A Cabana do Pai Thomaz ou A Vida Dos Pretos Na America. [Uncle Tom’s Cabin].

STOWE, Harriet Beecher.

Item Number: 130438

Paris: Rey & Belhatte, 1853.

First Portuguese edition of Stowe’s enormously influential work. Octavo, two volumes bound in half morocco over marbled boards with gilt titles and tooling to the spine, illustrated with 12 full-page woodcuts by Staal. In very good condition. Bookplates and small ownership stamps. Rare.

“In the emotion-charged atmosphere of mid-19th century America, Uncle Tom’s Cabin exploded like a bombshell. To those engaged in fighting slavery it appeared as an indictment of all the evils inherent in the system they opposed; to the pro-slavery forces it was a slanderous attack on ‘the Southern way of life’… the social impact of [the novel] on the United States was greater than that of any book before or since” (PMM 332). “Within a decade after its publication Uncle Tom’s Cabin had become the most popular novel ever written by an American… there is substantial evidence that the book precipitated the American Civil War” (Downs, Books That Changed America, 108).