It's not what you say but how you say it.

In Moby Dick, Melville's perspective and romanticism of the ancient legends of antiquity and the industry of whaling is beautifully articulated and expressed in masterful prose.

Now I am reading Uncle Tom's Cabin, Stowe is the author and instead of speaking through a character she comes through as the third person narrator. Historical importance aside, her interjections, jarringly centered around race, distract from character development and realism of the story.