WALDEN; OR, LIFE IN THE WOODS (1854) is a book of many distinc tions: within American literature it stands as a defining text, and is perhaps the greatest expression of the spirit of New England Tran scendentalism, one of the nation's most fruitful and characteristic intellectual strains; as nature writing, it is one of the world's most revered and imitated masterpieces, and continues to inform debate concerning environmental and conservation issues; and as an ex pression of moral idealism, it advocates a standard of existence that has inspired readers of widely varying circumstances (including Tolstoy and Gandhi) to improve their lives.
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For naturalist, essayist and early environmentalist Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), nature was a religion. In communing with the natural world, he wished to "live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and . . . learn what it had to teach." Toward that end Thoreau built a cabin on the shores of Walden Pond--on land owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson--out side Concord, Massachusetts. There he observed nature, farmed, built fences, surveyed and wrote in his journal.
A product of his two-year sojourn was this classic of American letters. Interwoven with accounts of Thoreau"s daily life (he received visitors and almost daily walked into Concord) are meditations on human existence, society, government and other topics, expressed with wisdom and beauty of style.
Walden offers abundant evidence of Thoreau"s ability to observe mundane incidents or the minutiae of nature and then develop these observations into profound ruminations on the most fundamental human concerns. Credited with influencing Tolstoy, Gandhi and other thinkers, the volume remains a master piece of philosophical reflection.
Economy
Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
Reading
Sounds
Solitude
Visitors
The BeanField
The Village
The Ponds
Baker Farm
Higher Laws
Brute Neighbors
House-Warming
Former Inhabitants; and Winter Visitors
Winter Animals
The Pond in Winter
Spring
Conclusion
