Uncle Tom's Cabin : English/Arabic (Harriet Beecher)
Description
ISBN: None
Author: Harriet Beecher
Publisher: Dar al Bihar (2002)
Pages: 445 Binding: Paperback
Description from the publisher:
Bilingual English-Arabic version of ' Uncle Tom's Cabin'Dual language books. The English and Arabic pages are facing each other, matching one-on-one with English on the left page, Arabic on the right page. Easy reference for individuals not strong in one of the languages. Well known fiction titles for different interests and levels.
Description of the Book:
Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) - Pious old Uncle Tom is sold by his well-intentioned Kentucky owner Mr. Shelby in financial straits. He is bought first by the idealistic Augustine St Clare. In his New Orleans house, Uncle Tom makes friends with St Clare's daughter, the saintly Little Eva, and her black friend, the impish Topsy. 'Never was born!' persisted Topsy… 'never had no father, nor mother, nor nothin'. I was raised by a speculator, with lots of others.' Eva dies in a highly sentimental death scene from a weakened constitution, and St. Clare is killed in an accident. Tom is sold to Simon Legree, a Yankee and a brutal cotton plantation owner. Two of his female slaves pretend to escape and go into hiding. Tom will not reveal their whereabouts and Legree beats the un-protesting Tom to death just before Shelby's son arrives to redeem him. A parallel plot centers on Eliza, her child, and her husband George who escape to freedom in Canada using the 'underground railroad.' Other important characters are Miss Ophelia St. Clare, a New England spinster, and Marks, the slave catcher.
The religiosity of the story and its dubious conclusion, in which most of the survivors disappear back to Africa to become missionaries, contributed to a shift of attitude. 'Uncle Tom' was used pejoratively, meaning white paternalism and black passivity, undue subservience to white people on the part of black people. When modernist critics argued, that literature should not aim to effect social change, Stowe's novel was far from their fields of interest. However, in the 1970s Uncle Tom's Cabin, with its strong female characters, started to attract the attention of feminist critics. Stowe's radical Christian vision, based on matriarchal values, found now defenders. Tom's passivity was compared to Gandhi's strategy of peaceful resistance.
These special, condensed novels are intended for English speakers to learn Arabic, by reading side by side versions of these simplified famous novels.