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    Walden
    Ebook402 pages9 hours

    Walden

    By Henry David Thoreau

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    About this ebook

    Originally published in 1854, Walden, or Life in the Woods, is a vivid account of the time that Henry D. Thoreau lived alone in a secluded cabin at Walden Pond. It is one of the most influential and compelling books in American literature.

    This new paperback edition--introduced by noted American writer John Updike--celebrates the 150th anniversary of this classic work. Much of Walden's material is derived from Thoreau's journals and contains such engaging pieces as "Reading" and "The Pond in the Winter." Other famous sections involve Thoreau's visits with a Canadian woodcutter and with an Irish family, a trip to Concord, and a description of his bean field. This is the complete and authoritative text of Walden--as close to Thoreau's original intention as all available evidence allows.

    For the student and for the general reader, this is the ideal presentation of Thoreau's great document of social criticism and dissent.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPrinceton University Press
    Release dateMay 13, 2010
    ISBN9781400824274
    Author

    Henry David Thoreau

    Henry Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1817, and attended Concord Academy and Harvard. After a short time spent as a teacher, he worked as a surveyor and a handyman, sometimes employed by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Between 1845 and 1847 Thoreau lived in a house he had made himself on Emerson's property near to Walden Pond. During this period he completed A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers and wrote the first draft of Walden, the book that is generally judged to be his masterpiece. He died of tuberculosis in 1862, and much of his writing was published posthumously.

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    Reviews for Walden

    4/5

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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
      Devastatingly wonderful. I had read parts of this at uni, of course, but never the whole work. I wouldn't recommend this for everyone, or perhaps many, but it is the heart of a movement which I hold very dear.
    • 3/5
      Book received from Edelweiss.While this is the same Walden that has been in print forever, I really liked reading this re-print of it. The annotations in the book added to Thoreau's writing and helped me to understand some of the things he wrote about that have always slightly confused me.
    • 2/5
      I am having a very hard time getting through this book. A lot of the text is very boring. I love finding an inspiration or uplifting quote but they are few and far between.. So many descriptions, so many judgments on his part. Thoreau comes across as a very independent, self sustaining person but it seemed to me that he had to rely on many people who were living their lives the 'mainstreamed' way. I agree with a lot of his views but not to the extreme as he talked. The trouble, IMHO, is that man can't live in moderation. I'll keep plugging away at this book. Hopefully I can finish it.
    • 3/5
      Here's a timeless treasure to be revisited time and again. I always find something new in this book. It is very thought-provoking and inspirational.
    • 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.
    • 3/5
      For the purposes of this review, I want to review not Walden, but this particular edition (ed. by McKibben and published by Beacon in 2017), which I received through LibraryThing's "Early Reviewer" programme. The literary merits and influence of Thoreau more generally are already rather well acknowledged, hence (presumably) the reason this edition exists. First, the book itself is very attractive. The typeface is pleasant, the paper is good quality, and the margins are not crowded. I did not read the full text of body of Walden again, but the chapters I re-read were physically easy to read. Though paperback, the cover is a nice creamy matte in a medium card stock weight, pleasant to touch and hold. McKibben notes that there are three types of "annotations" in this volume: definitions and citations for Thoreau's language and literary allusions, and also McKibben's "own occasional passing comments." He explains that the first two types of annotations are largely taken from other, previous critical editions, and, indeed, I did not think these differed at all from any of the other texts of Walden I have read, including versions in anthologies (such as the Norton). McKibben's own reflections I will address later.McKibben's introduction is reflective and not scholarly: he does not refer to any prevailing criticism of Thoreau, and instead previews the book by explaining his own experiences with the natural world and Thoreau, and trying to explain why Thoreau is still relevant to the modern reader. He makes a lot of claims about people who live today (c.p. "We've been suckled since birth on an endless elaboration of consumer fantasies, so that it is nearly hopeless for us to figure out what is our and what is the enchanter's suggestion," p.xviii). As the quotation I've just included will show, McKibben very much enjoys his figurative language and metaphors; both the bulk of the introduction and his own footnotes reflect similar stylistic choices. The introduction feels like a defense of reading Walden in today's world, but it did not illuminate my own understanding of Thoreau's text. Similarly, the "annotations" [really footnotes] of McKibben's own point out passages that he found interesting, and thoughts that he had while reading the book, but did not substantially illuminate the text or contribute to my enjoyment thereof. For instance, McKibben footnotes a reference to the locomotive by noting that "It is a sign of how much the times have changed that the railroad whistle now sounds like a quaint echo of the past--like the chorus of a country-western song" (109f). Not only do I not find this to be particularly true, but it does not actually benefit me as a reader, and there are many such annotations. They are not bad or wrong; they just did not really benefit me as a reader. I am an English teacher, and have taught Walden to students in both secondary school and at college/university. At $10.95 retail, I think this edition offers good value for money: it is readable, nicely formatted, and has a number of useful footnotes in addition to the discursive ones. However, I expect that it would break down under repeated use (I would not encourage my former high school, which re-issues texts to students from year to year, to buy it), and it does not include the depth of criticism that I would want as a university teacher. There are many good scholarly editions available under $20. However, this would probably be a nice gift for a friend who was unacquainted with Thoreau and enjoyed reading and/or the outdoors, especially as the tone of McKibben's footnotes is very discursive, friendly, and almost like a conversation ("what did you think? I was just pondering how . . .")In short, this isn't my favourite edition of Walden, but it has some very pleasant qualities.
    • 4/5
      A classic work that still inspires. I shall enjoy reading this and passing it along to others.
    • 5/5
      I received this from Early Reviewers, and it's taken me months to read and review. [Walden] is a favorite book of mine, always five stars, but it takes a while to read, because I have to stop to think every few pages, sometimes every few paragraphs. I really enjoy Thoreau's prose, and his thinking. For example:"One inconvenience I sometimes experienced in so small a house, the difficulty of getting to a sufficient distance from my guest when we began to utter the big thoughts in big words. You want room for your thoughts to get into sailing trim and run a course or two before they make their port. The bullet of your thought must have overcome its lateral and ricochet motion and fallen into its last and steady course before it reaches the ear of the hearer, else it may plough out again through the side of his head. Also our sentences wanted room to unfold and form their columns in the interval. I was excited to have this copy, because I thought that the introduction and the annotations by McKibben would enhance my reading. The introduction was interesting, and I think it did change the way I read the book. Usually I read the book as a personal manifesto, and thing mostly of how it applies to me individually, With McKibben's introduction, I thought of the book as more of a statement about our national character, and was able to put the book in a different context, for example thinking of the small house movement today as an outgrowth of Thoreau's philosophy. Also, this made me see that Thoreau was brilliant, but also a bit of a crank, which made him more interesting.The annotations, however, were a disappointment. They were random, and short, and did not really add to my experience.
    • 3/5
      Excellent but Thoreau is a grouch
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 2/5
      pretentious drivel
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 5/5
      Love this book. Over the years I have read and re-read this book numerous times. This book is what inspired author Anne LaBastille's lifestyle and her Woodswoman series. It has been the foundation work for the ecology movement for many years.
    • 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."
    • 5/5
      A classic and inspiring book about living a simple life.
    • 4/5
      More of a collection of essays than a unified narrative, Walden is a little like reading somebody's blog. In fact, I'm sure that Thoreau would have loved the internet and been an avid blogger. His rants are sometimes funny (the old have no useful advice for the young and thus should not give any) and sometimes tedious (the endless descriptions of the ice on the pond), but well worth the read.Incidentally, I had a college professor whose research was on good old Henry David. He insisted that Thoreau was pronounced "THOR-oh", not "thuh-ROE". The internet agrees, but I've never heard anyone actually say it that way.
    • 4/5
      Thoreau built a cabin in the woods on the shore of Walden Lake and there attempted an experiment - how simple could he make his life. He found he could be happy with very few things. This is the book that recounts his experience. He writes about his philosophy, about living with less. I found myself agreeing with him in so many ways, until he got to the part about not needing to eat much, just a potato and some water. I had to draw the line somewhere! He describes the sounds, the color of the lake, the passing of the seasons, and the animals. The ant battle was particularly interesting. He also described the actual building of his house and other endeavors, sort of like a manual.I don't agree with all of his philosophy, and some of his notions are clearly dated, but I agree with his overall concept - we have too much extraneous stuff in our lives, and these things only serve to complicate it. We should live "deliberately," to quote Thoreau. We need to live our life the way we want to, not let things happen to us, not to collect belongings without thinking about how they will affect our life.
    • 1/5
      With all the rave reviews I had read at the time, I thought this would be a good inspirational book to purchase.....wrong! As far as I'm concerned it was a huge waste of time and money.
    • 4/5
      there were about 60 boring pages between 170 and 230, but before and after that, I just kept underlining like mad and saying to myself, "yes! yes!" because I resonated with almost everything Thoreau had to say. One of the few books without a plot that I was able to finish from beginning to end. Loved it.
    • 5/5
      On my short list of all time favorite books, this one is up there at the top. It doesn't attain the #1 spot, but it's up there, definitely top five. I think it is very interesting to read the reviews and notice that the vast majority of the bad reviews are coming from the young, mainly teenagers who were made to read this in school. The vast majority of the good reviews are coming from the older and the more wizened. I think the youth of today are just so totally enamored with technology and what's cool and popular. I know I was when I was 17. But then you grow older and hopefully more wise, you live life a little and you no longer care about what's cool or what's popular, you are no longer so enamored with technology and you begin to see how technology is actually killing us. You have some perspective to temper the youthful idealism. I just loved everything about this book, but I never read it until my 30's. If I had read it in my teens, I probably would have thought it pretty stupid. I think Thoreau was a genius, both with words and how he lived his life. He did not live on Walden Pond his entire life, by the way. Walden pond was an experiment, not so much a way of life. His time there was meant to show people how superfluous most of our lives are, that it can be simplified, to our soul's benefit, not to mention the benefit of our fellow human beings and the world at large. He was not a stupid man, he was educated at Harvard. He knew that his way was not the way everyone could or would live. He was not advocating a new social order. He was merely trying to prove a point, that people's lives are way too complicated. It has been said that Thoreau was the anti-Benjamin Franklin. Realize that even in his day, Thoreau was ridiculed. It is no surprise that he would be ridiculed today, mainly by those who just simply could not live without their iPods.I read Walden as an ideal and it made me sad. I would love to live my life in the way he did on Walden Pond, but I'm just not so sure how possible it is to live that way in today's world or even how desirable. There has to be a happy medium. You don't have to run out and live as a hermit in order to be able to appreciate Thoreau. There is beauty in the middle way, one can learn to make small changes in their lives, to try and live more simply, as many today are trying to do, to lighten our footprint on this earth, for the betterment of all. I do believe that people's lives are too complicated, that they can't see the forest for the trees,that their lives are only about making more money so they can buy more things. They have lost their way in the world, they have forgotten, if they even even knew, what life is about. But running out to live by yourself is not the solution either. I am reminded of the story of Christopher McCandless, whose story was made into the movie Into the Wild. He learned too late that true happiness is not real unless shared. That without love, life is meaningless. And THAT is the reason that living on Walden Pond by yourself is not the answer. We are here on this earth for each other, to love. Without love, life is meaningless. To live on Walden Pond by yourself for a period of time, to find yourself, or to prove a point, is all well and good, but as a permanent way of life, it's not utopia. And Thoreau knew this, after his time in the woods, he went back to civilization, but he never lost his soul and he knew how the soul was refreshed... with love, with learning, and with nature.