Take a photo of a barcode or cover
1.46k reviews for:
Twelve Years a Slave: Including; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Solomon Northup, Frederick Douglass
4.23 AVERAGE
1.46k reviews for:
Twelve Years a Slave: Including; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Solomon Northup, Frederick Douglass
4.23 AVERAGE
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
When I picked up this book, I didn’t really realize how old it was—published in 1853! I guess it’s gotten a bit more attention recently since the movie came out. So the book is Solomon Northup’s true account of being a free Black man in the North and then getting kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South, where he stayed as a slave for twelve years.
I think this book is powerful because we are able to read what slavery was like by someone who actually lived through it. He actually wrote his memoir the same year he was freed, so it was all very fresh in his mind when he wrote it. I gave the book four stars instead of five because, while the book is well-written, Northup tells his story in a very straightforward, factual manner, and it was hard for me to connect and feel the emotion of what was happening.
I think this book is powerful because we are able to read what slavery was like by someone who actually lived through it. He actually wrote his memoir the same year he was freed, so it was all very fresh in his mind when he wrote it. I gave the book four stars instead of five because, while the book is well-written, Northup tells his story in a very straightforward, factual manner, and it was hard for me to connect and feel the emotion of what was happening.
challenging
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
Sad story to read but you could tell he was a very honorable good man.
Really enjoyed this. Can't stop thinking about Patsey...
Read this book for class. It felt somewhat contrived at points and I wonder how much of it was true and how much was created to make a better story. Still, it was interesting.
Preparing for my 7h bus trip I decided to give audiobooks a try. While I enjoy listening to, for e.g., podcasts, I had never tried audiobooks, as I thought I wouldn't be able to focus on the story as much. Truth be told, I did have to go back a few times on the recording, and to put a bit more focus into every sentence than I think I would need when reading. But it was worth it!
First of all, this recording is from LibriBox and it's in the public domain, so anyone can access it for free. With that being said, I deduce it's probably not the best quality version of this audiobook out there... It was quite monotone at times, and the fact the voice actor was british, made me wonder if they tried AT ALL to have some historical and cultural accuracy. I think not.
Technicalities aside, I really enjoyed the book. The writing is beautiful and entrancing, and the story of course made me teary eyed more than once... It is a terrible, though in no way "fantastical" account... I believe this happened, and happened a lot back then, and even now. I would've liked the structure or flow of the book to be a bit different perhaps. There was a chunk in the middle where I felt that descriptions lagged on, and that stories of other secondary, or even tertiary characters were just stalling. But I understand they help the reader understand the context in which Solomon lived back then.
Definitely would recommend to those not too faint of heart, as I think people should be aware of this side of American history, and slavery overall.
First of all, this recording is from LibriBox and it's in the public domain, so anyone can access it for free. With that being said, I deduce it's probably not the best quality version of this audiobook out there... It was quite monotone at times, and the fact the voice actor was british, made me wonder if they tried AT ALL to have some historical and cultural accuracy. I think not.
Technicalities aside, I really enjoyed the book. The writing is beautiful and entrancing, and the story of course made me teary eyed more than once... It is a terrible, though in no way "fantastical" account... I believe this happened, and happened a lot back then, and even now. I would've liked the structure or flow of the book to be a bit different perhaps. There was a chunk in the middle where I felt that descriptions lagged on, and that stories of other secondary, or even tertiary characters were just stalling. But I understand they help the reader understand the context in which Solomon lived back then.
Definitely would recommend to those not too faint of heart, as I think people should be aware of this side of American history, and slavery overall.
While this is not necessarily the most gripping of reads, Solomon Northup's memoir is one that deserves to be read and discussed widely. I had not heard of this book prior to the film of the same name a couple of years ago and so cannot account for how much it got read before this. However, I never watched the film but did buy (and finally read) the book; I hope this is symptomatic of a renewed audience in recent years.
It takes a while to get used to the style of writing used due to this being an older first hand account, and there is an awful lot of excess, mundane information which seems to serve merely as the author trying to convince us he is not embellishing. Frankly, it annoyed me frequently, but I can understand why this was deemed necessary considering the political climate at the time of publication.
Solomon Northup experienced the horrors of slavery having previously lived as a free man. There is a great level of awareness in this book that this is both a comfort to him in his hope for rescue, but that this also makes the contrast in his life harder to reconcile. He does not, however, beg for pity or in any way infer that he believed his suffering was worse than that of others. In fact, this read to me as the memoir of an exceedingly kind hearted, forgiving man. Albeit one who is seething with a quiet rage at the horrors inflicted on his race.
I was amazed that this doesn't read as a political manifesto - whilst there is obviously a strong support of the abolitionist movement throughout the book, this is not written in order to spearhead change to policy. As such, I can imagine that due to reading an account of one man's life, the personalised, individual narrative hammered home the needed for changes to the law for a vast amount of people even more successfully than had the memoir been written with that as its more obvious intention.
Solomon Northup must have been a man of great internal strength. I was sad to discover upon a quick internet search that following the publication of this book he disappeared both into obscurity and from the census records in which his family are still present. I sincerely hope that given the trials this man went through, he was successful in readjusting to his family life and lived some happy years with them before being buried alongside his father as he so ardently wished for. It takes an incredibly noble, generous soul to have been kidnapped and sold into slavery and still comprehend his situation in a social context rather than as the root of all evil in and of itself. Solomon Northup writes the following within his book, and I found this perspective nothing short of mindblowing, intelligent and indicative of great character from one who had been wronged so badly:
"It is not the fault of the slaveholder that he is cruel, so much as it is the fault of the system under which he lives. He cannot withstand the influence of habit and associations that surround him. Taught from earliest childhood, by all that he sees and hears, that the rod is for the slave's back, he will not be apt to change his opinions in maturer years.
There may be humane masters, as there certainly are inhuman ones - there may be slaves well-clothed, well-fed, and happy, as there surely are those half-clad, half-starved and miserable; nevertheless, the institution that tolerates such wrong and inhumanity as I have witnessed, is a cruel, unjust, and barbarous one."
It takes a while to get used to the style of writing used due to this being an older first hand account, and there is an awful lot of excess, mundane information which seems to serve merely as the author trying to convince us he is not embellishing. Frankly, it annoyed me frequently, but I can understand why this was deemed necessary considering the political climate at the time of publication.
Solomon Northup experienced the horrors of slavery having previously lived as a free man. There is a great level of awareness in this book that this is both a comfort to him in his hope for rescue, but that this also makes the contrast in his life harder to reconcile. He does not, however, beg for pity or in any way infer that he believed his suffering was worse than that of others. In fact, this read to me as the memoir of an exceedingly kind hearted, forgiving man. Albeit one who is seething with a quiet rage at the horrors inflicted on his race.
I was amazed that this doesn't read as a political manifesto - whilst there is obviously a strong support of the abolitionist movement throughout the book, this is not written in order to spearhead change to policy. As such, I can imagine that due to reading an account of one man's life, the personalised, individual narrative hammered home the needed for changes to the law for a vast amount of people even more successfully than had the memoir been written with that as its more obvious intention.
Solomon Northup must have been a man of great internal strength. I was sad to discover upon a quick internet search that following the publication of this book he disappeared both into obscurity and from the census records in which his family are still present. I sincerely hope that given the trials this man went through, he was successful in readjusting to his family life and lived some happy years with them before being buried alongside his father as he so ardently wished for. It takes an incredibly noble, generous soul to have been kidnapped and sold into slavery and still comprehend his situation in a social context rather than as the root of all evil in and of itself. Solomon Northup writes the following within his book, and I found this perspective nothing short of mindblowing, intelligent and indicative of great character from one who had been wronged so badly:
"It is not the fault of the slaveholder that he is cruel, so much as it is the fault of the system under which he lives. He cannot withstand the influence of habit and associations that surround him. Taught from earliest childhood, by all that he sees and hears, that the rod is for the slave's back, he will not be apt to change his opinions in maturer years.
There may be humane masters, as there certainly are inhuman ones - there may be slaves well-clothed, well-fed, and happy, as there surely are those half-clad, half-starved and miserable; nevertheless, the institution that tolerates such wrong and inhumanity as I have witnessed, is a cruel, unjust, and barbarous one."
it was hard for me to get into the book. it didn't grasp my attention at all.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced