12 DECEMBER 1896, Page 24

Uncle Tom's Cabin. By Harriet Beecher Stowe. With Original Illustrations

by Jenny Nystrom-Stoopendaal. (Cassell and Co.) —A brief preface gives us the main facts in Mrs. Beecher Stowe's life and literary work. It seems strange to read that in Uncle Tom's Cabin " the slave question itself is all but disregarded." The question is not discussed, but it underlies everything. Even the experiences of Miss Ophelia have a direct bearing on it. The Northern contempt of the negro was as much a factor in the problem as the financial interests of the South. The illustrations are decidedly good. Possibly they come a little too near to cari- cature; but then the subject is one in which caricature is only too easy.