Walden

by
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Henry David Thoreau: Walden (1889, Houghton Mifflin and Co., Riverside Press)

514 pages

English language

Published Jan. 5, 1889 by Houghton Mifflin and Co., Riverside Press.

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5 stars (1 review)

Walden (; first published in 1854 as Walden; or, Life in the Woods) is a book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and—to some degree—a manual for self-reliance.Walden details Thoreau's experiences over the course of two years, two months, and two days in a cabin he built near Walden Pond amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau makes precise scientific observations of nature as well as metaphorical and poetic uses of natural phenomena. He identifies many plants and animals by both their popular and scientific names, records in detail the color and clarity of different bodies of water, precisely dates and describes the freezing and thawing of the pond, and recounts his experiments to measure …

81 editions

reviewed Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Review of 'Walden' on 'Import'

5 stars

In Thoreau's most famous book, he creates a space to view the world by moving away from what is accepted as society. For three years he lived in a cabin in Walden, and stripped his life back to essentials, learning to love the world he inhabited.



He shows with a flair for poetry and vocabulary how the local and global can be mingled together, nearly a hundred years before the word 'globalisation' was first used. His interest in philosophical reading stretches across the world, while his interest in experience of the world is limited to a small area. His wry humour and versatile use of the English language makes this not only an enjoyable philosophical text, but also a very enjoyable book overall.

Subjects

  • Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862 -- Homes and haunts -- Massachusetts -- Walden Woods
  • Wilderness areas -- Massachusetts -- Walden Woods
  • Natural history -- Massachusetts -- Walden Woods
  • Authors, American -- 19th century -- Biography
  • Solitude
  • Walden Woods (Mass.) -- Social life and customs