Akron Public Library

The moving abolitionist novel that fueled the fire of the human rights debate in 1852 and melodramatically condemned the institution of slavery through such powerfully realized characters as Tom, Eliza, Topsy, Eva, and Simon Legree. First published more than 150 years ago, this monumental work is today being reexamined by critics, scholars, and students.

When a Roman ship is wrecked on the coast of Britain, Beric, the infant son of a Roman soldier, is the only survivor. Beric grows up with a Briton tribe, but to his foster people he remains an alien-one of the Red Crests. So when bad times come, the tribe holds him responsible and casts him out. Rejected by the only life he knows, the boy turns to his own people, but Rome too rejects him. Lost, bewildered, and a captive in his father's land, he escapes...