Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

7/10

This book was a'ight. It is one of the most influential books of all time and helped pave the way toward the end of slavery. Old honest Abe has been quoted to say something along the lines of, "So you're the little lady who started this great war" upon meeting Stowe. That was probably a huge paraphrase of the actual quote.

If I would have read this book back when it first came out I would have probably worshiped it tons more. That is unless I was a slaveholder myself and ruled with an iron fist. And whip. But reading it now was more of a, how you say, historical look back on an influential book of a day gone by. I think it held more weight then than now. Although there still are plenty of lessons to be learned for us in the here and now. It certainly isn't bad, it's good. I'm glad it was written and all. I think the main gripe I have is that it was pretty hardcore overly melodramatic at times. Kinda like overacting, or watching a soap opera, or one of those movies that just works and works and works at becoming a tearjerker. So much so that it ceases to be one and just becomes played out. But the book isn't that bad, but in parts it can feel like that. But I can't blame the Stowe-anator. She did what she had to do and obviously it worked. So bravo. It's worthwhile to read and can be pretty tender at parts when it's not too overdone. Like I said, it was a'ight, I definitely liked it more than I disliked it.

What I did like was that the book wasn't exactly what I expected. I thought it would be an obvious, outright display of terrible slaveholders and their terrible deeds. But instead, the first two slaveholders we meet, we actually like because they were good people. A lot of the book was a condemnation toward the people in the north for not doing anything about it when they were the ones who should know better. She did that part of the book in pretty cool and clever ways.

Also, maybe I didn't love it as much as I could have because the copy of my book was all falling apart. I was like, "C'mon!" Seriously poor binding job Harper Classics. Pages left and right were just coming right out. It was quite the dramatic effort on my part to go about reading this. It was indeed a parallel to the story inside in terms of the drama. Just picture it: bursts of frustration, pulling of hair also in frustration, tears, and perfectly innocent and lovable people dying around me. Quite the scene. But seriously, my book is thrashed and I am very displeased over the whole affair.

Quotey McQuoterson's:

"Nobody knows how much the Lord can help 'em, till they try."

"Unconscious acts of love and good will, which, like the cup of cold water given in the name of the disciple, shall never lose their reward."

"Laziness...ruins more souls than you can shake a stick at."

"O, with what freshness, what solemnity and beauty, is each new day born; as if to say to insensate man, 'Behold! thou hast one more chance! Strive for immortal glory!'"