The Annotated Uncle Tom's Cabin

[blue_zouave]

I have heard about Uncle Tom's Cabin my whole life, but have to confess that I had never read it until this edition came out. This edition is enhanced with commentary by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Hollis Robbins, as well as illustrations from various editions of the book and posters of stage productions.

Uncle Tom's Cabin was a 19th century phenomenon -- a huge bestseller and the basis for countless stage productions. The names of Uncle Tom, Topsy, Eva, Simon Legree, and Eliza were household words (and still are today!) I'm sure that not a few people of the time could say that everything they knew about slavery, they learned from Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Though the novel is verbose and sentimental in the style of its day, I think it bears a first, or second, look from anyone interested in the American Civil War, including reenactors. It was a strong influence on popular thought in the 1850s and beyond (whether one agreed or disagreed with its themes).

Literarily yours
Zou

[matthew mckeon]

I agree with you, Zou its a must read.

Tom is not a "Tom" really, but the only real Christian in the book, turning the other cheek and practising nonviolence and brotherly love. He is sold from his relatively tolerable sitaution in Kentucky and travels deeper into the bowels of slavery, witnessing the variety of evils it inflicts on blacks and whites. The climax of the book, on Legree's plantation is pretty good, Tom and Legree engage in a contest of wills, Legree seeking a submission beyond Tom's daily work, and Tom resisting his assault on his self. "My body belongs to you, but my soul belongs to God."
The melodrama and verbose speeches are very false to our sensibilities(George, the conventional action hero, pauses to orate during a gunbattle).