Editing Uncle Tom's Cabin (section)

===Literary significance===
Generally recognized as the first best-selling novel,{{sfn|Smith|2008|p=161}} ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' greatly influenced development of not only [[American literature]] but also protest literature in general.{{sfn|Smith|2008|p=161}}{{sfn|Kabatchnik|2017|p=269}} Later books that owe a large debt to ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' include ''[[The Jungle]]'' by [[Upton Sinclair]] and ''[[Silent Spring]]'' by [[Rachel Carson]].{{sfn|Weinstein|2004|p=13}}

Despite this undisputed significance, ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' has been called "a blend of children's [[fable]] and propaganda".<ref name="The Nation">{{cite news|first=Darryl Lorenzo|last=Wellington|url=https://www.thenation.com/article/uncle-toms-shadow/|title='Uncle Tom's Shadow|work=[[The Nation]]|date=December 25, 2006|access-date=October 18, 2020|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331124115/https://www.thenation.com/article/uncle-toms-shadow/|url-status=dead}}</ref> The novel has also been dismissed by several [[literary critics]] as "merely a sentimental novel";{{sfn|Gossett|1978|pp=123–124}} critic George Whicher stated in his ''Literary History of the United States'' that "Nothing attributable to Mrs. Stowe or her handiwork can account for the novel's enormous vogue; its author's resources as a purveyor of Sunday-school fiction were not remarkable. She had at most a ready command of broadly conceived melodrama, humor, and pathos, and of these popular sentiments she compounded her book."{{sfn|Tompkins|1985|p=126}}

Other critics, though, have praised the novel. [[Edmund Wilson]] stated that "To expose oneself in maturity to ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' may therefore prove a startling experience.  It is a much more impressive work than one has ever been allowed to suspect."{{sfn|Wilson|1977|p=134}} Jane Tompkins stated that the novel is one of the classics of American literature and wonders if many literary critics dismiss the book because it was simply too popular during its day.{{sfn|Tompkins|1985|pp=124–125}}