Harriet Beecher Stowe

This book is about the crusader and abolitionist Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe and her novels. It highlights the various kinds of novels of Stowe as well as her literary style. It provides idea about theology and the Rise of the Novel. Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe was a famous American Novelist. She became world famous because of her magnum opus Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) . Her Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a depiction of life of Black Americans, their sufferings and exploitations by the slave- holders. It is regarded as the great anti-slavery novel. It was one of the best sellers. She played a very significant role in accelerating the anti-slavery wave. She paved the path for the abolition of slavery in the USA. Through her famous work A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin she proved the cruelty of slave- holders. Her other significant novel Dred : A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp (1956) has, also, demonstrated the problem of Negro Slavery. She has produced/contributed many novels, poems, travel memoirs and collections of articles. Christopher Crowfield was her pseudonym/pen name. Her contribution in the field of literature is very valuable. She produced Anti-Slavery Novels, New England Novels, and Society Novels. She has been often criticized for her literary style in her writings but actually her novels are replete with delineations having verisimilitude, bitter satire, sarcasm and ironical tone in addition to the flavour of local color. She was an ardent admirer of Sir Walter Scott and his novel. He was very adept in the use of verisimilitude in his delineation. He was the one of the role models of Mrs. Stowe. She can be regarded as the pioneer in the use of local color. But, the Little Know Aspect of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe literary style is her peculiar choice of names of her characters. She tried to choose names that are descriptive of the characteristics of the characters in her novels and stories. She has drawn the names from Bible, Greek, and Roman Mythologies and History. Occasionally, she coined them herself. Her choice of the names is one of the special devices used by her to accentuate her satire against evil practices prevalent in the contemporary society, and belies the criticism of poverty of her literary style. She was born in Litchfield, Connecticut on June 14, 1811. She died on July 1, 1896 in Hartford, Connecticut.