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5.0 out of 5 stars
Not perfect, but way ahead of its time!, Jul 6 2004
I usually don't expect 150-year-old novels of ideas (and this is the quintessential novel of ideas) to be page turners, but Stowe is to be commended for writing what is first of all a great story. Never mind all the political sermonizing she does here -- and there's plenty of it -- this is above all a gripping story. Every time I expected a chapter to head into tedious territory, I was pleasantly surprised. Even though everyone knows what will happen to Uncle Tom -- this being a slave narrative written before the Civil War, after all, -- I couldn't help but continue wanting to read on. This was the second best selling book of the 19th century not only because it was highly controversial, but also because it's a well-told story, and I say "told" because Stowe herself often claimed that God dictated it to her. And it seems to be more spoken than written, especially with her frequent direct addresses to the reader.While there may be something to Stowe's claim of divine inspiration given its impact, the book is certainly not without its faults. The character of Eva, for instance, is unlike that of any normal living child. She's a saintly caricature. And her neverending conclusion drips with maudlin sentiment exaggerated to Biblical proportions. Similarly, Uncle Tom doesn't bear resemblance to anyone I've ever met. But most troublesome is Stowe's romanticism of the black characters. She lumps them together and stereotypes them in one way or another. Clearly she means no harm; just the opposite is her desired effect. But it sometimes comes at the price of preachy condescension. They may be positive sterotypes, but they are stereotypes nonetheless, and they weaken her case against slavery. Having read and enjoyed the highly-acclaimed and abundantly-awarded "The Known World" by Edward P. Jones, it dawned on me that Stowe really had a more thorough understanding of even the most subtle effects that the institution of slavery had on blacks and whites both northern and southern alike even with ideal slave masters. She even appears to foresee the differences of opinion that would later crystallize in Martin Luther King's brand of civil disobediance and the more militant versions advocated by the Nation of Islam and Black Panthers, juxtaposed in the diverging paths of the quiet, pious and tolerant Tom with that of the more directly oppositional George. She criticizes neither, though she seems to favor Tom's path, knowing full well that Uncle Tom is unique, and his abundance of Christian tolerance isn't likely to be found in the general population -- nor is it a path she desires for most slaves. She would rather that slaves simply escaped. She also seems to advocate their creation of a country of their own, taking Liberia as a model. Still, further, Stowe is an early feminist, and as a result, the characters that are most interesting here are the women. Ophelia comes nearest of all the characters in the book to walking off the page. And Cassie, a finely complex creation, though introduced only in the last 120 pages or so, nearly steals the climax. And what of the villains? They, too, are caricatures to be sure. To me at least, Simon Legree left something to be desired. He occasionally comes off as more of a buffoon rather than the Satan you know him to be deep down. But Marie St. Claire -- again, the woman -- is as clear a picture of selfcenteredness as Scrooge is of miserliness. Hemingway said that all modern American literature dates back to Huckleberry Finn, but I think he needed to look about 30 years earlier than Twain to Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin is a masterpiece of American fiction; if it is not the Great American Novel, it is, at least in terms of sales, impact and literary merit, the Great American Novel of Ideas.
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