Scan barcode
delina2983's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.5
The southern dialect was a bit hard to follow in the beginning, but.. I’m stumped for words. I want to say amazing book (but with the horrific subject matter), not sure it feels right. Certainly one of the most riveting books I’ve read in a while. The strength of faith amidst the hardships of the American slavery is probably the main theme, and is what keeps you pinned to this book. Just when there’s a glimmer of hope, something happens to turn it around. One of the most important books from that time period, or ever. Just wow.
nmars's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
memybooksandi's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
lsparrow's review against another edition
3.0
The writing is definitely set in it's own particular time and setting. The author attempts to present a breadth of experiences around slavery and for the attempt does justice to a wide range of experiences and view points - however it is not as strong or as personal as if from a lived experience. Even the popularity/acclaim that this book has speaks to the issues of systemic racism - other accounts by those who had lived experiences are at best unknown if not unpublished. It feels that much of the strengths of the novel relies on the stories of others. The final section of the book drags as Stowe gets distracted by needing to clearly reiterate her political views (which in my mind the story clearly speaks for).
Overall I found it helpful to read it in light of period it was written - and to see how this has shaped today - and how even many of the themes are still relevant.
Overall I found it helpful to read it in light of period it was written - and to see how this has shaped today - and how even many of the themes are still relevant.
m7_20's review against another edition
4.0
رواية أظهرت الظلم الواقع والناتج عن الاسترقاق الذي حدث في تلك الحقبة من تاريخ امريكا،ونوّعت المؤلفة في شخصياتها وسرد تسلسل أحداثها العجيب،فجعلتني أبغض وأكره شخصيات وأتعاطف مع شخصيات أخرى،شدتني الحوارات العميقة التي كانت تحدث بين شخصيات الرواية لأنها توضّح مشاعرهم وآراءهم التي تأثر في معاملتهم ونظرهم للعبيد،نهايتها لم تكن متوقعة ولكنها مؤلمة،ترجمة منير البعلبكي رائعة وجذّابة لا تشعرك باختلال الترجمة عن النص الأصلي التي كتبت به
*تنحصر سلبيات الرواية في نقطتين:-
اولاً:شعرت أن أحداث الرواية سريعة ولا أعلم هل بسبب الترجمة أم أن المؤلفة تسرعت في السرد
ثانياً:وجود بعض الحوارات الإلحادية التي يكون فيها اعتراضات على الذات الإلهية
*تنحصر سلبيات الرواية في نقطتين:-
اولاً:شعرت أن أحداث الرواية سريعة ولا أعلم هل بسبب الترجمة أم أن المؤلفة تسرعت في السرد
ثانياً:وجود بعض الحوارات الإلحادية التي يكون فيها اعتراضات على الذات الإلهية
cheekylaydee's review against another edition
4.0
I have attempted this book in the past and somehow given up and moved onto lighter reading. This time I stuck with it and I'm glad I did. This book was the first to tell the story of slavery from the slave's point of view. This is hugely significant.
Other books set during or just after this period (Gone with the Wind is the one that immediately springs to mind) tell the stories of white people who own black slaves. This is one of the rare books I've read (Alex Haley's Roots excepted) that tell stories of slavery from the slave's point of view. It's quite difficult to imagine in this modern age that skin colour could have had such an influence on how somebody could have been viewed and treated. This goes beyond mere racism, this is actually viewing certain human beings as nothing but cattle to be bought, traded, the women routinely raped and more than likely worked to death just to be replaced by the next on the market.
There are certain events in history such as the Holocaust and the slave trade that I personally find incomprehensible. Even Beecher-Stowe, who was attempting to portray slaves as individuals with rights still consistently refers to them as 'creatures' albeit 'gentle', 'simple' or 'docile' ones. The apartness is still so stark that even the author not once refers to them as people.
I find this incredible. Although this book was significant in that it started to raise questions about the morality of the slave trade in America I'm still left wondering how the author viewed those in slavery. Yes, it's abundantly clear that she had sympathy for them, that she thought it was fundamentally wrong, but to me, it still comes across as if she sees herself as significantly different because she has white skin. I am in no way trying to take anything away from this novel's historical significance but from the way it's written it appears that black slaves are to be helped by white people, but it still feels to me that because white people have all the power that they are somehow worthy of the title of human being whereas blacks are constantly referred to as 'poor critters' rather than human beings.
That's really the only significant flaw I found with the book, and maybe I have to remember that these were the first few tentative steps into questioning the morality of the slave trade. My modern morality still somehow finds this book wanting.
Other books set during or just after this period (Gone with the Wind is the one that immediately springs to mind) tell the stories of white people who own black slaves. This is one of the rare books I've read (Alex Haley's Roots excepted) that tell stories of slavery from the slave's point of view. It's quite difficult to imagine in this modern age that skin colour could have had such an influence on how somebody could have been viewed and treated. This goes beyond mere racism, this is actually viewing certain human beings as nothing but cattle to be bought, traded, the women routinely raped and more than likely worked to death just to be replaced by the next on the market.
There are certain events in history such as the Holocaust and the slave trade that I personally find incomprehensible. Even Beecher-Stowe, who was attempting to portray slaves as individuals with rights still consistently refers to them as 'creatures' albeit 'gentle', 'simple' or 'docile' ones. The apartness is still so stark that even the author not once refers to them as people.
I find this incredible. Although this book was significant in that it started to raise questions about the morality of the slave trade in America I'm still left wondering how the author viewed those in slavery. Yes, it's abundantly clear that she had sympathy for them, that she thought it was fundamentally wrong, but to me, it still comes across as if she sees herself as significantly different because she has white skin. I am in no way trying to take anything away from this novel's historical significance but from the way it's written it appears that black slaves are to be helped by white people, but it still feels to me that because white people have all the power that they are somehow worthy of the title of human being whereas blacks are constantly referred to as 'poor critters' rather than human beings.
That's really the only significant flaw I found with the book, and maybe I have to remember that these were the first few tentative steps into questioning the morality of the slave trade. My modern morality still somehow finds this book wanting.
melonep08's review against another edition
5.0
Finallyyyyyy!
This book is definitely slow going, but overall it really made me question what the life of African-American slaves were like and the differences in opinion between the north and the south. Happy I chose this for my EPQ now.
This book is definitely slow going, but overall it really made me question what the life of African-American slaves were like and the differences in opinion between the north and the south. Happy I chose this for my EPQ now.
emerygirl's review against another edition
3.0
This book was on the book list for 10th grade honors english. It was required reading and I had to read it fast because of course I proscrasinated until the last few days of the quarter when the book report was due. I enjoyed the book, but wouldn't read it again. It was very deep, especially for a 16 year old.
dale_kooyenga's review against another edition
5.0
The following was published in my Right Wisconsin Right Books Column:
There is arguably no work of fiction more consequential to United States history, and therefore to world history, than Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Published in 1852, it’s a trailblazing book, not just because it tackled a controversial subject matter at a fraught time, but in its deliberate approach to changing hearts and minds about slavery.
The groundbreaking novel follows the story of a group of slaves, including Uncle Tom, who endure suffering at the hands of slave owners. Throughout their journeys, including being bought and sold, beaten and abused, it becomes impossible for a reader not to internalize the plight of the protagonists. Thus, Stowe’s genius shows through.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin changed history by creating empathy for the plight of the slave. Stowe makes sure the reader feels the pain, suffering, and heartbreak of the characters—characters the likes of whom had not been given such a voice before her work.
Empathy is critical to the book and the key to its impact. It is defined as the quality of “vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present.” Its use to connect readers to characters might not seem groundbreaking to us because today’s novels and films consistently build characters and narratives by creating empathy. In reality, however, the word empathy didn’t even enter the English language until 1909.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was among the first works of literature to emotionally connect readers to characters using empathy. In the decades prior to the book, reasoned arguments and legal theories had moved only small segments of the population on the issue of slavery. The book brought to readers the slaves’ humanity at a time when many Americans did not see them as equal human beings, or at the very least were unwilling to plunge the nation into a bloody war to secure their freedom.
Seeing the slaves’ human perspective changed hearts and minds among a stunning number of Americans and people around the world—the book sold more copies than the Bible within one year of being published, and it was translated into 37 languages within two years.
The growing popular sentiment in favor of abolition led to a new political party two years after the novel’s publication, the Republican Party, and triggered the rise of its new president, Abraham Lincoln. This change of hearts and minds put wind in the sails of the abolitionist cause, which had been mostly relegated to the radical wing of the Republican Party. Mainstream opposition to slavery gave Lincoln and Republicans the political impetus they needed to embrace total emancipation and eventually declare an end to slavery once and for all.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was one of the reasons public opinion changed so rapidly before and during the Civil War, and appealing to empathy—the human heart—was how it did it.
Tragically, slavery’s legacy lived on in many forms following the Civil War, the ripple effects of which are still present in 2020 America. The work of Stowe and her contemporaries are all the more important in our modern discussions about racial disparities—a topic that we are all too familiar with in Wisconsin, particularly when it comes to education.
Former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass made clear that not being able to read was itself its own form of slavery. In his autobiography, he recounts overhearing the “man of the house” telling his wife to cease teaching Frederick to read because “there will be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave.” Douglass then writes, “From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom.”
Douglass was essentially articulating the old saying that “knowledge is power.” The pathway to empowerment and self-sufficiency is a quality education, and the key to education is literacy.
If Douglass were alive today, I have little doubt he would be a fierce champion of literacy and that he would be dismayed at the state of education in our country, particularly the education being provided in largely minority areas and the low reading proficiency scores of so many urban schools.
The failure of facts and legal arguments alone to seriously move public opinion on the issue of slavery, and the success of empathy, is relevant to today’s public policy debates like fixing education.
The party of Lincoln should approach the current unrest from the perspective of empathy and keep an understanding of the issues facing minority communities. We can acknowledge that Black children are more likely to be trapped in failing schools—therefore we support school choice. We can acknowledge redlining and other federal housing policies have been discriminatory—therefore we should have less government involvement in housing and allow more flexibility with zoning and building regulations.
Unfortunately, there is far too little empathy on all sides in today’s debate. Perhaps that’s because books like Uncle Tom’s Cabin are hardly taught in America’s classrooms these days, even as issues of race have become more and more a topic of curriculum and the national conversation. That has led to this great work of historical fiction being largely misunderstood and reduced to an out-of-context insult. That’s very unfortunate for a society like ours that can only survive with knowledge about and wisdom drawn from the past.
Why has Uncle Tom’s Cabin disappeared from school reading lists? Perhaps it’s because empathy is out of style. Perhaps it’s because of the book’s roots in the Gospel. After all, Uncle Tom is portrayed as a Christ-like figure who turns the other cheek through years of torment by his vicious white captors. Perhaps it’s because readers today prefer a more aggressive protagonist.
Stowe’s approach, even a century and a half after slavery’s abolition, remains relevant to us today as we grapple with our generation’s litany of moral and societal evils. In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, she offers a fundamentally democratic approach to solving national problems: we must first change hearts if we want to change laws.
--------------------
2012 Review: The most powerful novel I've ever read. Arguably no work of fiction has had a greater impact on the world and our country than this book. I personally got emotion reading the horrors of slavery through the stories of the characters. I can't comes to grips that our high schools nearly unversily will teach the Great Gatsby but will not have student's read ths book that shaped US History and was one of the greatest catalyst of a war that put an end to America's greatest sin - Slavery. What book is more consequential? It's also a powerful story. Rich with Christian themes of justice and grace. Would love to see more Americans, especially young people, read this book.
There is arguably no work of fiction more consequential to United States history, and therefore to world history, than Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Published in 1852, it’s a trailblazing book, not just because it tackled a controversial subject matter at a fraught time, but in its deliberate approach to changing hearts and minds about slavery.
The groundbreaking novel follows the story of a group of slaves, including Uncle Tom, who endure suffering at the hands of slave owners. Throughout their journeys, including being bought and sold, beaten and abused, it becomes impossible for a reader not to internalize the plight of the protagonists. Thus, Stowe’s genius shows through.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin changed history by creating empathy for the plight of the slave. Stowe makes sure the reader feels the pain, suffering, and heartbreak of the characters—characters the likes of whom had not been given such a voice before her work.
Empathy is critical to the book and the key to its impact. It is defined as the quality of “vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present.” Its use to connect readers to characters might not seem groundbreaking to us because today’s novels and films consistently build characters and narratives by creating empathy. In reality, however, the word empathy didn’t even enter the English language until 1909.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was among the first works of literature to emotionally connect readers to characters using empathy. In the decades prior to the book, reasoned arguments and legal theories had moved only small segments of the population on the issue of slavery. The book brought to readers the slaves’ humanity at a time when many Americans did not see them as equal human beings, or at the very least were unwilling to plunge the nation into a bloody war to secure their freedom.
Seeing the slaves’ human perspective changed hearts and minds among a stunning number of Americans and people around the world—the book sold more copies than the Bible within one year of being published, and it was translated into 37 languages within two years.
The growing popular sentiment in favor of abolition led to a new political party two years after the novel’s publication, the Republican Party, and triggered the rise of its new president, Abraham Lincoln. This change of hearts and minds put wind in the sails of the abolitionist cause, which had been mostly relegated to the radical wing of the Republican Party. Mainstream opposition to slavery gave Lincoln and Republicans the political impetus they needed to embrace total emancipation and eventually declare an end to slavery once and for all.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was one of the reasons public opinion changed so rapidly before and during the Civil War, and appealing to empathy—the human heart—was how it did it.
Tragically, slavery’s legacy lived on in many forms following the Civil War, the ripple effects of which are still present in 2020 America. The work of Stowe and her contemporaries are all the more important in our modern discussions about racial disparities—a topic that we are all too familiar with in Wisconsin, particularly when it comes to education.
Former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass made clear that not being able to read was itself its own form of slavery. In his autobiography, he recounts overhearing the “man of the house” telling his wife to cease teaching Frederick to read because “there will be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave.” Douglass then writes, “From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom.”
Douglass was essentially articulating the old saying that “knowledge is power.” The pathway to empowerment and self-sufficiency is a quality education, and the key to education is literacy.
If Douglass were alive today, I have little doubt he would be a fierce champion of literacy and that he would be dismayed at the state of education in our country, particularly the education being provided in largely minority areas and the low reading proficiency scores of so many urban schools.
The failure of facts and legal arguments alone to seriously move public opinion on the issue of slavery, and the success of empathy, is relevant to today’s public policy debates like fixing education.
The party of Lincoln should approach the current unrest from the perspective of empathy and keep an understanding of the issues facing minority communities. We can acknowledge that Black children are more likely to be trapped in failing schools—therefore we support school choice. We can acknowledge redlining and other federal housing policies have been discriminatory—therefore we should have less government involvement in housing and allow more flexibility with zoning and building regulations.
Unfortunately, there is far too little empathy on all sides in today’s debate. Perhaps that’s because books like Uncle Tom’s Cabin are hardly taught in America’s classrooms these days, even as issues of race have become more and more a topic of curriculum and the national conversation. That has led to this great work of historical fiction being largely misunderstood and reduced to an out-of-context insult. That’s very unfortunate for a society like ours that can only survive with knowledge about and wisdom drawn from the past.
Why has Uncle Tom’s Cabin disappeared from school reading lists? Perhaps it’s because empathy is out of style. Perhaps it’s because of the book’s roots in the Gospel. After all, Uncle Tom is portrayed as a Christ-like figure who turns the other cheek through years of torment by his vicious white captors. Perhaps it’s because readers today prefer a more aggressive protagonist.
Stowe’s approach, even a century and a half after slavery’s abolition, remains relevant to us today as we grapple with our generation’s litany of moral and societal evils. In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, she offers a fundamentally democratic approach to solving national problems: we must first change hearts if we want to change laws.
--------------------
2012 Review: The most powerful novel I've ever read. Arguably no work of fiction has had a greater impact on the world and our country than this book. I personally got emotion reading the horrors of slavery through the stories of the characters. I can't comes to grips that our high schools nearly unversily will teach the Great Gatsby but will not have student's read ths book that shaped US History and was one of the greatest catalyst of a war that put an end to America's greatest sin - Slavery. What book is more consequential? It's also a powerful story. Rich with Christian themes of justice and grace. Would love to see more Americans, especially young people, read this book.
zhongshan's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75