tools of the plot and the point. What I didn´t expect was that the story itself would be as exciting as it was. It moves right along. This overcomes the preachiness and the simplicity of the characters, and is the reason so many read the book. Even for all its patronizin and preachifyin, it´s a page-turner.
As others have noted it is amazing to see how "Uncle Tom", portrayed as noble and saintly, has become such a term of derision.
Finally, if you are going to read this, don´t read the Introduction until after you´ve read the novel, as it gives away several plot points that you are better off encountering for yourself in the novel.
¤ 5) Paperback Book Uncle Tom's Cabin: Or, Life Among the Lowly (The Penguin American Library) by Penguin Classics. When Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe he reportedly said, "This is the little woman who made the great war". The tremendous influence of this book on Anti-Slavery attitudes are considered to be a very real factor in leading to atmosphere which helped bring about the Civil War. This work is thus in terms of its ´real effect´ in the ´real world ´ far more important than ´Moby Dick´ or " Leaves of Grass´ or ´The Scarlet Letter ´ or ´Walden´, the greatest books of the American Renaissance.
The literary quality of the book is in no proportion to the Influence which it had.
I have found it an almost impossible read, in good part because of its language.¤ 6) Paperback Book Uncle Tom's Cabin: Or, Life Among the Lowly (The Penguin American Library) by Penguin Classics. Published in 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe´s novel was a powerful indictment of slavery in America. Describing the many trials and eventual escape to freedom of the long-suffering, good-hearted slave Uncle Tom, it aimed to show how Christian love can overcome any human cruelty. "Uncle Tom´s Cabin" has remained controversial to this day, seen as either a vital milestone in the anti-slavery cause or as a patronising stereotype of African-Americans, yet it played a crucial role in the eventual abolition of slavery and remains one of the most important American novels ever written.¤ Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 5-Nov-2008, 01403900309780140390032, 300-470-630-440-120-670-341-8 
Uncle Tom's Cabin: Or, Life Among the Lowly (The Penguin American Library), Book, Image © Penguin Classics
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