content: It is easy to see why this book became the clarion call for abolitionism prior to the Civil War. The narrative is riviting and powerfully wrought with characters so vividly rendered I felt I could almost reach out and touch them. I first became acquainted with excerpts of this book in high school but never read it in its entirety. Now that I have finally completed it 46 years lager, it ranks as one of the most compelling novels I have read.