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    Walden
    Walden
    Walden
    Ebook340 pages6 hours

    Walden

    By Henry David Thoreau

    4/5

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    Walden is one of the best-known non-fiction books ever written by an American. It details Thoreau's sojourn in a cabin near Walden Pond, amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson. Walden was written with expressed seasonal divisions. Thoreau hoped to isolate himself from society in order to gain a more objective understanding of it. Simplicity and self-reliance were Thoreau's other goals, and the whole project was inspired by Transcendentalist philosophy. This book is full of fascinating musings and reflections. As pertinent and relevant today as it was when it was first written.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStart Publishing LLC
    Release dateFeb 18, 2013
    ISBN9781625586551
    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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    Reviews for Walden

    4/5

    2,092 ratings73 reviews

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    • 1/5
      Walden is perhaps the most self-indulgent piece of tripe I've ever had the displeasure of reading.
    • 3/5
      Thoreau set aside all worldly things and spent time in a small self-made home along the large pond known as Walden. Here he wrote down his musings on the natural world and everything else after spending so much time in near solitude.This book is a classic and one of the titles on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list, so it was only a matter of time before I finally got around to it. I had been looking forward to it as well, and perhaps that was my downfall. Quickly I learned that this wasn't really the book for me. Thoreau does make some excellent points about living a simpler life and being more concerned about a person's character than their clothing (and other worldly trappings). However, he goes a great deal further than I think most of us would agree with -- for instance, he seems to think furniture and coffee are among the needless luxuries we all indulge in far too much. True, these aren't strictly necessities, but I don't think many of us really want to part with them unless we absolutely had to do so. In a similar vein, he sneers at the education provided by colleges and pretty much dismisses them as useless; while I agree that practical skills are needed as well, I don't think we need to get rid of education all together!In fact, it was too difficult for me to not get frustrated by Thoreau's perceived superiority in doing this little experiment. He struck me as someone who would fit in perfectly today as the stereotypical hipster mansplaining why his lifestyle is the best and only way. Not everyone is able to just squat on another's land without getting shot by the police; not everyone is physically able to build their own home or live in relative isolation away from access to doctors among other things; and while Thoreau claims he could be left alone with just his thoughts forever (a point which I highly doubt or he would never have returned to society), there are few people who could get by without other human interaction. At one point, Thoreau essentially mocks the builders of the pyramids for being slaves who obeyed their masters rather than revolted -- as if things were as simply cut and dry as all that.The audio version of the book I had was read by Mel Foster who did an adequate job -- nothing to write home about, but not bad either.
    • 5/5
      I live in a suburban neighborhood, it’s quiet and the lots are a nice size. The lot has a small tract of woods beyond the back yard, and the property ends at a creek. So even though I’m in a suburban neighborhood, It’s easy for me to imagine (I pretend a lot) that I’m in or near the woods and alone, as I never see, and hardly ever hear, the closest human neighbors. As I was reading Thoreau, I realized that this is my Walden. This book is amazing, and I was struck by how coincidentally similarly I’ve been considering the natural goings-on in my yard and woods while I pass much of my day on the porch. Especially the local wildlife that visits here: the crows, the squirrels (my favorite to watch), deer and their young feeding just beyond the fence, owls during the night, the occasional armadillo (always seen or heard at night). And now the songbirds are returning, too. It’s been nice to have such activity, easily observed from the porch.

      Reading this book put me in a very relaxed, calm state. Reflective and undisturbed, easy to think or not think and just watch the natural world going about its business. Thoreau is wonderful and I highly recommend this book. I know it is one I will frequently re-read.
    • 4/5
      I don't think I can really review Thoreau; Walden is a pillar of the Western canon, worth not just reading but re-reading. The choice for the reader is really which edition, or why this edition? This paperback is printed on heavy, acid-free, creamy ecru paper stock and laid out in a crisp digital typeface. The introductory essay (23 pp) by Bill McKibben is thoughtful but I suspect most readers are more interested in Thoreau. His annotations are provided as footnotes and include a mix of cross references to sources of Thoreaus quotations and allusions plus un-sourced thoughts from McKibben. The cross references are brief and thankfully not terribly numerous; one could imagine an annotated version of Walden with annotations taking up more space than the text, as in some versions of scripture. The observations from McKibben, which center around desire to modernize the perspective of the text, are often less welcome. For example, when Thoreau addresses the reader, "I have no doubt that some of you who read this book ... come to spend borrowed time, robbing your creditors of an hour," McKibben notes, "The average American household now spends 14% of its income to pay off debts." What is the source for that statistic? And why, with an average of one note per 3-4 pages of Walden, does this aside merit a note? Ultimately, that is the conundrum with an annotated version: a fully annotated version would take up at least as much space as Walden itself and would get in the way of reading the text. There is certainly a place for such a version, next to a readable, unadorned copy of Walden, even if Thoreau himself would deride the idea. This edition is too sparsely annotated to be the former but too cluttered to be the later.
    • 5/5
      I first read Henry David Thoreau's 'Walden' as a college senior. And I've gone back to it over the years, something I can't say about far too many of my college assignments. But as Bill McKibben points out in his introduction, Walden's message is as important now as it was in 1854 when it was published.We talk about 'centering' ourselves, finding an inner core, getting in touch with nature. Thoreau accomplished all that and more in Walden Pond. With the perspective that distance granted him, Thoreau saw that his society was too separated from nature, that it had lost the ability to understand man's place in the natural order. Sound familiar?'Walden' contains eighteen simple chapters, written in a simple, straightforward style. Thoreau is far from bombastic or didactic. I find that reading 'Walden' is a way to get in touch with myself, to reconnect with the world, and, unfortunately, to understand that now is the time to save the world that I love.
    • 2/5
      pretentious drivel
    • 3/5
      In al zijn onvolkomenheid toch een werk dat je niet loslaat. Thoreau wilde niet zozeer weg van de beschaving, hij deed wel een spirituele zoektocht naar zichzelf, met innige contact via de natuur. De zwakheid van het werk is dat het eerder een compilatiewerk is, er is geen coherent grondplan, en soms onmogelijke metaforen. Desondanks intrigerend.
    • 4/5
      Indeholder "Jacob Paludan: Om Thoreau", "Økonomi", "Hvor jeg levede, og hvad jeg levede for", "Læsning", "Lyde", "Ensomhed", "Gæster", "Bønnemarken", "Landsbyen", "Søerne", "Baker Farm", "Højere Love", "Dyrene som Naboer", "Indflyttergæstebud", "Tidligere Beboere og Vintergæster", "Vinterdyr", "Søen om Vinteren", "Foraar", "Slutning", "Ole Jacobsen: Noter"."Jacob Paludan: Om Thoreau" handler om ???"Økonomi" handler om ???"Hvor jeg levede, og hvad jeg levede for" handler om ???"Læsning" handler om ???"Lyde" handler om ???"Ensomhed" handler om ???"Gæster" handler om ???"Bønnemarken" handler om ???"Landsbyen" handler om ???"Søerne" handler om ???"Baker Farm" handler om ???"Højere Love" handler om ???"Dyrene som Naboer" handler om ???"Indflyttergæstebud" handler om ???"Tidligere Beboere og Vintergæster" handler om ???"Vinterdyr" handler om ???"Søen om Vinteren" handler om ???"Foraar" handler om ???"Slutning" handler om ???"Ole Jacobsen: Noter" handler om ???
    • 4/5
      "What nature provides is scale and context, ways to figure out who and how big we are and what we want. It provides silence, solitude, darkness: the rarest commodities we know. It provides reality, in place of the endless electronic images and illusions that we consider the miracle of the moment."___Bill McKibben from the Introduction to Thoreau’s WaldenSimply put, I am humbled by the reading experience. Not only was Thoreau a smart and gifted writer, but he had enough courage to experiment and live alone, in the woods, and off the land. Even though the span of two years does seem brief, it was long enough for Thoreau to accumulate wisdom to share. And it seems we all could use a bit of that these days."…Moreover, with wisdom we shall learn liberality…"There were chapters extremely difficult to stay interested in. At times I doubted the book’s ascribed greatness. But the conclusion found in the last chapter was worth the trouble and the time it took to get me there. "If one listens to the faintest but constant suggestions of his genius, which are certainly true, he sees not to what extremes, or even insanity, it may lead him; yet that way, as he grows more resolute and faithful, his road lies…If the day and night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal,—that is your success."A relaxed reading of four to six pages each morning was my practice and my meditation. Rewards, though never frequent, did surprise me and gave me much to think about on any given day."…We can never have enough of Nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor…We need to see our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander…Compassion is a very untenable ground."No one can accuse me of exhibiting too much compassion. I am guilty of other transgressions, far too numerous to list on this page. But Thoreau offers us a yardstick from which we might measure our growth as individuals. "I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one…I learned this, at least, by my experiment that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours…"Here, here. I concur and continue to go boldly for my grave.
    • 4/5
      When I first read this, in high school, I underlined a few epigrammatic quotes that summed up for me then all the wisdom of the world. Now I appreciate the small details of life in a semi-rural area: birds, the changing seasons, chopping wood, etc.
    • 5/5
      I had never read Walden prior to receiving this edition- though I have frequently used quotes from it that showed up in online searches! I can't compare this edition to previous ones, though as a novice reader, I can hardly imagine a better one. Bill McKibben's introduction and footnotes, are a wonderful bridge between the ideas and practicalities of 1854 and those of 2017. Walden is basically a series of essays, Henry David Thoreau's contemplations on the time he spent in seclusion, living off the land, while writing a novel. It is a beautiful meditation on simplicity and mindfulness. I am struck by the problems that seem timeless - Thoreau thought people in his time were overly materialistic! I read it rather quickly, so I could complete this review; now I plan to keep it at my bedside, and study a page each day in more depth.
    • 4/5
      This classic work of 19th century American literature concerns the author's two year period living in the relative wilderness of the woods outside Concord, Massachusetts in the late 1840s. I enjoyed his descriptions of the peace and serenity he got from his solitude and his closeness to nature. As an introvert myself, this appeals to me, though I wouldn't begin to have the author's skills to make this work in practice. He makes the classic statement of the introvert, recharging his personal batteries to replace the energy drained by too much social contact, with what we would now call "down time": "I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers."I enjoyed somewhat less the lengthy self-sufficiency descriptions, which became a bit repetitive, and the occasional lapse into slightly tiresome sermonising. It's worth remembering that Thoreau's isolation was his choice of lifestyle; in his words "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived". In fact he lived near enough to Concord to walk there regularly and had frequent contact with people there and visitors to his hut.The book is very well written, with a precise use of language normal for the time in which it was written; Thoreau has a rich understanding of plant and animal life and the ebb and flow of the seasons during his time in the woods. His writing is also rich in classical allusions (" For what are the classics but the noblest recorded thoughts of man? They are the only oracles which are not decayed"), that he generally assumes his readers will understand, quite a common feature of 19th literature.This edition also includes the author's essay "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience", which describes his libertarian philosophy that rejects government in principle as an oppressive force. He embraces the nostrum "That government is best which governs least"; and would like to see this taken to its natural conclusion that "That government is best which governs not at all". His main reason for this is the US government's support for the institution and practice of slavery, which he considers provides a justification for those concerned with true justice to oppose the government, including through the use of force if necessary. At the same time, his philosophical antipathy to the whole notion of government (though he makes certain pragmatic concessions to it) allows him to concede no place at all for a liberal government as a potential force for good in the social arena. Interesting stuff, even if his philosophy seems too simplistic to me.
    • 5/5
      I live in a suburban neighborhood, it’s quiet and the lots are a nice size. The lot has a small tract of woods beyond the back yard, and the property ends at a creek. So even though I’m in a suburban neighborhood, It’s easy for me to imagine (I pretend a lot) that I’m in or near the woods and alone, as I never see, and hardly ever hear, the closest human neighbors. As I was reading Thoreau, I realized that this is my Walden. This book is amazing, and I was struck by how coincidentally similarly I’ve been considering the natural goings-on in my yard and woods while I pass much of my day on the porch. Especially the local wildlife that visits here: the crows, the squirrels (my favorite to watch), deer and their young feeding just beyond the fence, owls during the night, the occasional armadillo (always seen or heard at night). And now the songbirds are returning, too. It’s been nice to have such activity, easily observed from the porch.

      Reading this book put me in a very relaxed, calm state. Reflective and undisturbed, easy to think or not think and just watch the natural world going about its business. Thoreau is wonderful and I highly recommend this book. I know it is one I will frequently re-read.
    • 4/5
      Walden by Henry David ThoreauLike how the sections are divided up into chapters.Each concentrates on its theme and he talks about the surrounding farmers and his beliefs.We have visited Walden Pond and was able to walk around visiting the garden area and where he stayed-it's just a small shed.Loved hearing of his crops and how he does accounting for everything he built or planted. I recall the railroad also as we hiked to the top of the hill.Enjoyed this book although it's not written in today's language, have to read into it.
    • 3/5
      Henry David Thoreau travels to Walden Pond and spends two years in a cabin in the woods, writing, visiting friends, and pondering what it means to truly live.It's the great American classic we all read in school, right? 2017 is the bicentennial of Thoreau's birth, so I reread it as part of a Massachusetts Statewide Read. This time it wasn't for school, and I was determined to give it a fair shake. I found his attitude really grating and, at times, boring. I think Thoreau was really trying to shake people up and get them to argue with him, which he does successfully. I definitely wanted to argue with him, so I was in a bad mood reading most of the time. But, it's an important piece of American literature historically and I'm glad I read it.
    • 5/5
      A great contemplative book, I would consider this a fine example of a self help book for those who want to take a step back from the hustle of modern America.
    • 4/5
      I really did like this book. Thoreau's way of describing his solitude and the nature around him those two years is a poetical and philosophical masterpiece. The book must be read in a slow pace, but if you do that you will really feel as though you are there in the woods with Thoreau.
    • 5/5
      Some years ago I walked around Waldens Pond just outside Concord. A nice and sunny autumn day - imagining how it must have been for Thoreau back in 1845 to move into his tiny house he built with his own hands.He stayed there for two years - a self-imposed "exile" - leaving the bustling city behind, dedicated to a life of simplicity and solitude. This book is an exploration of his experiences and his many thoughts on life in general. It's more relevant than ever - thinking how much stress and unnecessary things that fill our lives and gives us constant worries.Rereading his book I feel much more alive again. It's brimming with curiosity, enthusiasm, individuality and the wish to "live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life".A mixture of philosophy, observations about nature, wildlife and crops, guidance on how to live life to the fullest, not following the crowd but being yourself, living in the present. This book has so much to offer - and completely deserves it's status as some of the finest american literature ever. Thoreau's unusual attention to ordinary things in life fills me with joy - just the pleasure he gains from a cold bath in the lake each morning and his way of putting it in a wider context of living is remarkable. As with so many other things. From the food on his table, to the birds in the air. Nothing escapes his keen eye for details we so often just ignore.I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
    • 5/5
      Reading Walden makes you live only the present time. It's as dough you were at the lake's shore, seated, contemplating its vastness trough Thoreau's eyes.
    • 2/5
      eBook

      I feel guilty for not liking this. I managed to avoid reading this during school, but it still seems like one of those books that high schoolers are forced to read, yet never appreciate. SIt always embarrasses me to agree with the high schoolers, but I can't help but find Walden vastly overrated, both as a book, and as an exploration of the American character.

      Certainly, there were lines, ideas, and passages that I enjoyed, and I'm not necessarily willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater just because the narrator is such a self-righteous prick. Maybe it's just because of what I've been reading recently, but it was hard to get past the flimsy nature of the man's entire worldview. A lot of my recent books have revolved around the theme of bullshit, and I can't say that I'm willing to exclude this one. Thoreau's pronouncements sound pretty enough, in the same way that the ramblings of a stoner can seem to uncover hidden truths, but after a while, context takes over. The difference between his self-perception and reality is just too wide to take him seriously.
    • 1/5
      UPDATE 2/19/2107Oh I know this is a favorite, a classic . But I could not stomach any more of Thoreau. His tone is condescending, snobby and totally off-putting. I'd hoped maybe I could glean something worthwhile, something inspiring, but no. This man hadn't an ounce of humility. How can someone impart wisdom without humility? My last attempt was last night, I read a few more pages of Economy where Thoreau, among other annoying comments, criticizes a 'scrubby Irish laborer' No thanks. Goodbye Thoreau. 8/19/2016 I thought Walden would be a good book to read over the summer. So I just picked it up yesterday , expecting to be uplifted . I must say, so far I'm finding Thoreau to be very haughty and full of himself. I know this work is highly acclaimed, assigned as mandatory reading in schools across the country, but so far I'm not impressed. Right from the start, on p.6, Thoreau begins a diatribe of why learning from the elderly is pointless:What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new. Old people did not know enough once, perchance, to fetch fresh fuel to keep the fire going; new people put a little dry wood under a pot, and are whirled round the globe with the speed of birds, in a way to kill old people, as the phrase is. Age is no better, hardly so well, qualified for an instructor as youth, for it has not profited so much as it has lost.... Practically, the old have no very important advice to give to the young, their own experience has been so partial... they are only less young than they were."Oh really now? So advice from the older generation has no importance? Well, according to Thoreau's philosophy, he is beyond old age now himself, dead and buried, so perhaps his musings have no value to anyone in this current age.Nonetheless, I will give this book a chance. If I can get through it.
    • 5/5
      The most beautiful edition of this classic so far. Profusely and exquisitely illustrated.
    • 5/5
      Henry David Thoreau begins Walden with an explanation, this was a brief respite from his "civilized life" that had taken up two years at some time in the past. Now he is once again a "sojourner in civilized life." Using the word sojourner suggests the association of material with civilization and provides a contrast with the natural life that he had experienced at Walden Pond. But the presence of nature does not prevent Thoreau from quickly turning his narrative to a discourse on his personal life and internal thoughts leading to the comment about philosophers quoted above. His life at Walden Pond appeared to provide simplicity and independence, two of the criteria listed, but the emphasis in "Economy"--the first chapter of Walden--is on the practical aspects of the life of the philosopher.These aspects are laid out in an orderly manner that begins with several pages about the "when", "what", and "how" of his life at Walden Pond. His simple life was one that included only the "necessities", noting that , "the wisest have ever led a more simple and meager life that the poor. The ancient philosophers, Chinese, Hindoo, Persian, and Greek, were a class than which none has been poorer in outward riches, non so rich in inward." (p 14)While what he did, in addition to writing, included: "To anticipate, not the sunrise and the dawn merely, but, if possible, Nature herself!" . . . "trying to hear what was in the wind, to hear and carry it express!"(p 17)His paean to nature passes and he continues an orderly disquisition on building his house, its design, his income and outgo, and baking bread. He describes making his furniture, once again with emphasis on simplicity: "a bed, a table, a desk, three chairs". Later, in the "Visitors" chapter, he will explain that his three chairs include "one for solitude, two for friendship, and three for society." (p 140) Multiple visitors were invited to stand while they shared Thoreau's abode.The "Economy" section is by far the longest in the book and, while Thoreau discusses many more details of his life at the pond, he concludes with a meditation on philanthropy which he decides "that it does not agree with my constitution." The dismissal of philanthropy, at least for himself, seems curious for one who portrays himself as a philosopher. Philanthropy originates from the Latin "philanthropia", and originally from the Greek word "philanthropia", meaning "humanity, benevolence," from philanthropos (adj.) "loving mankind, useful to man," from phil- "loving" + anthropos "mankind". But perhaps Thoreau did not perceive the practice of philanthropy in Concord to coincide with this derivation. As he says "There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted." (p 74) He goes on to discuss the issue at length with a concluding and consistent (with his thought) riposte that seems apropos for the end of this first note on Walden."If, then, we would indeed restore mankind by truly Indian, botanic, magnetic, or natural means, let us first be as simple and well as nature ourselves, dispel the clouds which hang over our brows, and take up a little life into our pores. Do not stay to be an overseer of the poor, but endeavor to become one of the worthies of the world."( pp 78-79)This then seems to bring together the simplicity and practice of the philosopher to be "well as nature ourselves."
    • 3/5
      I'm a bit ambivalent on this one. Though I really liked pieces and I think Thoreau has a great writing style, I did also find it rather lengthy at times. The descriptions of the environment of Walden pond are beautiful, but they can become a bit much, for instance when he writes several times, multiple pages about how clear the water in the pond is... Though the novel has been an important inspiration for some philosophers, and I appreciate it's importance and the novelty of Thoreau's ideas at the time the book was written, I have to say I don't find his ideas very convincing. I think Thoreau doesn't realise that he might live a 'primitive' life quite easily when he has a civilized world surrounding him, but that this would not be possible if everybody would follow the lifestyle he promotes. For instance, he hires oxen and a plough to plough his fields, he borrows tools, he gets his clothing from the village... If everybody would live like he does though, these things wouldn't be possible. Also, he feels that poor people should be happy to live a simple life, but he doesn't seem to understand that poverty means hardship and despair, and that a simple life isn't much fun when you're starving. Likewise, he doesn't take into account that some people have wives and children they need to provide for.Besides, Thoreau comes across as an incredibly arrogant and patronizing man, who seems to think he is the only person whose intellect is advanced enough to see the truth and to really understand the world. He just looks down upon everybody, and I found this really annoying and insulting.The copy I have also contained the essay 'Civil Disobedience', which leaves me with the same feeling. It's rather easy to boast of not paying your taxes, if you don't actually need to spend time in jail for it because your family pays up for you. And it's also rather easy to say you don't need the state and are therefore not going to pay, if you can benefit from the state by living in it, even without paying. I am presuming that Thoreau does appreciate having roads and railroads, a police force and firemen, and all other commodities the State provides; if everybody would act the way he does, then all these things would disappear, and I wonder if that really is what he wants...
    • 3/5
      Excellent but Thoreau is a grouch
    • 4/5
      A philosophical work, but not the outlining of a philosophy. Pro-nature and anti-materialism about sums it up. I had several objections to the opening chapter ("Economy"), but after that fell into the groove of his poetic praise of nature and simplicity, reflecting on many of my own pleasant encounters with Mother Nature. He was a very sharp observer, noting many details I'm sure I would have overlooked about his surroundings. I was impressed with his frequent quoting of eastern writers, surely unusual for his time, and his respect for America's indigenous peoples. While I can't swallow what he's selling wholesale, I've taken away many quotes that I'll consider further.
    • 5/5
      The first American to translate philosophy from India (parts of the Lotus Sutra), Henry David (HD) Thoreau had read that ice was being shipped from America to India, and decided to retreat to a cabin in the woods by Walden Pond, "to live deliberately."

      Later, Gandhi had read and was influenced by Thoreau. Later still, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had read and was influenced by Gandhi. Still yet later, kdis in Tiananmen Square, 1989, were quoting Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. So this book is an important genome in the spiral DNA-helix, between east and west. A treasure.

    • 5/5
      This certainly is an amazing book. It follows a bit over two years in the life of Henry Thoreau, July 4, 1845 to September 6, 1847. It is during this time period he makes the decision to move to the shore of Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts.

      The book follow his journey of essentially self discovery, and his observations of life during this period - including building himself a cabin, farming and reading/books amongst other things.

      It really is quite an interesting glimpse into not only the past, but also one mans views of the world. I don't agree with all his positions (like meat not being worth the effort to hunt/obtain), but I certainly do agree that a simpler life can be a more rewarding life. I certainly also would go build myself a cabin on the shores of a lake and live a simple life if such a thing were possible in this day and age but alas, even if buys such a piece of land you still can't build such a cabin thanks to local government rules - how the world has changed in a mere 200 years!

      I will end this review with a paragraph from the end of the book: "However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man's abode."
    • 2/5
      Read this for an Major American Literature class.
    • 5/5
      What can I say that hasn't already been said? This is one of my all time favorite books. I have three(...and counting) copies and my son's middle name is Thoreau. At fourteen, he shortens it to Thor since the God of Thunder is cooler than some philosopher that lived by a pond for a year. It is alone in nature away from the clutter of the world that we can look inward; and it really shows in this book. I like the way he mixes the mundane with the transcendental. His experiments in simple living still have merit in our ever more materialistic culture.

    Book preview

    Walden - Henry David Thoreau

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