Disdainful of America’s booming commercialism and industrialism, Henry David Thoreau left Concord, Massachusetts, in 1845 to live in solitude in the woods near Walden Pond. Walden, the account of his stay, conveys at once a naturalist’s wonder at the commonplace and a Transcendentalist’s yearning for spiritual truth and self-reliance. But even as Thoreau disentangled himself from worldly matters, his musings were often disturbed by his social conscience. Civil Disobedience, also included in this volume, expresses his antislavery and antiwar sentiments, and has influenced non-violent resistance movements worldwide. Both give a rewarding insight into a free-minded, principled and idiosyncratic man.
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In 1845 Henry David Thoreau left the town and headed to the countryside. There, beside the lake of Walden, he built himself a simple log cabin and returned to nature. In this perceptive and sometimes moving narration, we hear Thoreau's deeply personal reaction against the commercialism and materialism of mid-nineteenth century America. A warning from the past which is more than valid today. 'If a man does not keep pace with his Companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.' Let's hope so, and that there are more Thoreau's out there today. If not, then this audiobook may go some way to inspiring them --Bukowski on Bukowski zine
--This text refers to the
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edition.
About the Author
Henry David Thoreau (1817-62) was born in Concord, Massachusetts and educated at Harvard. He became a follower and a friend of Emerson, and described himself as a mystic and a transcendentalist. Although he published only two books in his lifetime, Walden (from which this book is taken) is regarded as a literary masterpeice and one of the most significant books of the 19th century.
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Thoreau's collected works in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau (Boston, 1906) will eventually be superseded by The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau (Princeton, 1971- ), a more complete edition that incorporates modern textual principles in its editing. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Thoreau's collected works in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau (Boston, 1906) will eventually be superseded by The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau (Princeton, 1971- ), a more complete edition that incorporates modern textual principles in its editing. Read the first page
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35 of 36 people found the following review helpful
By pw
Format:Paperback
Recounting Thoreau's time spent in Walden woods, this text will force you to redefine your world view completely. It is a homage to the power of the self, emphasising what we can be if we were not tied down to external superfluities. In the consumer culture of the modern age, the book is made all the more powerful. The most important text I have ever read.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Thoreau died, aged 44, in 1862. Walden: or, Life in the Woods, based on his experiment in subsistence living between 1845 and 1847, was one of only two books published in his lifetime. Neither was a commercial success. His `time' came later, and could plausibly be said to be still continuing. By the end of the nineteenth century a vast amount of his writing was in print, including much taken from the 39 notebooks of daily jottings that constituted his Journal. Each generation since has warmed to one or another facet of his writing - his philosophy, observation of nature, simple living, and refusal to pay taxes to a government that supported slavery and waged the Mexican-American War.
For purists, it is all too easy to pick holes. Thoreau's philosophy was far from rigorous in an academic sense; many of his observations from nature were not scientifically robust; building his log cabin only one and a half miles from his parents' home and continuing to buy essentials in Concord (he was on his way to the shoe-menders when arrested for non-payment of taxes), he cannot credibly be said to have cut himself off from society; and for his refusal to pay taxes he spent only one night in the local lock-up before an aunt paid his debt. But to pick holes would be to risk missing several important points. First and foremost, he did succeed in sustaining himself at a basic level for fully two years. His diet was essentially, though not exclusively, vegetarian; he drank only water; kept no pets or other livestock; and seems never to have even thought of acquiring and maintaining a family.... Read more ›
For purists, it is all too easy to pick holes. Thoreau's philosophy was far from rigorous in an academic sense; many of his observations from nature were not scientifically robust; building his log cabin only one and a half miles from his parents' home and continuing to buy essentials in Concord (he was on his way to the shoe-menders when arrested for non-payment of taxes), he cannot credibly be said to have cut himself off from society; and for his refusal to pay taxes he spent only one night in the local lock-up before an aunt paid his debt. But to pick holes would be to risk missing several important points. First and foremost, he did succeed in sustaining himself at a basic level for fully two years. His diet was essentially, though not exclusively, vegetarian; he drank only water; kept no pets or other livestock; and seems never to have even thought of acquiring and maintaining a family.... Read more ›
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Up until the age of twenty one I was reading all soerts of random rubbish. Then I chanced upon 'Life in the woods',and that was it. It changed my life and my outlook completely, in so many ways. He taught me to open my eyes and 'see' nature. Powerful writing.
adam
adam
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Luc REYNAERT
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
Walden is H. D. Thoreau's return to `wildness', but with a rucksack.
It is a protest against the existing civilized world, where men are `serfs of the soil with no time to be anything but a machine.' They act as `slave-drivers of themselves'. Why don't they live `as simply as I then did' with plenty of leisure time for `a written word, the choiciest of relics?'
Walden is a retreat from status, appearance and jealousy. As Jonathan Levin states in his excellent introduction: `Walden is written in defense of the value of the individual in the social / economic machinery.'
But, Thoreau's return to `wildness' is in no way a return to nature: `Nature is hard to overcome, but she must be overcome.' `The animal in us perhaps cannot be wholly expelled. We are yet not pure.'
Thoreau's motto is: `A command over our passions and over the external senses of the body is declared by the Ved to be indispensable in the mind's approximation to God. Chastity is the flowering of men.' (!)
His dream of personal freedom and individual autarchy (`drink water from the pond') is in today's environment totally impossible. More, Thoreau contradicts himself by stating:' if we know all the laws of Nature, we should need only one fact, or the description of one actual phenomenon, to infer all the particular results at that point.' This is not less than plain determinism.
Civil Disobedience
This short pamphlet translates perfectly the US dream of uninhibited freedom: `that government is best which governs not at all'. But, Thoreau clearly understands that `no government' is not a possibility, only a `better government'.... Read more ›
It is a protest against the existing civilized world, where men are `serfs of the soil with no time to be anything but a machine.' They act as `slave-drivers of themselves'. Why don't they live `as simply as I then did' with plenty of leisure time for `a written word, the choiciest of relics?'
Walden is a retreat from status, appearance and jealousy. As Jonathan Levin states in his excellent introduction: `Walden is written in defense of the value of the individual in the social / economic machinery.'
But, Thoreau's return to `wildness' is in no way a return to nature: `Nature is hard to overcome, but she must be overcome.' `The animal in us perhaps cannot be wholly expelled. We are yet not pure.'
Thoreau's motto is: `A command over our passions and over the external senses of the body is declared by the Ved to be indispensable in the mind's approximation to God. Chastity is the flowering of men.' (!)
His dream of personal freedom and individual autarchy (`drink water from the pond') is in today's environment totally impossible. More, Thoreau contradicts himself by stating:' if we know all the laws of Nature, we should need only one fact, or the description of one actual phenomenon, to infer all the particular results at that point.' This is not less than plain determinism.
Civil Disobedience
This short pamphlet translates perfectly the US dream of uninhibited freedom: `that government is best which governs not at all'. But, Thoreau clearly understands that `no government' is not a possibility, only a `better government'.... Read more ›
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