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0553212184
Bantam Classics
Fiction/Classics
"Uncle Tom, Topsy, Sambo, Simon Legree,
little Eva: their names are
American bywords, and all of them are
characters in Harriet Beecher
Stowe's remarkable novel of the pre-Civil
War South. Uncle Tom's Cabin
was revolutionary in 1852 for its passionate
indictment of slavery and for its
presentation of Tom, "a man of humanity," as
the first black hero in
American fiction. Labeled racist and
condescending by some contemporary
critics, it remains a shocking,
controversial, and powerful work - exposing
the attitudes of white
nineteenth-century society toward "the peculiar
institution" and documenting, in
heartrendering detail, the tragic breakup of
black Kentucky families "sold down the
river." An immediate international
sensation, Uncle Tom's Cabin sold
300,000 copies in the first year, was
translated into thirty-seven languages, and
has never gone out of print; its
political impact was immense, its emotional
influence immeasurable." |
