Harriet Beecher Stowe: Three Novels

Library of America #4

by Harriet Beecher Stowe

In this Library of America volume are the best and most enduring works of Harriet Beecher Stowe, “the little woman,” as Abraham Lincoln said when he met her in 1861, “who wrote the book that made this great war.” He was referring, with rueful exaggeration, to Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), which during its first year had sold over 300,000 copies. Contemporary readers can still appreciate the powerful effects of its melodramatic characterizations and its unapologetic sentimentality. They can also recognize in its treatment of racial violence some of the brooding imagination and realism that anticipates Faulkner’s rendering of the same theme. Stowe was charged with exaggerating the evils of slavery, but her stay in Cincinnati, Ohio, where her father (the formidable Lyman Beecher, head of the Lane Theological Seminary) gave her a close look at the miseries of the slave communities across the Ohio River. People in her circle of friends were continually harboring slaves who escaped across the river from Kentucky on the way, they hoped, to Canada.

Two other novels, along with Uncle Tom’s Cabin, show the range and variety of her literary accomplishment. The Minister’s Wooing (1859) is set in Newport, Rhode Island, after the Revolution. It is a romance based in part on the life of Stowe’s sister, and it traces to a happy ending the conflicts in a young woman between adherence to Calvinistic rigor and her expression of preference in the choice of a marital partner. The third novel, Oldtown Folks (1869) confirms Stowe’s genius for the realistic rendering of ordinary experience, her talent for social portraiture with a keen satiric edge, and her subtlety in exploring a wide group of themes, from child-rearing practices and religious controversy to romantic seduction and betrayal. But finally, it is the old town and a way of life that no longer exists that is the true subject of this elegiac novel.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Literature, Historical, 19th Century

1477 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1852

About the author

Great political influence of Uncle Tom's Cabin , novel against slavery of 1852 of Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe, American writer, advanced the cause of abolition.

Lyman Beecher fathered Catharine Esther Beecher, Edward Beecher, Henry Ward Beecher, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, another child.

Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe, an author, attacked the cruelty, and reached millions of persons as a play even in Britain. She made the tangible issues of the 1850s to millions and energized forces in the north. She angered and embittered the south. A commonly quoted statement, apocryphally attributed to Abraham Lincoln, sums up the effect. He met Stowe and then said, "So you're the little woman that started this great war!" or so people say.

AKA:
Χάρριετ Μπήτσερ Στόου (Greek)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet...

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was absolutely amazed how good these novels were, after years their being dismissed by lit scholars and critics I've run into. There is a reason why Uncle Tom's Cabin was a bestseller, and not simply because it tugs at "sentimental" heartstrings. It's a carefully constructed drama. The Minister's Wooing and Oldtown Folks provide a really welcome counterpoint to Hawthorne's more bleak picture of puritan ethics. All in all, reading these was time well spent.

[Mrs.Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Book is well written. I appreciate Stowe’s style of writing: she seems to develop her characters through outside circumstances and situations rather than focus solely on the character’s internal dialogue. Uncle Tom’s Cabin grabbed my interest instantly while the Minister’s Wooing was a drag for the first 100 pages. The Oldtown Folks took even longer for me to enjoy but upon the ending, I can say, it was a pleasant novel. I have an appreciation for literature. If I didn’t, I don’t think I would enjoy this book. It is worth the read if you appreciate good literature.

[David Given Schwarm · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good book. It was writting into controversy and mainted its integrity. Uncle Tom is a spiritual critique and not a race traitor, which I did not know. A really important book and easy to read--the format is quickly established and repeated often enought to makes its point. A good book.

[Naomi Toftness · Rating 1 out of 5]

I guess reading this as a primary document to understand history is important but the preachy nature of Christianity = end of slavery is just a bit too much for me.

[Cody · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uncle Tom's Cabin was amazing, I'm really glad I read it and wish it had been part of my school curriculum. The Minister's Wooing was alright, I have the same opinion about Oldtown Folks.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

My thesis is on Harriet Beecher Stowe...

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a VERY good book that should be read in all schools.

[Sara K.]

Currently TEACHING . . . and cranky that I can't get the right book cover to pop up.

[Katherine]

I want to read this.

[Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

This particular book contains 3 amazing novels. It's hard to find "Old Townes Folks" published alone.

[Carol]

I'll read about this book elsewhere. After 73 pages, I'm done.

[Matthew Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this one in high school, but would sneak into my dads sock drawer to read his old green hardbound copy of Uncle Toms Cabin

[Martin Bihl · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Minister's Wooing - finished 11.18.11

OldTown Folks - finished 01.12.14