Walden

And `Tis a shame that I cannot claim this is a re-read after 40 years or so. I can only cite the very well-worn cliché: Better late than never. Walden is a pond, just outside Concord, Massachusetts, and for two years in the mid-1840's Henry David Thoreau lived a largely solitary existence there, in a simple wooden cabin which he constructed. This book is a collection of his mediations on the natural world, and a person's place in it. Thoreau also ruminates on an individual's place in society and certainly demurs about the hurly-burly existence led by so many, or, in an expression that I had always attributed to T. S. Eliot, but was first coined by him: "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." The first third of the book is on "economy," and the house that he built near Walden. He describes his labor, and provides a table indicating the total cost, and compares that with the annual rental cost of housing. Similarly, he covers his food, clothing and fuel expenses (the "essentials"), and the underlying theme remains the subject verse, taken from a Shaker song, "Simple Gifts," written about the same time: if you simplify your life, and rid yourself of the bondage of so much self-imposed clutter, you really are much freer, and that includes having the opportunity to take a ramble in the woods, which was a major aspect of his two years at Walden. As Thoreau phrased it: "Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them." Or in another passage: "I also have in my mind that seemingly wealthy, but most terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their own golden or silver fetters." Contrast that with the constant exhortations of our consumer society to "buy, buy, buy" and if we can only get the American consumer spending again, our "economy" will be OK. The beauty of Thoreau is an independent mind writing against the grain of conventional thought. Much of the latter portion of the book features his observation and outlook on the natural world around him. These observations range from the scientific to the poetic, with an emphasis on the latter, but he does not hesitate to make controlled measurements, like determining the true depth of the pond, which had previously been the subject of speculation. He describes how ice is harvested from the pond, and shipped to Boston for summer use, and is continually intrigued by the color of both the ice and the water in the pond. For those who are overwhelmed with "light pollution" and do not know what the phase of the moon is, Thoreau provides a suitable admonition: "It would be well, perhaps, if we were to spend more of our days and nights without any obstruction between us and the celestial bodies, if the poet did not speak so much from under a roof, or the saint dwell there so long. Birds do not sing in caves, nor do doves cherish their innocence in dovecots." There is much else as well. He describes the life of poverty of his nearest neighbor, an Irish family who are recent immigrants. He also observes a battle between red and black ants, and plays "hide and go seek" with a loon on the lake. He leans towards vegetarianism, but praises hunting, and considers it a vital rite of passage for any boy (and yes, it was so long ago, the other half were not even considered). Walden is not an easy read. In part it is due to the turgidity of Thoreau's prose style. There is also the aspect that portions of the book resemble the Desiderata poem that was plastered to so many bedroom walls in the 60's: a string of exhortation on the proper way to conduct one's life. The meaning of some of these aphorisms are quite understandable, for example: "While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally"? But it would take some true assumptions and extrapolations, and they could be quite divergent, to squeeze the meaning from: "The volatile truth of our words should continually betray the inadequacy of the residual statement. Their truth is instantly translated; its literal monument alone remains. The words which express our faith and piety are not definite; yet they are significant and fragrant like frankincense to superior natures." I'd welcome reader comments as to what that really means. Walden was hardly a "commercial success" in Thoreau's lifetime, but its impact on numerous historical figures was significant. He was admired by the naturalists John Muir, Joseph Wood Krutch, Loren Eiseley, and David Brower. His companion volume, (On Civil Disobedience) influenced Tolstoy, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, as well as many others. It is a book to be read slowly, with some tolerance for his style, and the occasional still quirky observations. Walden remains a 5-star read, and is an essential book for everyone to read, at least once in their life, even if it is in the latter phases. Finally, proving that once again there are those unlikely connections that add the zest to life: each day I look 70 miles to the west, and enjoy the view of the mountain most commonly called Mt. Taylor, named after Zachary Taylor, the President of the United States who started the Mexican-American War, and is the reason this piece of earth that I inhabit is part of the USA. Henry David Thoreau practiced civil disobedience, and was briefly jailed for his failure to pay his taxes as a protest against that war.

First things first: if you are reading this review, it is probably because you are considering not just Walden, but Walden on audio. Does it work in that medium? Have no fear: not only does Walden not LOSE something by being read, it probably gains something from Mel Foster's excellent performance. My first experience with his reading was the production of William Bernstein's A Splendid Exchange , and it was disappointing -- flat and lifeless. But he did a fine job with James Kugel's How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now , and this is terrific, too; I'll assume the mediocre job with the Bernstein was the producer's fault. Now, to the book. So much has been written about it, both on Amazon and elsewhere, that there is little more to say. But I will say this: if you read it in college, or if, like me, you merely PRETENDED to read it in college, pick it up again later in life. It is worth reading, and studying, and savoring. Walden is thought of as the urtext of nature writing, particularly American nature writing, but that really understates the matter -- thus, my assessment of it as an "underrated" classic. It is really so much more: an essay on the nature and purpose of human existence, an exploration of human nature itself, and an example of how we can see the sacred in the mundane. Indeed, one could argue that Thoreau was not so much writing about nature, but using nature as a way of seeing the supernatural -- looking THROUGH nature to grasp the reality of the unseen. And forget any notion you may have had about Thoreau, the dreamer: this is actually a very practical man, who strives hard to show that what he is doing can be a model for what all people should do. Not that they should go live in a cabin, but rather that they can and should seek their own unique path of existence. (Thus, the different drummer). It is no accident that the first and longest chapter is entitled "Economy": Thoreau wants to demonstrate that following a different IS possible if we prepare ourselves. If he is not fully convincing that anyone can do anything they want and make it stick, he is, in my view, unanswerable in his assertion that we cannot and must not be satisfied with what we are given, or what tradition or even our own habits tell us what we "should" do. If for nothing else, Walden is must-reading for anyone, young or old, religious or atheist, American or citizen of any nation. Or even no nation.

Incredible novel. He left the world for the woods due to it moving too fast, the gossiping of society and the masses more interested in stuff The world changes over centuries yet the people all stay the same I will read this again and again for sure

Book was shipped in like new condition

The font in this paper bag is very small and crowded. For easier reading you may want to purchase a version with larger print.

This book showed me that you can have even richer life experience at living a simple life out of the confines of modern society. It cultivates mindfulness about your surrounding, humility in way of living, connection to something greater and mental acuity towards everything that goes through your perceptions, sharpness of the mind and wit it brings forth through strain simple living in the nature requires.

Walden is the story of Henry David Thoreau and his experiment to live off of the grid on near Walden Pond in Massachusetts. Thoreau continuously describes his journey towards self-sufficiency and simultaneously strives to teach why simplicity is better. However, Walden is not, in my mind, a story. It is a guide to a different way of life, long lost to the modern world but better in so many ways. What struck me from the first page to the last was how eloquently the writing was, as is written in such a way as to make you pay attention to every word so you can understand it. As a book should be it requires one to think while reading it to comprehend the depth of the subjects Thoreau is discussing. For example, “Shall we always study to obtain more of these things and not sometimes to be content with less”(25). Today’s society is founded upon a constant progression, always making things more and more complex but never wondering how beneficial complexity is to the whole equation. More technology is not always the solution and that something that most people don’t realize and in this way Walden helps to make you think and open your mind to options you didn’t even know were there. Walden is a true testament to simplicity and living as its most basic meaning. Although it is a very heavy and difficult book to read, I highly recommend it anyone interested in remembering a simpler way of life. J.A.D.

The same review applies to the Emerson book I ordered - I’ve only replaced Emerson’s name with Thoreau’s but very same issue stands. My grievance rests not with the seller (prompt, attentive and worthy of much praise), but with the content of the book provided. It is extremely disturbing that works like Thoreau’s can be so desecrated by those who deem that their opinion befits everyone’s opinion, and therefore have taken it upon themselves to straight-jacket works like Thoreau’s into ‘tolerable’ editions. You will not find any publishing information (ie: name of publisher, address, date printed, etc.) typically found in the first pages of great works and otherwise, but will be warned instead that: ‘This work is a product of its time and place and may include values, images, events and language that are [not may be] offensive to modern sensibilities. Reader discretion is advised.’ The utter outrage. They took staid work written centuries before, by Thoreau no less, edited it to their liking and then warn us that we are to expect not only their interpretation of it, but to assume the punctuated fact that we are to be offended, rather than be coherent enough to process our own perceptions of what we are reading. And if you dare inquire the identity of the establishment responsible for such outrage, you will be surprised to learn that they don’t readily tell you. Not in the long practiced and civilized understanding that it belongs to the first pages of any publication, and you will not find it in the back pages either. I do not typically write reviews but this particular book warrants one as did the Emerson one, if only to rid myself of the ‘injury’ that their ‘offensive’ gesture has inflicted on our collective common sensibilities (not just modern ones) by saying something about it (reader discretion advised as it is based on my own opinion). What on Earth are we left with when published works of any kind are mere editorials by those who are crippled with self-absorbed lunacy of speaking for and to us this way? Seller, please ditch these kinds of publications and opt to offer proper and unedited versions of great works. My hunt is on again. I will keep this book as a ‘product of its time’, but will look for Thoreau’s “Walden” in its truest form at last.