Cape Cod

Written by Henry David Thoreau

Narrated by Geoffrey Giuliano and The Ark

Henry David Thoreau was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience" (originally published as "Resistance to Civil Government"), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.

 

Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry amount to more than 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions are his writings on natural history and philosophy, in which he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modernday environmentalism. His literary style interweaves close observation of nature, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and historical lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and attention to practical detail. He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and illusion in order to discover life's true essential needs.

 

Thoreau was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the fugitive slave law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending the abolitionist John Brown. Thoreau's philosophy of civil disobedience later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.

 

Cape Cod chronicles Henry David Thoreau’s journey of discovery along this evocative stretch of Massachusetts coastline, during which time he came to understand the complex relationship between the sea and the shore. He spent his nights in lighthouses, in fishing huts, and on isolated farms. He passed his days wandering the beaches, where he observed the wide variety of life and death offered up by the ocean.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Icon Audio Arts
• Release date: Aug 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9798887670430

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was an American writer, thinker, naturalist, and leading transcendental philosopher. Graduating from Harvard, Thoreau’s academic fortitude inspired much of his political thought and lead to him being an early and unequivocal adopter of the abolition movement. This ideology inspired his writing of Civil Disobedience and countless other works that contributed to his influence on society. Inspired by the principals of transcendental philosophy and desiring to experience spiritual awakening and enlightenment through nature, Thoreau worked hard at reforming his previous self into a man of immeasurable self-sufficiency and contentment. It was through Thoreau’s dedicated pursuit of knowledge that some of the most iconic works on transcendentalism were created.

Reviews for Cape Cod

[bell7_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This collection of essays on Cape Cod shows the unique stretch of Massachusetts land before it was a tourist attraction. Thoreau, often with a friend, took four trips out to Cape Cod and this collects some history, humor, and tales of the people he met on his journeys.Cape Cod was published in 1865, a few years after Thoreau died. Its origin as essays is apparent, as its rather roughly cobbled together. The edition I read, from the 1950s with an introduction by Henry Beston of The Outermost House fame, includes notes from Henry Beston and others to explain some of the references, helpfully (?) give updates on census records for the towns mentioned, yet doesn't translate the Greek or Latin passages. I was also rather confused about a couple of times the editors decided to take out some of Thoreau's originally writing and move it to the back in an appendix. I would've liked an introduction that said less about the Cape and more about the way the book was put together, but that's not Thoreau's fault. His observations at times were very funny and memorable, but it's more a collection of vignettes that will be more or less interesting for each reader. Recommended for Thoreau completists and Cape Cod enthusiasts.

[othemts · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book collects essays Thoreau wrote on several trips to Cape Cod and was published after his death. Thoreau's great journeys were rarely far from his home in Concord, and yet the descriptions of every day detail are as if he'd traveled around the world. No more so than his writing about Cape Cod which after a century and a half of time passed sounds like it could've been a journey to Mars. The writing is beautiful whether he's describing a shipwreck, beachcombing, or the people who populate the sand-covered villages.

[alanwpowers · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This includes Thoreau's funniest, and his most plangent writing: plangent, early in "The Shipwreck," where he witnessed the fairly common wreck of a square-rigger from Europe, this one from Ireland. I do conflate this shipwreck with the one that took the life--and the great MS on Garibaldi-- of Margaret Fuller. That would, of course, have been later in the century.Because the storm had shut down the Provincetown ferry from Boston, Thoreau took a train to Cape Cod, and on the way, at Cohasset on the South Shore there was a shipwreck (the St John from Galway, Ireland), with bodies washed ashore, and awaiting relatives trying to identify them. A touching, resonant scene, among Thoreau's finest writing. "I witnessed no signs of grief, but there was a sober dispatch of business which was affecting."On the other hand, the Wellfleet Oysterman is hilarious. Thoreau and his companion find a cottage willing to put them up for the night. But not knowing their character, the landlord with such chance guests locked them in their room. This common practice was done. When breakfast was prepared, Thoreau observed the landlord spitting on the fire near the eggs; his companion thought it was nearer the oatmeal. Each, of course, chose his preference according to their conflicting observations.

[vasudeva_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thoreau provides a glimpse of the relationship between Americans and the seashore in the 19th century. Characteristically insightful, Thoreau's powers of observation and ability to draw insight are remarkable.