This influential book, first printed in 1852, was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe and featured the main character of Uncle Tom, a black slave. It was so popular that the book became the best-selling novel of the nineteenth century and the second best-selling nineteenth-century book of any genre other than the Bible. For its day, it was a radical look at slavery, helping to bolster the abolitionist movement. Recent years have seen it criticized for possibly creating or reinforcing racial stereotypes of the period. This single-volume copy is one of the first London editions and is bound in decorated gray cloth.