Uncle Tom's Cabin: Or, Life among the Lowly FROM OUR EDITORS
The narrative drive of Stowe's classic novel is often overlooked in the heat of the controversies surrounding its anti-slavery sentiments. In fact, it is a compelling adventure story with richly drawn stories & has earned a place in both literary & American history.
ANNOTATION
A guide to reading "Uncle Tom's Cabin" with a critical and appreciative mind encouraging analysis of plot, style, form, and structure. Also includes background on the author's life and times, sample tests, term paper suggestions, and a reading list.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
On June 5, 1851, Uncle Tom's Cabin began as a serial in the abolitionist weekly, The National Era. Uncle Tom's Cabin quickly became the world's second-best seller, outranked only by the Bible. The importance of Harriet Beecher Stowe's monumental work was as evident at the time it was first published as it is today. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe at the White House and referred to her as "the little lady who started this big war." Lincoln knew better than anyone the irony in this. There was nothing diminutive about the issues she brought before the nation's conscience. A story of suffering and compassion, Uncle Tom's Cabin depicts slavery as honestly as it denounces it. This special edition is complemented by its companion piece, A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin. A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe shortly after Uncle Tom's Cabin to provide facts and documents to verify the truth of the work.
FROM THE CRITICS
AudioFile
Using a mixture of clearly distinguished voices, Ricco Ross brings Southern accents, Negro dialects, and another era to life in this rendering of UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. Listeners can almost see the young Negro quadroons, Jim Crow, and Topsy, who says, "I just growed," when asked when and where she was born. While Ricco portrays the ugly slave master, Simon Legree, with menacing tones of cruelty, he switches to sounds of compassion and grace with Uncle Tom. Ricco depicts the barbarisms of slave trading in which men, women, and children are bought and sold like livestock with chilling reality. This timeless classic is worth revisiting. G.D.W. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine
AudioFile - Robert I. Grundfest
Classic nineteenth-century literature can be difficult to read and hear. But this production is an exception. Buck Schirner's characters are so vivid, so well enunciated, that we wish Stowe had created more people for Schirner to give voice to. His characters argue about slavery, lament their fortunes and survive by their wits. He gives each person emotion and depth and reads Stowe's prose with conviction. Indeed, it's hard not to, given the moral force behind her words. The only negative is when Schirner reads in his own voice, which is low and flat. Because of his excellent vocal work, though, the book reminds us that the debate over race and human worth was as vivid in the 1850's as it is today. R.I.G. ﾽAudioFile, Portland, Maine
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