1.45k reviews for:

Twelve Years a Slave: Including; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Solomon Northup, Frederick Douglass

4.23 AVERAGE

mrj_mrj's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative medium-paced

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The book demonstrates skilfully the situation of slavery present in the region of the Red River, Bayou Boeuf. Unjustly kidnapping of free citizens and their brining into slavery was new to me. The very precise descriptions of cotton and sugar production might be interesting for the student of history, but did not catch my interest in particular. I most appreciated the dialogue and the more poetic passages.
The language is high and sometimes challenging. Commas are placed at – for today's standard – too many positions and some orthography is outdated, but for me, taking interest in the evolution of language, intriguing. Because of the clogged sentences with many subordinated clauses, it is sometimes hard to get through the text and understand it, as well as complicated. I learned a great deal of new vocabulary. The book captivated me and I enjoyed a lot. Most interesting was the second to last chapter, where the journey of the letter and the proceedings leading up to his liberation were related. 

peachyartist's review against another edition

5.0

emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

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Absolutely heartbreaking. Hate the history of this country. Thank goodness he got free.

mondoweirdo's review against another edition

4.0

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

cameron_cassidy's review against another edition

5.0

informative reflective sad medium-paced

mmchampion's review against another edition

4.0

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Louis Gossett, Jr. is the narrator reading the audible version of this novel. Fantastic! It’s amazing all that Solomon Northrop (Platt) endured during his twelve years as a slave. He took risks, some calculated and some not, and managed to live to tell his tale and see his wife and kids again. It’s almost unbelievable.

moon_jelly's review against another edition

4.0

challenging emotional informative sad slow-paced

kavuyo's review against another edition

3.25

emotional sad tense medium-paced

brideshead's review against another edition

5.0

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Damn. Well, my heart is broken.

Longer review probably to come.

hansenillustrations's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

alexsiddall's review against another edition

4.0

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The film sent me to the book, which I expected to struggle to read. Not a bit of it. It's a compelling story, and rings true. The narrator's voice comes through strong and true despite the lapse of time, distance, attitudes, social mores, culture, and writing style. And how pleasing that the film represents it so well.