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    Wild Apples
    Wild Apples
    Wild Apples
    Ebook59 pages43 minutes

    Wild Apples

    By Henry David Thoreau

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 1, 1989
    Author

    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.

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    • 4/5
      This very short work by Thoreau is sheer poetry to read. He explores the role of wild apples within history and culture, often citing the classics. It's highly readable--more so than many 19th century works--and a pure sensory delight. Honestly, it made me hungry for apples."The out-door air and exercise which the walker gets give a different tone to his palate, and he craves a fruit which the sedentary would call harsh and crabbed. They must be eaten in the fields, when your system is all aglow with exercise, when the frosty weather nips your fingers, the wind rattles the bare boughs...""Almost all wild apples are handsome. They cannot be too gnarly and crabbed and rusty to look at. The gnarliest will have some redeeming traits even to the eye."This book is available for free, legal download online.

    Book preview

    Wild Apples - Henry David Thoreau

    The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wild Apples, by Henry David Thoreau

    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

    almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

    re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

    with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

    Title: Wild Apples

    Author: Henry David Thoreau

    Posting Date: June 13, 2009 [EBook #4066]

    Release Date: May, 2003

    First Posted: November 1, 2001

    Language: English

    *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD APPLES ***

    Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed

    Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines.

    Wild Apples.

    By

    Henry David Thoreau

    CONTENTS

    THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE-TREE.

    THE WILD APPLE.

    THE CRAB.

    HOW THE WILD APPLE GROWS.

    THE FRUIT, AND ITS FLAVOR.

    THEIR BEAUTY.

    THE NAMING OF THEM.

    THE LAST GLEANING.

    THE FROZEN-THAWED APPLE.

    THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE-TREE.

    It is remarkable how closely the history of the Apple-tree is connected with that of man. The geologist tells us that the order of the Rosaceae, which includes the Apple, also the true Grasses, and the Labiatae, or Mints, were introduced only a short time previous to the appearance of man on the globe.

    It appears that apples made a part of the food of that unknown primitive people whose traces have lately been found at the bottom of the Swiss lakes, supposed to be older than the foundation of Rome, so old that they had no metallic implements. An entire black and shrivelled Crab-Apple has been recovered from their stores.

    Tacitus says of the ancient Germans that they satisfied their hunger with wild apples, among other things.

    Niebuhr[1] observes that the words for a house, a field, a plough, ploughing, wine, oil, milk, sheep, apples, and others relating to agriculture and the gentler ways of life, agree in Latin and Greek, while the Latin words for all objects pertaining to war or the chase are utterly alien from the Greek. Thus the apple-tree may be considered a symbol of peace no less than the olive.

    [1] A German historical critic of ancient life.

    The apple was early so important, and so generally distributed, that its name traced to its root in many languages signifies fruit in general. Maelon (Melon), in Greek, means an apple, also the fruit of other trees, also a sheep and any cattle, and finally riches in general.

    The apple-tree has been celebrated by the Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, and Scandinavians. Some have thought that the first human pair were tempted by its fruit. Goddesses are fabled to have contended for it, dragons were set to watch it, and heroes were employed to pluck it.[2]

    [2] The Greek myths especially referred to are The Choice of Paris and The Apples of the Hesperides.

    The tree is mentioned in at least three places in the Old Testament, and its fruit in two or three more. Solomon sings, As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. And again, Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples. The noblest part of man's noblest feature is named from this fruit, the apple of the eye.

    The apple-tree is also mentioned by Homer and Herodotus. Ulysses saw in the glorious garden of Alcinous pears and pomegranates and apple-trees bearing beautiful fruit. And according to Homer, apples were among the fruits which Tantalus could not pluck, the wind ever blowing their boughs away from him. Theophrastus knew and described the apple-tree as a botanist.

    According to the prose Edda,[3] "Iduna keeps in a box the apples which the gods,

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