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Cape Cod
Based on several trips to the Cape and originally published as a series of articles, Henry David Thoreau's "Cape Cod" is a remarkable work that depicts the natural beauty of Cape Cod and the nature that surrounds it. Thoreau, a consummate lover of the outdoors and nature is right at home in the Cape and he details his excitement of the area with naturalist portraits of the indigenous species and animals. Any lover of nature or of Cape Cod in general will delight in this captivating depiction of the area in the early to mid 1800s.
118 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1865
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About the author
Henry David Thoreau
2,418 books6,736 followersHenry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau) was an American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, philosopher, and abolitionist who is best known for Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state.
Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions were his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern day environmentalism.
In 1817, Henry David Thoreau was born in Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard University in 1837, taught briefly, then turned to writing and lecturing. Becoming a Transcendentalist and good friend of Emerson, Thoreau lived the life of simplicity he advocated in his writings. His two-year experience in a hut in Walden, on land owned by Emerson, resulted in the classic, Walden: Life in the Woods (1854). During his sojourn there, Thoreau refused to pay a poll tax in protest of slavery and the Mexican war, for which he was jailed overnight. His activist convictions were expressed in the groundbreaking On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849). In a diary he noted his disapproval of attempts to convert the Algonquins "from their own superstitions to new ones." In a journal he noted dryly that it is appropriate for a church to be the ugliest building in a village, "because it is the one in which human nature stoops to the lowest and is the most disgraced." (Cited by James A. Haught in 2000 Years of Disbelief.) When Parker Pillsbury sought to talk about religion with Thoreau as he was dying from tuberculosis, Thoreau replied: "One world at a time."
Thoreau's philosophy of nonviolent resistance influenced the political thoughts and actions of such later figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. D. 1862.
More: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/tho...
http://thoreau.eserver.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Da...
http://transcendentalism-legacy.tamu....
http://www.biography.com/people/henry...
Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions were his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern day environmentalism.
In 1817, Henry David Thoreau was born in Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard University in 1837, taught briefly, then turned to writing and lecturing. Becoming a Transcendentalist and good friend of Emerson, Thoreau lived the life of simplicity he advocated in his writings. His two-year experience in a hut in Walden, on land owned by Emerson, resulted in the classic, Walden: Life in the Woods (1854). During his sojourn there, Thoreau refused to pay a poll tax in protest of slavery and the Mexican war, for which he was jailed overnight. His activist convictions were expressed in the groundbreaking On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849). In a diary he noted his disapproval of attempts to convert the Algonquins "from their own superstitions to new ones." In a journal he noted dryly that it is appropriate for a church to be the ugliest building in a village, "because it is the one in which human nature stoops to the lowest and is the most disgraced." (Cited by James A. Haught in 2000 Years of Disbelief.) When Parker Pillsbury sought to talk about religion with Thoreau as he was dying from tuberculosis, Thoreau replied: "One world at a time."
Thoreau's philosophy of nonviolent resistance influenced the political thoughts and actions of such later figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. D. 1862.
More: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/tho...
http://thoreau.eserver.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Da...
http://transcendentalism-legacy.tamu....
http://www.biography.com/people/henry...
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October 13, 2020
My hat trick – my third review of the three classic naturalist books about Cape Cod. (The other two are The Outermost House by Henry Beston - 1928, and The House on Nauset Marsh by Wyman Richardson – 1947.) In the edition I am reviewing, Beston wrote the introduction.
This is very much a naturalist book, or, in the old days natural history, and a travelogue. The environment, landscape, the sea, sand dunes, marshes, fish and fowl. An informative book to read but if you are looking for philosophical discourse like you find in Walden, you won’t find it here.
The chapters are a series of essays Thoreau wrote and worked on over the years as he took four trips to Cape Cod, usually with is companion, the poet William Ellery Chapman. Each trip was about a week, taken between 1849 and 1855. Thoreau (b. 1817) died in 1862 when he was 44 and this book was compiled from his essays shortly after his death.
I found the stories about economic change and landscape change the most informative. For example, Thoreau tells us that in the 1830’s there were 422 salt works, often with pumps powered by windmills, where sea water was evaporated to produce salt. When he visited twenty years later they were almost all gone, victims of cheaper salt mines from the west. He quotes descriptions of the thick forest covering on the Cape written about by the Pilgrims and notes how those forests were mostly gone. Whole areas, like the tip of the Cape around Provincetown, had become sand deserts even without trees in yards. Only ornamental shrubs could survive in the shifting sands at that time. The shape of the land – islands, bays, water passages - changed, literally from season to season and after big storms.
He notes how often hillsides had lost their soil and had become almost barren, only supporting what the locals called ‘poverty grass.’ He gives us environmental history lessons as when he tells us that in the 1600’s towns passed laws that each adult had to kill a dozen crows a year to prevent them from eating the meager crops. It’s fascinating too to learn that the whole Cape was basically populated by people in isolation, living in subsistence mode, and relying on what they caught from the sea or grew on their farms.
Thoreau tried clams for the first time, so apparently they weren’t popular yet with the Boston crowd. They raked up seaweed for fertilizer. Sheep, once a mainstay, were disappearing. Towns assessed a ‘mackerel tax’ to support free schools and he gets a joke in about ‘taxing the school for schools.’ He writes about the tent cities that were used for summer church campground meetings. (Like the wooden tent platforms that became the foundations for the ‘Gingerbread Houses’ on Martha’s Vineyard, although that was after Thoreau’s time.)
Thoreau interviews the inhabitants too – interviews them in a journalistic sense. He doesn’t want to just chat, he wants to know what they do, where they came from, how they survive. He meets an oysterman, lighthouse keepers, and “wreckers” who gather driftwood for fuel and timber from the many shipwrecks. (Not to be confused with the British “wreckers” of the old days who caused shipwrecks by lighting fires to simulate lighthouses!) He talks with many fishermen and even with some “shore whalers” who drive small whales onto the land for slaughter.
Thoreau’s humor shows through often. He makes fun of guidebooks that talk about ‘beautiful villages’ and ‘sublime views.’ He writes: “There are many Herring Rivers on the Cape; they will, perhaps, be more numerous than herrings soon.” He and his companion strain to count ships at sea and “…sometimes we doubted if we were not counting our eyelashes.” Not a big fan of the constant fish meals, Thoreau writes: “Better go without your dinner, I thought, than be thus everlastingly fishing for it like a cormorant.” We get Thoreau’s take on organized religion from this passage ”…the meeting-house windows being open, my meditations were interrupted by the noise of a preacher who shouted like a boatswain, profaning the quiet atmosphere, and who, I fancied, must have taken off his coat. Few things could have been more disgusting or disheartening. I wished the tithing-man would stop him.”
A good read. And, about that hat trick – maybe I’m not done. I should look into John Hay’s book, The Great Beach (1964).
Photo of Provincetown and the tip of Cape Cod taken by an astronaut in the International Space Station from earthobservatory.nasa.gov
Cape Cod beach scene from whoi.edu
The author honored on a postage stamp issued in 2017 from ebay.com
This is very much a naturalist book, or, in the old days natural history, and a travelogue. The environment, landscape, the sea, sand dunes, marshes, fish and fowl. An informative book to read but if you are looking for philosophical discourse like you find in Walden, you won’t find it here.
The chapters are a series of essays Thoreau wrote and worked on over the years as he took four trips to Cape Cod, usually with is companion, the poet William Ellery Chapman. Each trip was about a week, taken between 1849 and 1855. Thoreau (b. 1817) died in 1862 when he was 44 and this book was compiled from his essays shortly after his death.
I found the stories about economic change and landscape change the most informative. For example, Thoreau tells us that in the 1830’s there were 422 salt works, often with pumps powered by windmills, where sea water was evaporated to produce salt. When he visited twenty years later they were almost all gone, victims of cheaper salt mines from the west. He quotes descriptions of the thick forest covering on the Cape written about by the Pilgrims and notes how those forests were mostly gone. Whole areas, like the tip of the Cape around Provincetown, had become sand deserts even without trees in yards. Only ornamental shrubs could survive in the shifting sands at that time. The shape of the land – islands, bays, water passages - changed, literally from season to season and after big storms.
He notes how often hillsides had lost their soil and had become almost barren, only supporting what the locals called ‘poverty grass.’ He gives us environmental history lessons as when he tells us that in the 1600’s towns passed laws that each adult had to kill a dozen crows a year to prevent them from eating the meager crops. It’s fascinating too to learn that the whole Cape was basically populated by people in isolation, living in subsistence mode, and relying on what they caught from the sea or grew on their farms.
Thoreau tried clams for the first time, so apparently they weren’t popular yet with the Boston crowd. They raked up seaweed for fertilizer. Sheep, once a mainstay, were disappearing. Towns assessed a ‘mackerel tax’ to support free schools and he gets a joke in about ‘taxing the school for schools.’ He writes about the tent cities that were used for summer church campground meetings. (Like the wooden tent platforms that became the foundations for the ‘Gingerbread Houses’ on Martha’s Vineyard, although that was after Thoreau’s time.)
Thoreau interviews the inhabitants too – interviews them in a journalistic sense. He doesn’t want to just chat, he wants to know what they do, where they came from, how they survive. He meets an oysterman, lighthouse keepers, and “wreckers” who gather driftwood for fuel and timber from the many shipwrecks. (Not to be confused with the British “wreckers” of the old days who caused shipwrecks by lighting fires to simulate lighthouses!) He talks with many fishermen and even with some “shore whalers” who drive small whales onto the land for slaughter.
Thoreau’s humor shows through often. He makes fun of guidebooks that talk about ‘beautiful villages’ and ‘sublime views.’ He writes: “There are many Herring Rivers on the Cape; they will, perhaps, be more numerous than herrings soon.” He and his companion strain to count ships at sea and “…sometimes we doubted if we were not counting our eyelashes.” Not a big fan of the constant fish meals, Thoreau writes: “Better go without your dinner, I thought, than be thus everlastingly fishing for it like a cormorant.” We get Thoreau’s take on organized religion from this passage ”…the meeting-house windows being open, my meditations were interrupted by the noise of a preacher who shouted like a boatswain, profaning the quiet atmosphere, and who, I fancied, must have taken off his coat. Few things could have been more disgusting or disheartening. I wished the tithing-man would stop him.”
A good read. And, about that hat trick – maybe I’m not done. I should look into John Hay’s book, The Great Beach (1964).
Photo of Provincetown and the tip of Cape Cod taken by an astronaut in the International Space Station from earthobservatory.nasa.gov
Cape Cod beach scene from whoi.edu
The author honored on a postage stamp issued in 2017 from ebay.com
August 25, 2019
This book is based on three trips that Thoreau took to Cape Cod in Oct 1849, June 1850 and July 1855. The second trip he took alone, the first and third with one companion. He spent totally three weeks in Cape Cod. He traveled the length of the peninsula along both the bay side and the Atlantic, across the peninsula and ended in Provincetown.
The book was first published in 1865, compiled from essays in magazines.
There are lines of lyrical beauty to be found within the text. However, for the most part, the prose is dry, albeit informative. Numbers specifying the quantity of a given bird, fish or plant species, the exact length of a vessel or the exact distances between places and objects, often measured in rods, is rather tedious. Scientific details about flora and fauna, historical information about the Cape’s inhabitants, in the middle 1800s and in the past, as well as information concerning the Cape’s discovery are the topics covered. The writing does come alive occasionally when speaking of particular individuals whose acquaintance he enjoyed. A lighthouse keeper is one example.
I came to the conclusion that Thoreau was out of his domain here on the windblown, stormy and often bare of vegetation landscape of the Cape. He doesn’t belong here. He is out of his element. This is reflected in how he speaks of what he sees and the people he meets. You sense disdain. He speaks knowledgeably, but not about something he loves. He praises what he finds pretty, but more often he criticizes. He is a mainland New Englander at his root, and one senses this.
The numerous lines of Latin are seldom translated.
Patrick Cullen narrates the audiobook. The untranslated lines of French were deplorable. Otherwise he is simple to follow and speaks slowly and clearly. I have given his narration three stars. It is good.
**********************
*The Adventures of Henry Thoreau: A Young Man's Unlikely Path to Walden Pond 4 stars by Michael Sims
*Cape Cod 2 stars by Henry David Thoreau
*Henry David Thoreau: A Life by Laura Dassow Walls TBR
*Solid Seasons: The Friendship of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson TBR by Jeffrey S. Cramer
The book was first published in 1865, compiled from essays in magazines.
There are lines of lyrical beauty to be found within the text. However, for the most part, the prose is dry, albeit informative. Numbers specifying the quantity of a given bird, fish or plant species, the exact length of a vessel or the exact distances between places and objects, often measured in rods, is rather tedious. Scientific details about flora and fauna, historical information about the Cape’s inhabitants, in the middle 1800s and in the past, as well as information concerning the Cape’s discovery are the topics covered. The writing does come alive occasionally when speaking of particular individuals whose acquaintance he enjoyed. A lighthouse keeper is one example.
I came to the conclusion that Thoreau was out of his domain here on the windblown, stormy and often bare of vegetation landscape of the Cape. He doesn’t belong here. He is out of his element. This is reflected in how he speaks of what he sees and the people he meets. You sense disdain. He speaks knowledgeably, but not about something he loves. He praises what he finds pretty, but more often he criticizes. He is a mainland New Englander at his root, and one senses this.
The numerous lines of Latin are seldom translated.
Patrick Cullen narrates the audiobook. The untranslated lines of French were deplorable. Otherwise he is simple to follow and speaks slowly and clearly. I have given his narration three stars. It is good.
**********************
*The Adventures of Henry Thoreau: A Young Man's Unlikely Path to Walden Pond 4 stars by Michael Sims
*Cape Cod 2 stars by Henry David Thoreau
*Henry David Thoreau: A Life by Laura Dassow Walls TBR
*Solid Seasons: The Friendship of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson TBR by Jeffrey S. Cramer
December 30, 2024
A Cape Cod Walk With Thoreau
Thoreau visited Cape Cod in 1849, 1850, and 1853. These trips formed the basis for a series of essays, several of which Thoreau published in magazines. After Thoreau's death, the essays were gathered together and published as "Cape Cod" in 1865.
Thoreau's "Cape Cod" is different in tone in theme from his earlier books. The tone is leisurely and light. Instead of solitude or the wild woods, the picture that remains with me from this book is that of a long walk, or, as Thoreau puts it, a "ramble" through the sand and dunes of Cape Cod. The book is picturesque, full of humor and wry observation. Thoreau unforgettably describes the ocean, in its storms, vicissitudes, and moments of peace, the fish and the fishermen, the sands, birds, plants and lighthouses of Cape Cod, and the people. I have visited portions of the Massachusetts coast, but I have never been to Cape Cod. Thoreau took me there in his book.
The book is arranged into ten chapters. It opens with a description of the shipwreck of the St John on a rock off the Cape. Thoreau then describes a ride by coach across the Cape. But the heart of the book lies in the following chapters in which Thoreau with a companion walks the 30 mile beach from Nauset Harbor to Provincetown with many stops and diversions along the way. I felt the salt air and saw the fishermen and the sandy beach as I walked with Thoreau.
The most vivid characterization in the book is in the chapter "The Wellfleet Oysterman", as Thoreau describes a grizzled, taciturn, and ancient native of Cape Cod and his family who offer him hospitality for the night. Another memorable chapter involves the description of the Highland Lighthouse and its keeper. The stops with the Oysterman and the Lighthouse punctuate Thoreau's long walks through the day over the beach and his meditations about and descriptions of what he finds there.
Thoreau's walk ended at Provincetown, on the northernmost portion of Cape Cod, with its wood walkway, shanty houses, and ever-present scenes of fishermen, boats, and drying fish. Thoreau offers what I found an affectionate portrait of these hardy fishermen and their families. Following a description of what he found at Provincetown, Thoreau offers a great deal of historical background on the exploration of the Cape, from the Pilgrims reaching back to earlier French, Icelandic, and English explorers.
Thoreau's "Cape Cod" is a worthy companion to his books describing his experiences inland, on Walden Pond and on the rivers and woods of New England and Maine. It is beautifully written with unforgettable descriptive passages. It made me want to get up and go from my life in the city, and over 150 years after Thoreau wrote, wander and walk for myself along the dunes and sands of Cape Cod.
Robin Friedman
Thoreau visited Cape Cod in 1849, 1850, and 1853. These trips formed the basis for a series of essays, several of which Thoreau published in magazines. After Thoreau's death, the essays were gathered together and published as "Cape Cod" in 1865.
Thoreau's "Cape Cod" is different in tone in theme from his earlier books. The tone is leisurely and light. Instead of solitude or the wild woods, the picture that remains with me from this book is that of a long walk, or, as Thoreau puts it, a "ramble" through the sand and dunes of Cape Cod. The book is picturesque, full of humor and wry observation. Thoreau unforgettably describes the ocean, in its storms, vicissitudes, and moments of peace, the fish and the fishermen, the sands, birds, plants and lighthouses of Cape Cod, and the people. I have visited portions of the Massachusetts coast, but I have never been to Cape Cod. Thoreau took me there in his book.
The book is arranged into ten chapters. It opens with a description of the shipwreck of the St John on a rock off the Cape. Thoreau then describes a ride by coach across the Cape. But the heart of the book lies in the following chapters in which Thoreau with a companion walks the 30 mile beach from Nauset Harbor to Provincetown with many stops and diversions along the way. I felt the salt air and saw the fishermen and the sandy beach as I walked with Thoreau.
The most vivid characterization in the book is in the chapter "The Wellfleet Oysterman", as Thoreau describes a grizzled, taciturn, and ancient native of Cape Cod and his family who offer him hospitality for the night. Another memorable chapter involves the description of the Highland Lighthouse and its keeper. The stops with the Oysterman and the Lighthouse punctuate Thoreau's long walks through the day over the beach and his meditations about and descriptions of what he finds there.
Thoreau's walk ended at Provincetown, on the northernmost portion of Cape Cod, with its wood walkway, shanty houses, and ever-present scenes of fishermen, boats, and drying fish. Thoreau offers what I found an affectionate portrait of these hardy fishermen and their families. Following a description of what he found at Provincetown, Thoreau offers a great deal of historical background on the exploration of the Cape, from the Pilgrims reaching back to earlier French, Icelandic, and English explorers.
Thoreau's "Cape Cod" is a worthy companion to his books describing his experiences inland, on Walden Pond and on the rivers and woods of New England and Maine. It is beautifully written with unforgettable descriptive passages. It made me want to get up and go from my life in the city, and over 150 years after Thoreau wrote, wander and walk for myself along the dunes and sands of Cape Cod.
Robin Friedman
June 1, 2019
This includes Thoreau's funniest, and his most plangent writing: plangent, early in "The Shipwreck," where he witnessed the fairly common wreck of a square-rigger from Europe, this one from Ireland. I do conflate this shipwreck with the one that took the life--and the great MS on Garibaldi-- of Margaret Fuller. That would, of course, have been later in the century.
Because the storm had shut down the Provincetown ferry from Boston, Thoreau took a train to Cape Cod, and on the way, at Cohasset on the South Shore there was a shipwreck (the St John from Galway, Ireland), with bodies washed ashore, and awaiting relatives trying to identify them. A touching, resonant scene, among Thoreau's finest writing. "I witnessed no signs of grief, but there was a sober dispatch of business which was affecting."
On the other hand, the Wellfleet Oysterman is hilarious. Thoreau and his companion find a cottage willing to put them up for the night. But not knowing their character, the landlord with such chance guests locked them in their room. This common practice was done. When breakfast was prepared, Thoreau observed the landlord spitting on the fire near the eggs; his companion thought it was nearer the oatmeal. Each, of course, chose his preference according to their conflicting observations.
On the outer Cape, wood could prove scarce, occasionally an oar for a sheep railing. Cedar fencing from Maine, so expensive there was less sheepherding, their fences requiring four rails. One man had shingled his entire house from a mast that had drifted up. He inquired of a boy what he had in his dinner pail, grapes.
There is occasional Transcendental claptrap, as in: "The mariner who makes his port in Heaven seems to his friends on earth to be shipwrecked, for they deem Boston Harbor the better place." But this may be forgiven, as his travelling companion was, after all, nephew of the great Unitarian preacher of the same name, William Ellery Channing.
At a religious camp meeting, two preachers: man and sea, Rev θάλασσα. HDT, "I put in a little Greek now and then, partly because it sounds so much like the sea."
Thoreau quotes the Collections of the MA Historical Society, vol 8 (1802), opposing the cant of "beautiful towns"--"beautiful only to a repentant misanthrope." MA Historical, "The inhabitants, in general, are substantial livers"--that is, HDT says, they do NOT live like philosophers.
And it's amusing to see how HDT reacts to the houses so cherished, and pricey, now, the "Captains Houses" with rooftop observation posts: he calls them the modern equivalent of monstrosities. (Monstrous in its root sense, too.)
His amusing reflection on an Eastham law, that young bachelors intending marriage should kill 12 blackbirds,"From which I concluded that either many men were not married, or many blackbirds WERE."
A Thoreau-going botanist and Latin taxonomist (he died from counting rings on a tree), he tells wonderful local names for kelp: oar-weed, tangle, devil's apron, sob-weed, ribbon-weed. (Compare Latin classifications which fill his Journals.)
Because the storm had shut down the Provincetown ferry from Boston, Thoreau took a train to Cape Cod, and on the way, at Cohasset on the South Shore there was a shipwreck (the St John from Galway, Ireland), with bodies washed ashore, and awaiting relatives trying to identify them. A touching, resonant scene, among Thoreau's finest writing. "I witnessed no signs of grief, but there was a sober dispatch of business which was affecting."
On the other hand, the Wellfleet Oysterman is hilarious. Thoreau and his companion find a cottage willing to put them up for the night. But not knowing their character, the landlord with such chance guests locked them in their room. This common practice was done. When breakfast was prepared, Thoreau observed the landlord spitting on the fire near the eggs; his companion thought it was nearer the oatmeal. Each, of course, chose his preference according to their conflicting observations.
On the outer Cape, wood could prove scarce, occasionally an oar for a sheep railing. Cedar fencing from Maine, so expensive there was less sheepherding, their fences requiring four rails. One man had shingled his entire house from a mast that had drifted up. He inquired of a boy what he had in his dinner pail, grapes.
There is occasional Transcendental claptrap, as in: "The mariner who makes his port in Heaven seems to his friends on earth to be shipwrecked, for they deem Boston Harbor the better place." But this may be forgiven, as his travelling companion was, after all, nephew of the great Unitarian preacher of the same name, William Ellery Channing.
At a religious camp meeting, two preachers: man and sea, Rev θάλασσα. HDT, "I put in a little Greek now and then, partly because it sounds so much like the sea."
Thoreau quotes the Collections of the MA Historical Society, vol 8 (1802), opposing the cant of "beautiful towns"--"beautiful only to a repentant misanthrope." MA Historical, "The inhabitants, in general, are substantial livers"--that is, HDT says, they do NOT live like philosophers.
And it's amusing to see how HDT reacts to the houses so cherished, and pricey, now, the "Captains Houses" with rooftop observation posts: he calls them the modern equivalent of monstrosities. (Monstrous in its root sense, too.)
His amusing reflection on an Eastham law, that young bachelors intending marriage should kill 12 blackbirds,"From which I concluded that either many men were not married, or many blackbirds WERE."
A Thoreau-going botanist and Latin taxonomist (he died from counting rings on a tree), he tells wonderful local names for kelp: oar-weed, tangle, devil's apron, sob-weed, ribbon-weed. (Compare Latin classifications which fill his Journals.)
April 28, 2017
In his day as pioneers ventured West to settle America, it’s intriguing that, as a non-conformist, Thoreau ventured East. He views the shore of Cape Cod as a sort of neutral ground and an advantageous point for contemplating the world: “There is naked Nature, inhumanly sincere, wasting no thought on man, nibbling at the cliffy shore where gulls wheel amid the spray.” For Thoreau and transcendentalists like Emerson, the way to experience the core of life was intuitive and accessible through mindful immersion in Nature. “I believe there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright,” Thoreau writes in "Walking." As he walks through Truro, Thoreau points out that here was the limit of the Pilgrims’ journey up the Cape from Provincetown when seeking a place for settlement. “We went to see the Ocean, and that is probably the best place of all our coast to go to.” He takes shelter overnight in Highland Lighthouse shown on the front cover. “Over this bare Highland the wind has full sweep… You must hold on to the lighthouse to prevent being blown into the Atlantic… If you would feel the full force of a tempest, take up your residence on the top of Mount Washington, or at the Highland Light, in Truro,” he writes. In 1794 more ships were wrecked on the eastern shore of Truro than anywhere else on The Cape. "Surely the light-house keeper has a responsible, if an easy, office. When his lamp goes out, he goes out.” Provincetown in Thoreau’s day was located on one of the world’s major shipping lanes. There are the cod and mackerel fleets of 1500 vessels of which 350 could be counted in the harbor at a time. Thoreau paints a pretty picture: “This was the very day one would have chosen to sit upon a hill overlooking sea and land, and muse there. The mackerel fleet was rapidly taking its departure, one schooner after another, and standing round the Cape, like fowls leaving their roosts in the morning to disperse themselves in distant fields.” On the first morning of his arrival at P’town, “they told me that a vessel had lately come in from the Banks with forty-four thousand codfish. Timothy Dwight says that, just before he arrived at Provincetown, ‘a schooner had come in from the Great Bank with fifty-six thousand fish, almost one thousand five hundred quintals, taken in a single voyage; the main deck being, on her return, eight inches under water in calm weather.’" The salt cod were so prolific drying in Provincetown that Thoreau first mistook them for cords of wood stacked all over town. He alludes to lobster fishing from small boats for the markets in New York. In Provincetown he witnessed the growth of farming on “Cranberry Meadows” on an extensive scale. After spending his days sauntering through the length and breadth of Cape Cod, Thoreau leaves Provincetown by ship through Massachusetts Bay for Boston Harbor and 18 miles west to Concord. He seems incapable of rendering a perfect picture of his experiences in his accounting of Cape Cod to do it justice. “We often love to think now of the life of men on beaches,--at least in midsummer, when the weather is serene; their sunny lives on the sand, amid the beach-grass and the bayberries, their companion a cow, their wealth a jag of driftwood or a few beach-plums, and their music the surf and the peep of the beach-bird.” If you're wondering when is the best time of year to visit The Cape, Thoreau advised that it's in October. “A storm in the fall or winter is the time to visit it; a light-house or a fisherman's hut the true hotel. A man may stand there and put all America behind him.”
June 12, 2022
Четох книгата на Хенри ДейвидТоро дълго време. Не заради обема. А заради собствената си вглъбеност в текста. Заради чистото удовлетворение от стила, мислите и описанията. Торо ми е влязъл под кожата. И все повече го усещам близък, сякаш живеещ днес и наблюдаващ събитията около мен. Чета размишленията му като отговор на мои питания. У Торо има задълбоченост, която не ме дразни и не ме отегчава , а ми пасва. Заради достъпността на езика. Заради тънката му ирония и деликатното му чувство за хумор. Философските му прозрения на фона на реалността са щедър оазис сред безпътността на щенията ни.
Когато ми се прииска яркост на мисълта, без сюжет и герои, се обръщам към книги като " Кейп Код ". А Торо ми е предпочитан събеседник. Местата, които описва, предизвикват респект и любопитство.Поне у мен. Чета с широко отворени очи и попивам сравненията и впечатленията му като гъба, изпусната в океана.
* " Няма толкова лош вятър, който никому нищо добро да не докарва..."
Имам нужда от стабилния поглед на Торо върху живота. Наблюденията му върху хората не са критични до отричане, но не са възнасящи точно.Той е гледал и забелязвал поведения, нрави и стремежи от всякакъв ъгъл... И се е оттеглил от тях да живее в гората! Това за мен е достатъчно! То е показателно! И ме удовлетворява напълно! А невероятната ерудираност на Торо и всеобхващащите му умения, го правят източник на щедра доза информация.
* "Разни дами, които никога не ходят из горите, предприемат океански плавания. Да тръгнеш на океанско плаване! Как ли пък не, това значи да споделиш опита на Ной - да преживееш потопа. Всеки кораб е Ноев ковчег."
* " Пришълецът и местният жител гледат на брега по различен начин. Единият идва тук, за да съзерцава океана и да се диви, когато е бурен; докато за другия това е мястото, където е загубил скъпи роднини. "
Законите на природата, катаклизмите и промените й са сякаш огледален образ на човешкото съществуване. На бита и стремежите ни. Ако за един дадена цел е желана и всячески е решен да я достигне, то за друг тя е причина за мъки и падения. И така всеки гледа на света от собствената си камбанария... или от собствения си фар.
* " Само че за мен не е съкровище това, което друг е загубил; предпочитам да търся онова, което никой друг не е намирал или не може да намери... "
Харесвам начина, по който Торо съпоставя обикновеността на ежедневните несгоди и борби за оцеляване със суровите закони на природата. Там всяка грешка се наказва. За всяка некадърност се плаща. А всяко неправилно решение може да е последното. Няма неглижиране, няма замитане под килима и без несправедливи жертви.
* " Океанският бряг е нещо като неутрална територия, особено добра за наблюдаване на света. Някак тривиална дори. Вечно напиращите към сушата вълни са твърде много пътували и твърде неукротими, за да бъдат близки..."
Като произлязъл от рода на Тор - фин / викинг, който предприел през 1007 - а година пътуване до Винланд / , Тор - о изследва по свой начин територията на Кейп Код. Сплитането на стари сказания с историческите данни за Лийф Ериксон, с прозвище Лейф Щастливеца, прави темата на книгата още по - привлекателна. Този исландски пътешественик тръгва на пътешествие, за да стъпи като първия европеец близо хилядолетие преди Колумб на континентална Северна Америка.
* " Та помислете само как се прави историята - в голямата си част тя е просто разказ, приет от поколенията за достоверен..."
В слушалките ми звучеше цяла плейлиста от избрана музика, зад прозореца дъжда се лееше напоително, а аз се запознавах с новите измерения на философските размисли. Радвах се, че с " Кейп Код " посетихме брега на нашето море в един доста слънчев ден. Там описанията от страниците бяха особено въздействащи.
Когато ми се прииска яркост на мисълта, без сюжет и герои, се обръщам към книги като " Кейп Код ". А Торо ми е предпочитан събеседник. Местата, които описва, предизвикват респект и любопитство.Поне у мен. Чета с широко отворени очи и попивам сравненията и впечатленията му като гъба, изпусната в океана.
* " Няма толкова лош вятър, който никому нищо добро да не докарва..."
Имам нужда от стабилния поглед на Торо върху живота. Наблюденията му върху хората не са критични до отричане, но не са възнасящи точно.Той е гледал и забелязвал поведения, нрави и стремежи от всякакъв ъгъл... И се е оттеглил от тях да живее в гората! Това за мен е достатъчно! То е показателно! И ме удовлетворява напълно! А невероятната ерудираност на Торо и всеобхващащите му умения, го правят източник на щедра доза информация.
* "Разни дами, които никога не ходят из горите, предприемат океански плавания. Да тръгнеш на океанско плаване! Как ли пък не, това значи да споделиш опита на Ной - да преживееш потопа. Всеки кораб е Ноев ковчег."
* " Пришълецът и местният жител гледат на брега по различен начин. Единият идва тук, за да съзерцава океана и да се диви, когато е бурен; докато за другия това е мястото, където е загубил скъпи роднини. "
Законите на природата, катаклизмите и промените й са сякаш огледален образ на човешкото съществуване. На бита и стремежите ни. Ако за един дадена цел е желана и всячески е решен да я достигне, то за друг тя е причина за мъки и падения. И така всеки гледа на света от собствената си камбанария... или от собствения си фар.
* " Само че за мен не е съкровище това, което друг е загубил; предпочитам да търся онова, което никой друг не е намирал или не може да намери... "
Харесвам начина, по който Торо съпоставя обикновеността на ежедневните несгоди и борби за оцеляване със суровите закони на природата. Там всяка грешка се наказва. За всяка некадърност се плаща. А всяко неправилно решение може да е последното. Няма неглижиране, няма замитане под килима и без несправедливи жертви.
* " Океанският бряг е нещо като неутрална територия, особено добра за наблюдаване на света. Някак тривиална дори. Вечно напиращите към сушата вълни са твърде много пътували и твърде неукротими, за да бъдат близки..."
Като произлязъл от рода на Тор - фин / викинг, който предприел през 1007 - а година пътуване до Винланд / , Тор - о изследва по свой начин територията на Кейп Код. Сплитането на стари сказания с историческите данни за Лийф Ериксон, с прозвище Лейф Щастливеца, прави темата на книгата още по - привлекателна. Този исландски пътешественик тръгва на пътешествие, за да стъпи като първия европеец близо хилядолетие преди Колумб на континентална Северна Америка.
* " Та помислете само как се прави историята - в голямата си част тя е просто разказ, приет от поколенията за достоверен..."
В слушалките ми звучеше цяла плейлиста от избрана музика, зад прозореца дъжда се лееше напоително, а аз се запознавах с новите измерения на философските размисли. Радвах се, че с " Кейп Код " посетихме брега на нашето море в един доста слънчев ден. Там описанията от страниците бяха особено въздействащи.
October 29, 2025
I read Thoreau like he's an old friend. "Is heaven such a harbour as the Liverpool docks?".
July 26, 2016
Assuredly worth adding to one's Thoreau library....some fine, fun, sea-swept writing here. If you want to know what it felt like to walk along the shore of Cape Cod in the 1800s--and see everything that Thoreau saw--this is the book for you.
September 28, 2022
A pouco mais de um mês de visitar o Cape Cod (Massachusetts) li este clássico da literatura de viagens que corresponde a um cojunto de textos escritos em 1849 por Henry David Thoreau. Um texto informativo mas também um texto enriquecedor do leitor enquanto curioso por um território.
June 19, 2013
I think I might not be cut out for travel/nature books. Thoreau's writing is brilliant, and, having grown up on Long Island, I love the beach and ocean. So this should be a very good fit for me. And yet I found it sometimes inspiring, and at other times a bit of a chore.
I'd like to think that the repetitions in the book are meant to echo the rolling and crashing of the waves. But instead, I tend to think that the book is just not as tight as it could have been, and is just somewhat repetitive. There are some great things in here: the Shipwreck, the description of the Lighthouse, and the Oysterman come immediately to mind. And I'm impressed at how much walking Thoreau did, and how much he got out of his walks. It makes me think that there's something to the meditative aspect of long walks. But that doesn't mean I want to read about every detail, even when the writing is brilliant.
One thing that comes across pretty strongly is how much louder our world is than Thoreau's was. He constantly impresses the reader with the roar of the surf. I've lived by the ocean, and I don't often find it a roar at all. Usually, its quite soothing. Of course, I've also lived in apartments just above Broadway in New York, and in other cities. And we now live with constant noise and music, so the presence of the ocean noise doesn't interrupt silence any more. We don't have that much quiet time in our lives at all anymore, and most people shun silence. For a naturalist like Thoreau, my guess is that silence was more the norm, and the incessant sound of the ocean made a big impression on him.
At the close of the book Thoreau dismisses barrier beaches as being nothing more than a sandbar. The barrier beaches are what I grew up with. The Long Island beaches, the Jersey shore, Assateague Island, the Outer Banks. I love them all, and I can't abide someone dismissing them. Think of an island that continually gets wiped out at one side by the surf, and renewed at the other end, an island where the land is never sure, even though the island persists. And then think that an ecosystem grew up to thrive in just such an environment, with all sorts of life specifically adapted to just this kind of ceaseless change. And Thoreau simply dismisses this different wonder, I guess because its not his native Massachusetts, or because his long walks hadn't really taken him there. I'm actually a bit surprised at this kind of provincialism from him.
The other laugh I had at Thoreau's expense is his prediction at the end of the book that Cape Cod would never become a fashionable resort area. Oh, if the Kennedy's had only known.
I liked this considerably more than A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (which felt more like several months), but nowhere as near as much as Walden. My guess is, if there were no TV, if I hadn't grown up near the beach, and if this were the only way to vicariously experience it, I would be much more impressed with this book. As it is, I found the writing remarkable, the subject matter intrinsically interesting, but the book as a whole rather dull.
I'd like to think that the repetitions in the book are meant to echo the rolling and crashing of the waves. But instead, I tend to think that the book is just not as tight as it could have been, and is just somewhat repetitive. There are some great things in here: the Shipwreck, the description of the Lighthouse, and the Oysterman come immediately to mind. And I'm impressed at how much walking Thoreau did, and how much he got out of his walks. It makes me think that there's something to the meditative aspect of long walks. But that doesn't mean I want to read about every detail, even when the writing is brilliant.
One thing that comes across pretty strongly is how much louder our world is than Thoreau's was. He constantly impresses the reader with the roar of the surf. I've lived by the ocean, and I don't often find it a roar at all. Usually, its quite soothing. Of course, I've also lived in apartments just above Broadway in New York, and in other cities. And we now live with constant noise and music, so the presence of the ocean noise doesn't interrupt silence any more. We don't have that much quiet time in our lives at all anymore, and most people shun silence. For a naturalist like Thoreau, my guess is that silence was more the norm, and the incessant sound of the ocean made a big impression on him.
At the close of the book Thoreau dismisses barrier beaches as being nothing more than a sandbar. The barrier beaches are what I grew up with. The Long Island beaches, the Jersey shore, Assateague Island, the Outer Banks. I love them all, and I can't abide someone dismissing them. Think of an island that continually gets wiped out at one side by the surf, and renewed at the other end, an island where the land is never sure, even though the island persists. And then think that an ecosystem grew up to thrive in just such an environment, with all sorts of life specifically adapted to just this kind of ceaseless change. And Thoreau simply dismisses this different wonder, I guess because its not his native Massachusetts, or because his long walks hadn't really taken him there. I'm actually a bit surprised at this kind of provincialism from him.
The other laugh I had at Thoreau's expense is his prediction at the end of the book that Cape Cod would never become a fashionable resort area. Oh, if the Kennedy's had only known.
I liked this considerably more than A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (which felt more like several months), but nowhere as near as much as Walden. My guess is, if there were no TV, if I hadn't grown up near the beach, and if this were the only way to vicariously experience it, I would be much more impressed with this book. As it is, I found the writing remarkable, the subject matter intrinsically interesting, but the book as a whole rather dull.
February 2, 2016
Henry David Thoreau’s “Cape Cod” reads much more like a traditional travel book than most of his work, and I found it quite accessible, even entertaining, for that reason. While I don’t think that “Cape Cod” reaches the philosophical depth of “Walden,” or even “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers,” it is full of powerful and stunning passages. Perhaps most emotionally intense are Thoreau’s descriptions of the shipwreck in the opening chapter. He contemplates the smallness of human endeavors against nature’s power and the disturbing eagerness of various people on shore to see the bodies washed up from the wreck. Thoreau writes of the shipwreck’s victims that they “were coming to the New World, as Columbus and the Pilgrims did, they were within a mile of its shores; but, before they could reach it, they emigrated to a newer world than ever Columbus dreamed of… it has not yet been discovered by science… not merely mariners’ tales and some paltry drift-wood and sea-weed, but a continual drift and instinct toward all our shores. I saw their empty hulks that came to land; but they themselves, meanwhile, were cast upon some shore yet further west, toward which we are all tending, and which we shall reach at last, it may be through storm and darkness, as they did” (8). I found these scenes especially moving because so many label Thoreau as uncompassionate and cold. They think that he wanted to remove himself from society, which is entirely false. Rather, in seeking solitude, he hoped to meditate on how better to participate in society, while maintaining his own moral standards and ideas. As evidenced in “Cape Cod,” Thoreau was deeply shaken by the sight of the shipwreck victims, and it was his compassion for them that caused this meditation on what he saw as the ultimate destiny of humankind, a higher calling to some unknown beyond our mortal lives.
Though “Cape Cod” opens with great emotional intensity, it does not remain so dark throughout. There are even humorous passages and anecdotes about Thoreau’s various trips to the Cape. (The Wellfleet Oysterman he meets is especially memorable and entertaining) Thoreau seemed more “real” to me in reading this novel than he sometimes does in his other work. He details the specifics of his trip here more than in his other more philosophical travel accounts like “The Maine Woods” and “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”. His inclusion of a variety of day-to-day events, like the ubiquity of Cape sand in his shoes (quite familiar to anyone who has visited the Cape), and even getting “quite sick” from eating a supposedly-poisonous part of an oyster (poor Henry!) make this feel like a less lofty, more personal version of Thoreau. Certainly in reading a book like this, some of Thoreau’s supposed coldness is dispelled. One of my favorite “mundane” passages in the book is the following, when Thoreau describes staying the night at the Highland lighthouse: “The keeper entertained us handsomely in his solitary little ocean house… The light-house lamps a few feet distant shone full into my chamber, and made it as bright as day, so I knew exactly how the Highland Light bore all that night, and I was in no danger of being wrecked. Unlike the last, this was as still as a summer night. I thought as I lay there, half awake and half asleep, looking upward through the window at the lights above my head, how many sleepless eyes from far out on the Ocean stream-- mariners of all nations spinning their yarns through the various watches of the night-- were directed toward my couch” (75). As with much of Thoreau’s writings, I can’t put my finger on exactly why this passage is so beautiful, or why I kept turning back to and re-reading it, but it stays in my mind as one of my favorite of the book, and of Thoreau’s writing. Perhaps it is because of the transcendent (no pun intended!) moment of connection that he feels, falling asleep at the lighthouse, to the lives of countless people whom he will never meet, but who rely on that light to guide them safely to port.
Along with the more human Henry Thoreau that emerges in the pages of “Cape Cod,” readers are treated to Thoreau’s incredible ability to turn ruminations on nature into an opportunity to learn about humankind. In one of my favorite passages of Thoreau yet, he describes finding a bottle that had washed ashore on the beach “half buried in the wet sand, covered with barnacles, but stopped right, and half full of red ale, which still smacked of juniper,-- all that remained I fancied from the wreck of a rowdy world,-- that great salt sea on the one hand, and this little sea of ale on the other, preserving their separate characters. What if it could tell us its adventures over countless ocean waves! Man would not be man through such ordeals as it had passed. But as I poured it slowly out on to the sand, it seemed to me that man himself was like a half-emptied bottle of pale ale, which Time had drunk, so far, yet stopped tight for a while, and drifting about in the ocean of circumstances; but destined erelong to mingle with the surrounding waves, or be spilled amid the sands of a distant shore” (51). In this passage, Thoreau connects the concrete events of a bottle washed ashore on the beach to his philosophy that one must always struggle to maintain individual against a conformist majority. His ability to see the profound in thoroughly mundane experiences is one of my favorite aspects of his writing, and passages like this one are what elevate “Cape Cod” from the rank of travel book merely.
Finally, Thoreau spends a great deal of time writing about the ocean in “Cape Cod” and reconciling it with his understanding of nature overall. This sea, capable of wrecking ships against its shores, is certainly at odds with the serene waters of Henry’s familiar Walden Pond. It seems more aligned with the frightening yet awe-inspiring wilderness of “The Maine Woods”. Thoreau writes that: “The sea-shore is a sort of neutral ground, a most advantageous point from which to contemplate this world. It is even a trivial place. The waves forever rolling to the land are too far-travelled and untameable to be familiar… It is a wild, rank place, and there is no flattery in it… a vast morgue, where famished dogs may range in packs, and crows come daily to glean the pittance which the tide leaves them. The carcasses of men and beasts together lie stately up upon its shelf, rotting and bleaching in the sun and waves, and each tide turns them in their beds, and tucks fresh sand under them. There is naked Nature,-- inhumanly sincere, wasting no thought on man, nibbling at the cliffy shore where gulls wheel amid the spray” (79). Though the ocean is vast and frightening, its power is invigorating to Thoreau, who loves the untameable aspect of it. He contemplates this in another passage as well, writing: “I think that [Cape Cod] was never more wild than now. We do not associate the idea of antiquity with the ocean, nor wonder how it looked a thousand years ago, as we do of the land, for it was equally wild and unfathomable always… The aspect of the shore only has changed. The ocean is a wilderness reaching round the globe, wilder than a Bengal jungle, and fuller of monsters, washing the very wharves of our cities and the gardens of our sea-side residences” (80). Central to Thoreau’s philosophy is his conception of the unknown, of wild and unknowable nature. He celebrates exploration throughout the book, writing that “It was a poetic recreation to watch those distant sails steering for half fabulous ports, whose very names are a mysterious music to our ears… It is remarkable that men do not sail the sea with more expectation. Nothing memorable was ever accomplished in a prosaic mood. The heroes and discoverers have found true more than was previously believed, only when they were expecting and dreaming of something more than their contemporaries dreamed of, or even themselves discovered, that is, when they were in a frame of mind fitted to behold the truth” (53) Thus, in Thoreau’s mind, it is not sufficient to set out only on a literal exploration voyage. If one does this, he or she will discover only the material. Rather, Thoreau believes, we must put ourselves in a frame of mind to explore ourselves as well as the world around us, to discover our own truths. The unknown is not frightening to Thoreau, as it is to other writers. Rather, it represents potential for great discovery. During his lifetime, the West was quickly being settled, and that frontier was vanishing. In “Cape Cod,” Thoreau seems to turn to the ocean as a place that has forever been wild and “unfathomable”. For him, it is necessary in a spiritual way for there to always exist greater heights yet unvisited, greater depths yet unfathomed.
Though “Cape Cod” opens with great emotional intensity, it does not remain so dark throughout. There are even humorous passages and anecdotes about Thoreau’s various trips to the Cape. (The Wellfleet Oysterman he meets is especially memorable and entertaining) Thoreau seemed more “real” to me in reading this novel than he sometimes does in his other work. He details the specifics of his trip here more than in his other more philosophical travel accounts like “The Maine Woods” and “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”. His inclusion of a variety of day-to-day events, like the ubiquity of Cape sand in his shoes (quite familiar to anyone who has visited the Cape), and even getting “quite sick” from eating a supposedly-poisonous part of an oyster (poor Henry!) make this feel like a less lofty, more personal version of Thoreau. Certainly in reading a book like this, some of Thoreau’s supposed coldness is dispelled. One of my favorite “mundane” passages in the book is the following, when Thoreau describes staying the night at the Highland lighthouse: “The keeper entertained us handsomely in his solitary little ocean house… The light-house lamps a few feet distant shone full into my chamber, and made it as bright as day, so I knew exactly how the Highland Light bore all that night, and I was in no danger of being wrecked. Unlike the last, this was as still as a summer night. I thought as I lay there, half awake and half asleep, looking upward through the window at the lights above my head, how many sleepless eyes from far out on the Ocean stream-- mariners of all nations spinning their yarns through the various watches of the night-- were directed toward my couch” (75). As with much of Thoreau’s writings, I can’t put my finger on exactly why this passage is so beautiful, or why I kept turning back to and re-reading it, but it stays in my mind as one of my favorite of the book, and of Thoreau’s writing. Perhaps it is because of the transcendent (no pun intended!) moment of connection that he feels, falling asleep at the lighthouse, to the lives of countless people whom he will never meet, but who rely on that light to guide them safely to port.
Along with the more human Henry Thoreau that emerges in the pages of “Cape Cod,” readers are treated to Thoreau’s incredible ability to turn ruminations on nature into an opportunity to learn about humankind. In one of my favorite passages of Thoreau yet, he describes finding a bottle that had washed ashore on the beach “half buried in the wet sand, covered with barnacles, but stopped right, and half full of red ale, which still smacked of juniper,-- all that remained I fancied from the wreck of a rowdy world,-- that great salt sea on the one hand, and this little sea of ale on the other, preserving their separate characters. What if it could tell us its adventures over countless ocean waves! Man would not be man through such ordeals as it had passed. But as I poured it slowly out on to the sand, it seemed to me that man himself was like a half-emptied bottle of pale ale, which Time had drunk, so far, yet stopped tight for a while, and drifting about in the ocean of circumstances; but destined erelong to mingle with the surrounding waves, or be spilled amid the sands of a distant shore” (51). In this passage, Thoreau connects the concrete events of a bottle washed ashore on the beach to his philosophy that one must always struggle to maintain individual against a conformist majority. His ability to see the profound in thoroughly mundane experiences is one of my favorite aspects of his writing, and passages like this one are what elevate “Cape Cod” from the rank of travel book merely.
Finally, Thoreau spends a great deal of time writing about the ocean in “Cape Cod” and reconciling it with his understanding of nature overall. This sea, capable of wrecking ships against its shores, is certainly at odds with the serene waters of Henry’s familiar Walden Pond. It seems more aligned with the frightening yet awe-inspiring wilderness of “The Maine Woods”. Thoreau writes that: “The sea-shore is a sort of neutral ground, a most advantageous point from which to contemplate this world. It is even a trivial place. The waves forever rolling to the land are too far-travelled and untameable to be familiar… It is a wild, rank place, and there is no flattery in it… a vast morgue, where famished dogs may range in packs, and crows come daily to glean the pittance which the tide leaves them. The carcasses of men and beasts together lie stately up upon its shelf, rotting and bleaching in the sun and waves, and each tide turns them in their beds, and tucks fresh sand under them. There is naked Nature,-- inhumanly sincere, wasting no thought on man, nibbling at the cliffy shore where gulls wheel amid the spray” (79). Though the ocean is vast and frightening, its power is invigorating to Thoreau, who loves the untameable aspect of it. He contemplates this in another passage as well, writing: “I think that [Cape Cod] was never more wild than now. We do not associate the idea of antiquity with the ocean, nor wonder how it looked a thousand years ago, as we do of the land, for it was equally wild and unfathomable always… The aspect of the shore only has changed. The ocean is a wilderness reaching round the globe, wilder than a Bengal jungle, and fuller of monsters, washing the very wharves of our cities and the gardens of our sea-side residences” (80). Central to Thoreau’s philosophy is his conception of the unknown, of wild and unknowable nature. He celebrates exploration throughout the book, writing that “It was a poetic recreation to watch those distant sails steering for half fabulous ports, whose very names are a mysterious music to our ears… It is remarkable that men do not sail the sea with more expectation. Nothing memorable was ever accomplished in a prosaic mood. The heroes and discoverers have found true more than was previously believed, only when they were expecting and dreaming of something more than their contemporaries dreamed of, or even themselves discovered, that is, when they were in a frame of mind fitted to behold the truth” (53) Thus, in Thoreau’s mind, it is not sufficient to set out only on a literal exploration voyage. If one does this, he or she will discover only the material. Rather, Thoreau believes, we must put ourselves in a frame of mind to explore ourselves as well as the world around us, to discover our own truths. The unknown is not frightening to Thoreau, as it is to other writers. Rather, it represents potential for great discovery. During his lifetime, the West was quickly being settled, and that frontier was vanishing. In “Cape Cod,” Thoreau seems to turn to the ocean as a place that has forever been wild and “unfathomable”. For him, it is necessary in a spiritual way for there to always exist greater heights yet unvisited, greater depths yet unfathomed.
July 6, 2020
Do you enjoy 19th century wordplay? Do you speak Latin, French, and Ancient Greek fluently? Do you understand references to obscure mythological figures? Do you know the scientific names of flora found throughout New England? Do you enjoy measuring quantities in unconventional units, like "30 rods" and "60 bushels"? Do you feel smugly superior to your fellow man? If your answers to all of these questions were an unequivocal YES, then you may enjoy reading "Cape Cod" by HDT.
I remember reading Thoreau's "Walden" during high school and not enjoying it. Thinking I had matured and could now better relate to his elevated style of writing, I revisited him 10 years later, to find my initial assessment correct, and my later assessment flawed (this is the style of "joke" he makes all throughout "Cape Cod"). He reads as a man writing with little connection to the people or land that he writes about, only comparing what he sees to his personal standard of beauty. He finds no comfort in a warm sunny day on the beach, instead enjoying a cold, dreary afternoon following a storm. He shuns the towns of the Cape to tell us about the seagulls he saw over the nearest sand dune. He dredges up ancient tomes of Pilgrim history THAT HE APPARENTLY BROUGHT WITH HIM ON HIS TRIPS THAT WERE SUPPOSED TO BE HIS VACATION to tell us about the ministers of olde and make jokes about whether they were ugly or had bad breath. Truly, this man appears delusional from a modern standpoint, and perhaps an antiquated one as well.
There are certainly worthwhile passages contained within the whole. As someone with a connection to Cape Cod, it really was fascinating to take a look back at where the peninsula was 170 years ago. I enjoyed his discussions of the landscape, the inhabitants, the fishing fleets, etc., but could generally do without the tangents. If you absolutely HAVE to read this book, my advice: Skip ahead a page if you get bored or he starts speaking in a foreign language for more than one word.
I remember reading Thoreau's "Walden" during high school and not enjoying it. Thinking I had matured and could now better relate to his elevated style of writing, I revisited him 10 years later, to find my initial assessment correct, and my later assessment flawed (this is the style of "joke" he makes all throughout "Cape Cod"). He reads as a man writing with little connection to the people or land that he writes about, only comparing what he sees to his personal standard of beauty. He finds no comfort in a warm sunny day on the beach, instead enjoying a cold, dreary afternoon following a storm. He shuns the towns of the Cape to tell us about the seagulls he saw over the nearest sand dune. He dredges up ancient tomes of Pilgrim history THAT HE APPARENTLY BROUGHT WITH HIM ON HIS TRIPS THAT WERE SUPPOSED TO BE HIS VACATION to tell us about the ministers of olde and make jokes about whether they were ugly or had bad breath. Truly, this man appears delusional from a modern standpoint, and perhaps an antiquated one as well.
There are certainly worthwhile passages contained within the whole. As someone with a connection to Cape Cod, it really was fascinating to take a look back at where the peninsula was 170 years ago. I enjoyed his discussions of the landscape, the inhabitants, the fishing fleets, etc., but could generally do without the tangents. If you absolutely HAVE to read this book, my advice: Skip ahead a page if you get bored or he starts speaking in a foreign language for more than one word.
September 18, 2008
Oh, Mr. Thoreau. I'm so sorry for not doing you justice and for not giving you the five stars you undoubtedly deserve. But see, the rating systems asks me if "I" really liked the book, and well, my taste just isn't as good as your writing.
I sincerely apologize.
I took your book with me when I traveled to a long, rather narrow German island, that shall remain unnamed for I fear people will not take me serious anymore if they know where I spent my vacations. Two weeks ago, Germany being in the middle of a late winter, just me, the beaches, the dog and the snow. I thought this would be an ideal setting for reading about Cape Cod, being close to the sea and the sand. I thought that it would be easy to imagine being there with you.
But it wasn't. It was actually very very hard to imagine. Your brilliant descriptions of the landcsape, your sharp way of looking and writing about the people you meet, all made it hard not to picture Cape Cod. But your journey itself left me strangely cold. Nothing like the rush of moving through the country with Theroux, of wandering (often away from the subject) with Chatwin. Yes, I know, I shouldn't even compare, but I think we can both live with me preferring other travel writers over you, especially with you being dead and not being able to disagree.
I fully acknowledge that you are a wonderful writer, I am happy you were there to influence some of the writers I adore these days. And yes, I believe I would have been able to enjoy your book much more had I been traveling Cape Cod, instead of being stuck on above mentioned, still-remaining-nameless island. Maybe it was just the difference in age that prevented us from becoming better friends. Whatever the reason, our ways shall part at this point. Who knows, maybe we will meet again later in life, by chance. (but don't hold your breath).
Yours sincerely,
Oceana
I sincerely apologize.
I took your book with me when I traveled to a long, rather narrow German island, that shall remain unnamed for I fear people will not take me serious anymore if they know where I spent my vacations. Two weeks ago, Germany being in the middle of a late winter, just me, the beaches, the dog and the snow. I thought this would be an ideal setting for reading about Cape Cod, being close to the sea and the sand. I thought that it would be easy to imagine being there with you.
But it wasn't. It was actually very very hard to imagine. Your brilliant descriptions of the landcsape, your sharp way of looking and writing about the people you meet, all made it hard not to picture Cape Cod. But your journey itself left me strangely cold. Nothing like the rush of moving through the country with Theroux, of wandering (often away from the subject) with Chatwin. Yes, I know, I shouldn't even compare, but I think we can both live with me preferring other travel writers over you, especially with you being dead and not being able to disagree.
I fully acknowledge that you are a wonderful writer, I am happy you were there to influence some of the writers I adore these days. And yes, I believe I would have been able to enjoy your book much more had I been traveling Cape Cod, instead of being stuck on above mentioned, still-remaining-nameless island. Maybe it was just the difference in age that prevented us from becoming better friends. Whatever the reason, our ways shall part at this point. Who knows, maybe we will meet again later in life, by chance. (but don't hold your breath).
Yours sincerely,
Oceana
March 22, 2018
I surprised myself that I hadn't posted a review of Cape Cod yet, even though I have read it many times. Perhaps the last read was before I joined Goodreads. It's a book full of adventure, humor, and insight as only Thoreau can write. It enriches my frequent visits to the Cape.
August 17, 2014
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) is probably best known for “Walden” and “Civil Disobedience.” Neither has the readability of “Cape Cod,” one of the accounts he wrote of his extensive travels. He was a great travel writer, eager to describe the places he visited, using a more relaxed tone with lighter philosophical inclination than that used in his controversial essays.
As an essayist he was relentless as an advocate for the discovering of life’s true necessities. He was a lifelong abolitionist and champion of civil disobedience. Some described him as an anarchist, although he seemed to favor the improvement of government rather than the destruction of it. While either sitting in prison or residing in solitude on Walden Pond, his writings were heavy with transcendental idealistic musings on “the meanness of the world.” Not so much with his travel tales that seemed to lighten his countenance.
Always known for his pointed satire and cunning wit, Thoreau seemed to bring them forward more easily as he rambled around. A Thoreau biographer, Walter Harding, called “Cape Cod” his “sunniest and happiest book. It bubbles over with jokes, puns, tall tales, and genial good humor.” That might be stretching it a bit, but there’s no doubt that the book is pleasant to read, if a bit wordy. After Thoreau left Walden Pond in 1847 he became increasingly interested in natural history and the environment, and began writing more about them in his travels and expeditions. His love of flora and fauna sometimes dominated his writing providing the reader with great skimming opportunities to survive the redundancy.
The walks he recorded in “Cape Cod,” were compilations of four treks he took, covering most of Cape Cod’s towns. His observations are full of descriptions of the countryside from the seashore to the marshes, plains, scrubby trees, and fields of the Cape’s inner reaches. His encounters with a shipwreck in which many people were killed, an educational encounter with an oysterman, and a riveting description of a lighthouse are informative and highly readable.
I noticed an oddity about his writing. Enthusiastic travel writers are heavy into the food they encounter as they wander. Thoreau tended to ignore the subject. Although he was not a strict vegetarian, meat was low in his priorities because of his perception that it was unclean, and he seemed to subsist on little but air as he trekked around. At one point he mentioned that a clam and a couple of crackers would make a fine dinner,
His writing received widespread praise in later years but also received some pointed criticism from some of his well-known contemporaries. Luminaries such as Robert Lewis Stevenson, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Nathaniel Hawthorne all took their shots at him, calling him unmanly, a skulker, and a “woodchuck.” Thoreau answered by invoking the idea that every man needs to consider the scope of his own life and not worry about what he has heard of others.
There was a good deal of satisfaction for me in the reading of “Cape Cod.” Thoreau’s ideas are thought provoking, his vistas are well formed, and he is, after all, considered a literary icon. I feel much more intelligent and well read after completing “Cape Cod.”
As an essayist he was relentless as an advocate for the discovering of life’s true necessities. He was a lifelong abolitionist and champion of civil disobedience. Some described him as an anarchist, although he seemed to favor the improvement of government rather than the destruction of it. While either sitting in prison or residing in solitude on Walden Pond, his writings were heavy with transcendental idealistic musings on “the meanness of the world.” Not so much with his travel tales that seemed to lighten his countenance.
Always known for his pointed satire and cunning wit, Thoreau seemed to bring them forward more easily as he rambled around. A Thoreau biographer, Walter Harding, called “Cape Cod” his “sunniest and happiest book. It bubbles over with jokes, puns, tall tales, and genial good humor.” That might be stretching it a bit, but there’s no doubt that the book is pleasant to read, if a bit wordy. After Thoreau left Walden Pond in 1847 he became increasingly interested in natural history and the environment, and began writing more about them in his travels and expeditions. His love of flora and fauna sometimes dominated his writing providing the reader with great skimming opportunities to survive the redundancy.
The walks he recorded in “Cape Cod,” were compilations of four treks he took, covering most of Cape Cod’s towns. His observations are full of descriptions of the countryside from the seashore to the marshes, plains, scrubby trees, and fields of the Cape’s inner reaches. His encounters with a shipwreck in which many people were killed, an educational encounter with an oysterman, and a riveting description of a lighthouse are informative and highly readable.
I noticed an oddity about his writing. Enthusiastic travel writers are heavy into the food they encounter as they wander. Thoreau tended to ignore the subject. Although he was not a strict vegetarian, meat was low in his priorities because of his perception that it was unclean, and he seemed to subsist on little but air as he trekked around. At one point he mentioned that a clam and a couple of crackers would make a fine dinner,
His writing received widespread praise in later years but also received some pointed criticism from some of his well-known contemporaries. Luminaries such as Robert Lewis Stevenson, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Nathaniel Hawthorne all took their shots at him, calling him unmanly, a skulker, and a “woodchuck.” Thoreau answered by invoking the idea that every man needs to consider the scope of his own life and not worry about what he has heard of others.
There was a good deal of satisfaction for me in the reading of “Cape Cod.” Thoreau’s ideas are thought provoking, his vistas are well formed, and he is, after all, considered a literary icon. I feel much more intelligent and well read after completing “Cape Cod.”
September 7, 2012
What a lovely ending to our trip to Cape Cod to spread my Dad’s ashes in the Atlantic: in the box of books allotted to me from his estate, I found this paperback copy of Cape Cod by Thoreau. My family and I had just traversed these same shores, some two hundred years after its writing, yet so many of the places are still there, however changed. Thoreau compiles several separate holidays on the Cape into this account of its history, its people and its terrain as he takes us on a journey through the rains and fogs and shipwrecks of the “curled arm” peninsula.
He uses his surveyor skills to describe the starkly inhospitable terrain, while inserting humorous anecdotal social commentary toward the characters that are as much part of the landscape as the flora and fauna to keep the story moving agreeably, though certainly not grippingly. You cannot help but grow wistful for the sound of the sea and for the abundant seafood feasts it provides, as well as the memories you yourself may have made at such a place as this, Cape Cod.
He uses his surveyor skills to describe the starkly inhospitable terrain, while inserting humorous anecdotal social commentary toward the characters that are as much part of the landscape as the flora and fauna to keep the story moving agreeably, though certainly not grippingly. You cannot help but grow wistful for the sound of the sea and for the abundant seafood feasts it provides, as well as the memories you yourself may have made at such a place as this, Cape Cod.
November 12, 2013
The version that I read was a Heritage Press edition from 1968 with an introduction by Joseph Krutch and illustrated by R. J. Holden. I was reading this side-by-side with my Kindle version; however, I ended up missing a lot of content that was not included with the e-book so I stuck with the physical book. The book reminded me of an old textbook from my youth which is not necessarily a bad thing. The illustrations are gorgeous and fit well with Thoreau’s Cape Cod. Cape Cod is an exquisite walk through the Cape spending time on the beach, visiting new acquaintances, enjoying a stay in a lighthouse or two, and trying not to get arrested for bank robbery. With Thoreau’s work I often find myself stepping back in time and partaking in the scenery in day’s long past. Part travel book, part journal, and part history lesson Henry David Thoreau’s Cape Cod has a lot to offer and is well worth the time spent enjoying the scenery.
May 24, 2020
3 and 1/2 stars out of 5 for this. I've been a life-long reader of Thoreau, but for various reasons had never read this one before. It was published after his death, and is a collection of essays about his travels on the Cape, and so was never really intended as a whole book in itself. And that does show, as it's not up to par with much of his other writing. It's more of a travelogue, with a great deal of history and natural history thrown in, and while it does get a bit dry at times, there are still numerous fascinating vignettes of people he encounters on his way, and various observations of nature and human activity. And I quite liked reading a travelogue written at a time before the Cape had been widely exploited by the tourist and resort trade, as has long since occurred.
September 7, 2020
@thoreau why did you visit cape cod three whole times if you hated it so much 😭😭😭
(for real though, there are some really beautiful phrases, especially when describing landscapes, but overall there's just something missing from this account that made it impossible for me to get into!
it seemed like most of the people Thoreau met he hated, and most of what he saw bored him, and there was a general sense of disdain that just didn't really do it for me
it all made this book kind of tedious to get through, despite the fine writing)
(for real though, there are some really beautiful phrases, especially when describing landscapes, but overall there's just something missing from this account that made it impossible for me to get into!
it seemed like most of the people Thoreau met he hated, and most of what he saw bored him, and there was a general sense of disdain that just didn't really do it for me
it all made this book kind of tedious to get through, despite the fine writing)
October 16, 2014
very descriptive but dreary. A long slow read as I find all of Thoreau. But his images have stuck in my head and as I explore Cape Cod I find his perspective on the pre-vacationland and its people to excite my imagination.
July 8, 2017
Cape Cod is a raw piece of travel writing that Thoreau produced from only three weeks total spent roaming the Cape. It reads more like a journal than a polished memoir, being punctuated with Greek and Latin throughout, and filled with musings on Viking history, local flora and fauna (including the human inhabitants), competition between the early Pilgrims and other Europeans, and the role of the cape as a landmark for ancient seafarers. The book is made unruly, but also better, for these interjections, tangents, and histories.
Some themes repeat throughout Thoreau's journey along the Cape, such as the offerings of life and death the sea provides, it's destructive power, and the smallness of man's footprint relative to the sea's immensity. Nevertheless, Thoreau laments on several occasions man's spoliations, such as the loss of topsoil, deer, trees, and fish.
Though the Cape has changed dramatically since Thoreau's time, I'm intending to explore the two parts he recommends as the most attractive. First, the northeast part of Wellfleet that "best combines the country and the seaside," and was once close to some Herring ponds. Second, he likes the Highland Light in Truro where one finds a "more uninterrupted view of the Ocean and the Bay." Chatham has always been my favorite Cape town, followed closely by Provincetown, but in reality I've seen little of what's there.
Some of my favorite bits:
--"My spirits rose in proportion to the outward dreariness. The towns need to be ventilated. The gods would be pleased to see some pure flames from their altars. They are not be to appeased with cigar-smoke." pg. 48
--"The sea-shore is a sort of neutral ground, a most advantageous point from which to contemplate this world. It is even a trivial place. The waves forever rolling to the land are too far-travelled and untamable to be familiar. Creeping along the endless beach amid the sun-squall and the foam, it occurs to us that we, too, are the product of sea-slime. It is a wild, rank place, and there is no flattery in it. Strewn with crabs, horse-shoes, and razor-clams, and whatever the sea casts up,--a vast morgue, where famished dogs may range in packs, and crows come daily to glean the pittance which the tide leaves them. The carcasses of men and beasts together lie stately up upon its shelf, rotting and bleaching in the sun and waves, and each tide turns them in their beds, and tucks fresh sand under them. There is naked Nature, inhumanly sincere, wasting no thought on man, nibbling at the cliffy shore where gulls wheel amid the spray." pg. 218
--". . . a great part of this was spent foolishly, as the public money is wont to be." pg. 243
--[of Cape Cod] "A man may stand there and put all America behind him." pg. 319
New words learned:
--Plangent: [of a noise] loud, reverberating, often melancholy
--Accomack: The native place-name for "Plymouth"
--Ovum: Egg, usually of reproductive female type
--Cynosure: A person or thing that is the center of attention or admiration
Some themes repeat throughout Thoreau's journey along the Cape, such as the offerings of life and death the sea provides, it's destructive power, and the smallness of man's footprint relative to the sea's immensity. Nevertheless, Thoreau laments on several occasions man's spoliations, such as the loss of topsoil, deer, trees, and fish.
Though the Cape has changed dramatically since Thoreau's time, I'm intending to explore the two parts he recommends as the most attractive. First, the northeast part of Wellfleet that "best combines the country and the seaside," and was once close to some Herring ponds. Second, he likes the Highland Light in Truro where one finds a "more uninterrupted view of the Ocean and the Bay." Chatham has always been my favorite Cape town, followed closely by Provincetown, but in reality I've seen little of what's there.
Some of my favorite bits:
--"My spirits rose in proportion to the outward dreariness. The towns need to be ventilated. The gods would be pleased to see some pure flames from their altars. They are not be to appeased with cigar-smoke." pg. 48
--"The sea-shore is a sort of neutral ground, a most advantageous point from which to contemplate this world. It is even a trivial place. The waves forever rolling to the land are too far-travelled and untamable to be familiar. Creeping along the endless beach amid the sun-squall and the foam, it occurs to us that we, too, are the product of sea-slime. It is a wild, rank place, and there is no flattery in it. Strewn with crabs, horse-shoes, and razor-clams, and whatever the sea casts up,--a vast morgue, where famished dogs may range in packs, and crows come daily to glean the pittance which the tide leaves them. The carcasses of men and beasts together lie stately up upon its shelf, rotting and bleaching in the sun and waves, and each tide turns them in their beds, and tucks fresh sand under them. There is naked Nature, inhumanly sincere, wasting no thought on man, nibbling at the cliffy shore where gulls wheel amid the spray." pg. 218
--". . . a great part of this was spent foolishly, as the public money is wont to be." pg. 243
--[of Cape Cod] "A man may stand there and put all America behind him." pg. 319
New words learned:
--Plangent: [of a noise] loud, reverberating, often melancholy
--Accomack: The native place-name for "Plymouth"
--Ovum: Egg, usually of reproductive female type
--Cynosure: A person or thing that is the center of attention or admiration
March 1, 2018
Some interesting parts but mostly really boring even for me, who really cares about and regularly visits Cape Cod. Highlights included the mentions of the sea animals, and everything and everyone who washes ashore- though I don't hear about treasure washing up anymore.
January 11, 2018
I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would. It took me a long time to read it.
September 18, 2025
Great beach read for the Cape. I didn’t realize or remember that Thoreau is funny! There were a few dull parts about explorers and maps, but for the most part, his stories about his wanderings and the people and nature he comes across are enjoyable and interesting.
December 1, 2024
I read sections of this for one of my college courses, but I’ve been wanting to read the rest. Finally got around it it!
July 28, 2017
A naturalist view of Cape Cod written @ 150 years ago as he walked the seashore along Cape Cod. Thanks to the National Park designation this land has been preserved from development allowing us to view it as Thoreau did!
December 23, 2025
DNF. Kinda boring
June 21, 2017
As in a few other reviews, I would give 4.5 stars if it were possible. This is the best work of Thoreau's that I have come across so far, better than Walden.
It is wonderfully descriptive, entertaining, more than a little humorous, and gives a clearer insight into the character of the author than anything else I have read.
As in his other writing, he displays his flair for original poetic conclusions and comparisons that I find fascinating. As a prime example, while walking on the beach he finds a bottle half buried in the sand, picks it up and looks it over and says, "But as I poured it slowly out onto the sand, it seemed to me that man himself was like a half-emptied bottle of pale ale, which Time had drunk so far, yet stoppled tight for a while, and drifting about in the ocean of circumstances; but destined erelong to mingle with the surrounding waves, or be spilled amid the sands of a distant shore."
Cape Cod does not (except for one section described below) become tiresome or picayune as do, in my opinion, Autumnal Tints and, to a lesser degree, Wild Apples.
Beginning at about 83% of the way through there begins a historical narrative which seems to me to be out of place. It runs on for about 5% of the work, and then the book returns to its former high quality. During this 5% Thoreau seems to be listing all of the research that he put into discovering who first set eyes on, or 'discovered' Cape Cod. There are altogether too many dates, names, and incidents, and they are not in a clear chronological order. In any case, once he gets back to the original style of the narrative, he concisely summarizes his conclusions obviating the need for the offending discourse. It should have been edited out.
This kindle edition suffers from the transcription technique used in its creation. I presume some sort of OCR device was used resulting in uncaught typos and the botched handling of footnotes. Even so, the book is a winner and is recommended.
It is wonderfully descriptive, entertaining, more than a little humorous, and gives a clearer insight into the character of the author than anything else I have read.
As in his other writing, he displays his flair for original poetic conclusions and comparisons that I find fascinating. As a prime example, while walking on the beach he finds a bottle half buried in the sand, picks it up and looks it over and says, "But as I poured it slowly out onto the sand, it seemed to me that man himself was like a half-emptied bottle of pale ale, which Time had drunk so far, yet stoppled tight for a while, and drifting about in the ocean of circumstances; but destined erelong to mingle with the surrounding waves, or be spilled amid the sands of a distant shore."
Cape Cod does not (except for one section described below) become tiresome or picayune as do, in my opinion, Autumnal Tints and, to a lesser degree, Wild Apples.
Beginning at about 83% of the way through there begins a historical narrative which seems to me to be out of place. It runs on for about 5% of the work, and then the book returns to its former high quality. During this 5% Thoreau seems to be listing all of the research that he put into discovering who first set eyes on, or 'discovered' Cape Cod. There are altogether too many dates, names, and incidents, and they are not in a clear chronological order. In any case, once he gets back to the original style of the narrative, he concisely summarizes his conclusions obviating the need for the offending discourse. It should have been edited out.
This kindle edition suffers from the transcription technique used in its creation. I presume some sort of OCR device was used resulting in uncaught typos and the botched handling of footnotes. Even so, the book is a winner and is recommended.
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October 8, 2014Cape Cod 01072011 by Henry David Thoreau
Very interesting.
Cape Cod is Thoreau's sunniest, happiest book. It bubbles over with jokes, puns, tall tales, and genial good humor. . ...
Thoreau visited Cape Cod in 1849, 1850, and 1853. These trips formed the basis for a series of essays, several of which Thoreau published in magazines. After Thoreau's death, the essays were gathered together and published as "Cape Cod" in 1865.
Thoreau's "Cape Cod" is different in tone in theme from his earlier books. The tone is leisurely and light. Instead of solitude or the wild woods, the picture that remains with me from this book is that of a long walk, or, as Thoreau puts it, a "ramble" through the sand and dunes of Cape Cod. The book is picturesque, full of humor and wry observation. Thoreau unforgettably describes the ocean, in its storms, vicissitudes, and moments of peace, the fish and the fishermen, the sands, birds, plants and lighthouses of Cape Cod, and the people. I have visited portions of the Masachusetts coast, but I have never been to Cape Cod. Thoreau took me there in his book.
The book is arranged into ten chapters. It opens with a description of the shipwreck of the St John on a rock off the Cape. Thoreau then describes a ride by coach across the Cape. But the heart of the book lies in the following chapters in which Thoreau with a companion walks the 30 mile beach from Nauset Harbor to Provincetown with many stops and diversions along the way. I felt the salt air and saw the fishermen and the sandy beach as I walked with Thoreau.
The most vivid characterization in the book is in the chapter "The Wellfleet Oysterman", as Thoreau describes a grizzled, taciturn, and ancient native of Cape Cod and his family who offer him hospitality for the night. Another memorable chapter involves the description of the Highland Lighthouse, no longer standing, and its keeper. The stops with the Oysterman and the Lighthouse punctuate Thoreau's long walks through the day over the beach and his meditiations about and descriptions of what he finds there.
Thoreaus walk ended at Provincetown, on the northernmost portion of Cape Cod, with its wood walkway, shanty houses, and ever-present scenes of fishermen, boats, and drying fish. Thoreau offers what I found an affectionate portrait of these hardy fishermen and their families. Following a description of what he found at Provincetown, Thoreau offers a great deal of historical background on the exploration of the Cape, from the Pilgrims reaching back to earlier French, Icelandic, and English explorers.
Thoreau's "Cape Cod" is a worthy companion to his books describing his experiences inland, on Walden Pond and on the rivers and woods of New England and Maine. It is beautifuly written with unforgettable descriptive passages. It made me want to get up and go from my life in the city, and over 150 years after Thoreau wrote, wander and walk for myself along the dunes and sands of Cape Cod.
Very interesting.
Cape Cod is Thoreau's sunniest, happiest book. It bubbles over with jokes, puns, tall tales, and genial good humor. . ...
Thoreau visited Cape Cod in 1849, 1850, and 1853. These trips formed the basis for a series of essays, several of which Thoreau published in magazines. After Thoreau's death, the essays were gathered together and published as "Cape Cod" in 1865.
Thoreau's "Cape Cod" is different in tone in theme from his earlier books. The tone is leisurely and light. Instead of solitude or the wild woods, the picture that remains with me from this book is that of a long walk, or, as Thoreau puts it, a "ramble" through the sand and dunes of Cape Cod. The book is picturesque, full of humor and wry observation. Thoreau unforgettably describes the ocean, in its storms, vicissitudes, and moments of peace, the fish and the fishermen, the sands, birds, plants and lighthouses of Cape Cod, and the people. I have visited portions of the Masachusetts coast, but I have never been to Cape Cod. Thoreau took me there in his book.
The book is arranged into ten chapters. It opens with a description of the shipwreck of the St John on a rock off the Cape. Thoreau then describes a ride by coach across the Cape. But the heart of the book lies in the following chapters in which Thoreau with a companion walks the 30 mile beach from Nauset Harbor to Provincetown with many stops and diversions along the way. I felt the salt air and saw the fishermen and the sandy beach as I walked with Thoreau.
The most vivid characterization in the book is in the chapter "The Wellfleet Oysterman", as Thoreau describes a grizzled, taciturn, and ancient native of Cape Cod and his family who offer him hospitality for the night. Another memorable chapter involves the description of the Highland Lighthouse, no longer standing, and its keeper. The stops with the Oysterman and the Lighthouse punctuate Thoreau's long walks through the day over the beach and his meditiations about and descriptions of what he finds there.
Thoreaus walk ended at Provincetown, on the northernmost portion of Cape Cod, with its wood walkway, shanty houses, and ever-present scenes of fishermen, boats, and drying fish. Thoreau offers what I found an affectionate portrait of these hardy fishermen and their families. Following a description of what he found at Provincetown, Thoreau offers a great deal of historical background on the exploration of the Cape, from the Pilgrims reaching back to earlier French, Icelandic, and English explorers.
Thoreau's "Cape Cod" is a worthy companion to his books describing his experiences inland, on Walden Pond and on the rivers and woods of New England and Maine. It is beautifuly written with unforgettable descriptive passages. It made me want to get up and go from my life in the city, and over 150 years after Thoreau wrote, wander and walk for myself along the dunes and sands of Cape Cod.
November 1, 2025
I reread this classic on a recent trip to Cape Cod. It chronicles Thoreau’s travels to Cape Cod during the mid-nineteenth century. I read the 1951 edition, which I picked up in a used bookstore years ago. Commentary is by Henry Beston, author of “The Outermost House,” a book reminiscent of Thoreau’s “Walden,” but about Beston’s residence on Cape Cod 100 years later. Illustrations are by Henry Bugbee Kane, a popular nature illustrator of the time. Commentary that reflects the similarity in philosophy and lifestyle between Beston and Thoreau and the old-fashioned charm of Kane’s line drawings both enhance this edition.
I was struck both by how much Cape Cod has changed and how much it has remained the same. Thoreau starts off describing a shipwreck of newly-arrived Irish immigrants, dead bodies and ship salvage on the shore, rescue efforts, and stunned survivors. It is almost unimaginable these days to encounter such tragedy on a beach walk. He talks of lighthouse keepers and their duties keeping lanterns lit, now replaced by automated beacons.
Equally unimaginable is visiting the Cape by stagecoach when there was only one “road,” really just a packed dirt path that only went as far as mid-Cape. Thoreau walked the rest of the distance to Provincetown, despite cold and rainy weather.
Today we think of Provincetown as home to artists, shop owners, gays, and a few fishermen. Thoreau describes a town of fishermen and elite landowners. The one road (now Commercial Street?) had a fishermen’s homes and the saltworks on the seaward side and the well-to-do landowners' homes on the landward side. Also on the landward side were two planks on which people walk to avoid mud and dust. Just as today, Thoreau describes walking down this street as a social activity in which one encounters more of the townspeople the longer one walks.
The book is sprinkled with ironic and humorous observations. He describes with many witticisms the ubiquitous use of Provincetown residents’ yards and gardens to dry and preserve fish. After some less-than-savory details of the process, Thoreau quips that as townspeople cure the fish, so visitors are cured of eating it.
Despite all of the social changes on the Cape, Thoreau’s descriptions of the ocean, bay, beaches, and vegetation show us a Cape Cod much like today. He speculates that the optimistic descriptions by the Pilgrims “or their reporters” of a lush fertile land were false and that the land had always been as it was in Thoreau’s day. This seems validated in the lack of change between Thoreau's day and today.
This is an enjoyable read for any Cape Cod visitor who likes being in nature and learning about Cape history
I was struck both by how much Cape Cod has changed and how much it has remained the same. Thoreau starts off describing a shipwreck of newly-arrived Irish immigrants, dead bodies and ship salvage on the shore, rescue efforts, and stunned survivors. It is almost unimaginable these days to encounter such tragedy on a beach walk. He talks of lighthouse keepers and their duties keeping lanterns lit, now replaced by automated beacons.
Equally unimaginable is visiting the Cape by stagecoach when there was only one “road,” really just a packed dirt path that only went as far as mid-Cape. Thoreau walked the rest of the distance to Provincetown, despite cold and rainy weather.
Today we think of Provincetown as home to artists, shop owners, gays, and a few fishermen. Thoreau describes a town of fishermen and elite landowners. The one road (now Commercial Street?) had a fishermen’s homes and the saltworks on the seaward side and the well-to-do landowners' homes on the landward side. Also on the landward side were two planks on which people walk to avoid mud and dust. Just as today, Thoreau describes walking down this street as a social activity in which one encounters more of the townspeople the longer one walks.
The book is sprinkled with ironic and humorous observations. He describes with many witticisms the ubiquitous use of Provincetown residents’ yards and gardens to dry and preserve fish. After some less-than-savory details of the process, Thoreau quips that as townspeople cure the fish, so visitors are cured of eating it.
Despite all of the social changes on the Cape, Thoreau’s descriptions of the ocean, bay, beaches, and vegetation show us a Cape Cod much like today. He speculates that the optimistic descriptions by the Pilgrims “or their reporters” of a lush fertile land were false and that the land had always been as it was in Thoreau’s day. This seems validated in the lack of change between Thoreau's day and today.
This is an enjoyable read for any Cape Cod visitor who likes being in nature and learning about Cape history
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