Writing style
Descriptive · Direct · Essayistic
Apple BooksTwelve years a slave
Biography and memoir
- First published
- 1855
- Print length
- 336 pagesDover Publications, 2000
Description
Solomon Northup recounts how he was kidnapped from freedom and sold into slavery. A skilled carpenter and violinist, he is lured away by the promise of work as a musician and awakens imprisoned in a Washington slave pen. Sold through markets in Washington and New Orleans, he endures twelve years of enslavement in Louisiana, passing through multiple owners and performing plantation labor. His skills sometimes bring better treatment, but he also suffers severe cruelty, including during ten years under the brutal planter Edwin Epps. Northup secretly entrusts his story to an abolitionist, whose letters help begin the effort that leads toward his freedom.
Reading profile
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Pace
Moderate
Tone
Dark · Earnest · Intimate · Tense
Structure
Chronological nonfiction
Focus
Character · Plot · Voice
Emotional intensity
5 / 5
Reading complexity
1–5 · higher means more demanding- Writing
- 3 / 5
- Ideas
- 3 / 5
- Structure
- 2 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 1 / 5
Themes
Book details
For the print edition listed above.
- Publisher
- Dover Publications
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9780486411439
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