I just finished rereading Uncle Toms Cabin..

I happened onto it quite by accident and was intrigued by the rant of Augustine St. Clare: http://www.selfknowledge.com/utomc1b.htm
I wound up rereading the entire book, and right now I think it's probably the best book I've ever read. Harriet Beecher Stowes focus may have been slavery, but to me her characters capture the essence of the different mindsets that always have and always will exist.

I'm no expert on literature, but to me, Augustine St. Clare perfectly represented far left liberals, especially in the way his concerns with being always just, fair and good made him somewhat inefficient and occasionally had the opposite effect of what was intended. Simon Legree with his, "Use em up and we'll get more" kind of attitude represented to me the worst of the neo-con mentality. Arthur struck me as being a moderate conservative who was efficient but would tolerate a degree of cruelty, and Ophelia was the left leaning moderate who struck me as having the most potential of them all, once she understood her own shortcomings. I think Uncle Tom would have been an Ophelia if he had been able to have any power outside of himself, but when it all had to come from within he wound up being far stronger then any of them.

I'm not sure if creating timeless characters that represent the different political mindsets beyond slavery was the authors intent, but to me that is exactly what she did. If you haven't read this book I would urge you to do so. The whole thing is online here:

http://emotionalliteracyeducation.com/classic_books_online/utomc10.htm

I hope you get as much out of it as I did.

:kick:

but have almost felt ashamed of that fact when so many people assume "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is a racist book. I've never thought of it that way and am glad you agree. Considering her upbringing and life story, I'm sure she wrote the book to express her anger at the social injustices she was exposed to.

at the end of the book she outlines an argument against slavery and a plea for people to wake up to what they are doing. As I was reading it I kept thinking, 'If she was alive today she'd be at D.U. for sure"! Your presence here is keeping her legacy alive.

I like to write and we're both ministers' daughters ... and a relative to boot!

H.B. Stowe also managed to draw some amazing comparisons between the 'religious' Christians and the truly spritual Christians. I had no idea her father was a minister though. There is no doubt in my mind I would have liked your ancestor very much. You come from good stock!

in particular, "Big Boy leaves Home". It scared the hell out of me the first time I read it.

Black Boy is probably one of my favorite books. I think I need to re-read it now that I'm thinking of him.

my copy now, my wife and I moved into our house 3 years ago, and you know how it goes with those damn boxes, even in our rinky dink 1.5 Cape Cod.

I couldn't find it online but I found it Amazon. I'll be ordering tonight!

From Powells:

http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=63-0791036979-0

$5.95

Thanks!!

Harriet Beecher Stowe was a fascinating person. Not only was she a gifted writer, but she was a social activist.

snip
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/stowe/StoweHB.html
While she wrote at least ten adult novels, Harriet Beecher Stowe is predominantly known for her first, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). Begun as a serial for the Washington anti-slavery weekly, the National Era, it focused public interest on the issue of slavery, and was deeply controversial. In writing the book, Stowe drew on her personal experience: she was familiar with slavery, the antislavery movement, and the underground railroad because Kentucky, across the Ohio River from Cincinnatti, Ohio, where Stowe had lived, was a slave state. Following publication of the book, she became a celebrity, speaking against slavery both in America and Europe. She wrote A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin (1853) extensively documenting the realities on which the book was based, to refute critics who tried to argue that it was inauthentic; and published a second anti-slavery novel, Dred in1856. In 1862, when she visited President Lincoln, legend claims that he greeted her as "the little lady who made this big war": the war between the states. Campaigners for other social changes, such as Caroline Norton, respected and drew upon her work.

100 years, the copyright has expired. Just re-called this factoid.

http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/48/91/frameset.html

Of course, if you want a print copy, you'll have to download and print it out.

I learned to read from hard copy, it's easier for me to assimilate info via hard copy. But, that's just me.

My Bad

they're just cardboard cut-outs of stock characters from antebellum novels. While this is true in some ways of her white characters, too--Legree is a cartoon from gothic fiction, Little Eva is just reincarnated from various other pieces of sentimental fiction--none of the black characters reach beyond the level of stereotype (and not particularly effective stereotyping). Topsy, Tom, the Mammy figure are all denied subjectivity. The book succeeds primarily because it masters a melange of generic effects like melodrama, gothicism, and sentimentalism in service of a social project.