Uncle Tom's cabin
Subtitle: authoritative text, backgrounds and contexts, criticism
By: edited by Elizabeth Ammons.
Contributors: Ammons, Elizabeth.
Edition: 1st ed.
Series: A Norton critical edition
Publisher: W.W. Norton
Published: 1994
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 587
Subjects: Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896; Uncle Tom (Fictitious character) -- Fiction; African Americans -- Fiction; Fugitive slaves -- Fiction; Plantation life -- Fiction; Slavery in literature; Slavery -- Fiction; Slaves -- Fiction; Southern States -- In literature; Southern States -- Fiction
Genres: Fiction.
Description: An international bestseller that sold more than 300,000 copies when it first appeared in 1852, Uncle Tom's Cabin was dismissed by some as abolitionist propaganda; yet Tolstoy deemed it a great work of literature "flowing from love of God and man." Today, however, Harriet Beecher Stowe's stirring indictment of slavery is often confused with garish dramatizations that flourished for decades after the Civil War: productions that relied heavily on melodramatic simplifications of character totally alien to the original. Thus "Uncle Tom" has become a pejorative term for a subservient black, whereas Uncle Tom in the book is a man who, under the most inhumane of circumstances, never loses his human dignity. This edition includes 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 587).