Περιπλανήσεις, Φιλοσοφικοί στοχασμοί

by Henry David Thoreau, Βασίλης Αθανασιάδης (Translator)

Ένας χειμωνιάτικος περίπατος
Τα δάση του Μέιν
Μία εβδομάδα στους ποταμούς Κόνκορντ και Μέριμακ
Ημερολόγιο

«Μάταια προσπαθεί κανείς να γράψει για τις εποχές εάν δεν τις έχει μέσα του», υπογραμμίζει ο Αμερικανός φιλόσοφος Χένρι Ντέιβιντ Θορώ (1817-1862), συγγραφέας του κλασικού Walden ή Η ζωή στο δάσος, σ’ αυτή τη συλλογή κειμένων που βασίζεται σε ταξίδια και εξορμήσεις του, αφηγήσεις και ημερολογιακές καταγραφές.

Διψασμένος για εξερεύνηση ταξιδιώτης, οξυδερκής φυσιοδίφης, τολμηρός οραματιστής ενός εναλλακτικού τρόπου ζωής. Ο Θορώ ταξίδεψε στην αμερικανική ενδοχώρα, ακολούθησε δυσδιάκριτα μονοπάτια, περιπλανήθηκε σε άγρια τοπία, έφτασε στις παρυφές πρωτόγονων δασών, διέσχισε ποταμούς και πάτησε απροσπέλαστα, μη εποικισμένα μέρη, παρατηρώντας τη θαυμαστή αρμονία της φύσης, την τέχνη και τη σοφία της, τη μεταμορφωτική της ικανότητα. Παρακολούθησε τη ζωή των βαρκάρηδων και των υλοτόμων, των λιγοστών αποίκων και των κυνηγών Ινδιάνων, των ρωμαλέων εκείνων ανθρώπων που γράφουν καθημερινά πάνω στη γη τη δική τους ιστορία επιβίωσης. Περιέγραψε εικόνες μοναδικής ομορφιάς και απόλαυσε μια πρωτόγνωρη θαλπωρή, αναλογιζόμενος πόσο διαφορετική θα ήταν η ζωή μας εάν ήταν εναρμονισμένη με τους αρχέγονους ρυθμούς της φύσης.

Genres: Classics, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Literature, Nature, Essays, Travel

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1849

About the author

Henry 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...

Reviews

[Bill Tress · Rating 3 out of 5]

What drew me to this book was my love of the stories about life on the Atlantic coast of America. My readings on this subject have included: The Jersey Shore: The Past, Present & Future of a National Treasure; A History of the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal; Landfall along the Chesapeake: In the Wake of Captain John Smith: Western Wind, Eastern Shore: A Sailing Cruise Around the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia. All these stories have many things in common, and they include the beauty of the area, the beauty of the sea, also its savagery and the uniqueness of those who live on the edge of the Continent.
Cape Cod provides all these ingredients and presents them in a walk by Thoreau across this great New England barrier island. The story is written by a great man of literature in his Regional dialect. This adds to the beauty of the writing and it also adds to the struggle of the modern reader to digest Thoreau’s presentation. At times, the modern reader must go back over points to grasp and appreciate the meaning and subtlety of the words. The charm of this work is further enhanced because It is written during an unhurried, gentler, and innocent era where a person could stop at an isolated home and be welcomed and given refreshment, lodging and relaxed social intercourse without any fear of danger or attempted exploitation.
The coastline on the Atlantic Ocean is depicted as wild and untamed and the hearty people who work the ocean for their subsistence are also strong and untamed. At the time of Thoreau’s canter across the sand, the ocean and land was unpolluted, and all its bounty was available for the taking.
Thoreau, the naturalist describes the grasses that hold these forever moving sandbars together, he collects pebbles and shells on the shore all the while observing the daily life of the shifting sand.
His story tells of shipwrecks and the searchers who will scavenge anything of value that the sea sends ashore.
After his walk is complete, Thoreau presents a story of discovery that while still part of the Cape Cod adventure, could have been a book of its own. Captain John Smith, the discover of the Chesapeake Bay, explored this Cape. Thoreau’s study of Icelandic manuscripts provided details of the oldest accounts of exploration by Vikings of Cape Cod around the year 1017. He details the early exploration of the Region by the French explorer Champlain. Who according to Wikipedia, Samuel de Champlain was a French colonist, navigator, cartographer, draftsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He made between 21 and 29 trips across the Atlantic Ocean, and founded Quebec, and New France. While an important figure in Canadian history, Champlain created the first accurate coastal maps of the New World that included the first depiction of Cape Cod on a European map.
The grand conclusion of this walk across Cape Cod was Thoreau’s journey home to Concord on a sailing ship from Provincetown the northern most point on Cape Cod and back to Boston. I just love the quiet civilized nature of his vacation on the Cape, in Boston, he was still shaking Cape Cod sand out of his clothes and shoes. No highways, no airline hassles just a leisurely sojourn full of exploration, If only life could still be that simple!

[robin friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoreau In The Library Of America

While reading the four books of Henry David Thoreau (1817 -- 1862) included in this volume, I was reminded of the piano sonata no. 2, the "Concord" sonata by the American composer Charles Ives (1874 -- 1954) and decided to listen to it again to complement my reading. The Concord is a monumental work in which Ives tried to capture the "spirit of transcendentalism" associated with Concord, Massachusetts. Its four large movements bear the names of Emerson, Hawthorne, Bronson Alcott, and Thoreau. The "Thoreau" movement of the Concord captured in music for me what I had been reading in Thoreau's texts, with its reflective arpeggios, long hymnlike introspective passages, distant sounds of bells, and quiet close. Ives wrote the movement, he said, to reveal the "vibration of the universal lyre" to which Thoreau had alluded in the chapter of Walden titled "Sounds". Those who love Thoreau or the American Transcendentalists should explore Ives's great musical tribute to them and their thought.

This volume is the first of two in the Library of America devoted to Thoreau, with the second book consisting of essays and poems. It includes the two books published during his lifetime, "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" and "Walden" together with two books published shortly after his death, "The Maine Woods" and "Cape Cod". The former two books are philosophical and introspective in tone, even though they include much of the descriptive writing about nature for which Thoreau is famous. They are the writings of Thoreau the Transcendentalist, the Thoreau of Ives's Concord Sonata. The second two books are describes Thoreau's travels. They originated the American practice of writing about nature.

Thoreau's most famous book, "Walden" describes the two years he spent living at Walden Pond, near Concord, from 1845 -- 1847 on a tract owned by Emerson. Walden is deservedly an American classic, as Thoreau reflects upon and attempts to simplify his life, to appreciate it for itself and for the everyday, without the strains of commerce or the pursuit of wealth. It is an eloquent study of learning to be alone with and content with oneself.

Thoreau wrote the first draft of "Walden" while he resided there and also wrote "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" which in 1849 became his first published book, enjoying little success at the time. This book describes a trip Thoreau took with his brother and there are many detailed observations of people, places, and plants and animals. But the book is full of detailed digressions on literature, philosophy, the Greek Classics, friendship, and Thoreau's religious beliefs. This book shows the large influence of Eastern thought on Thoreau. It is filled with allusions and quotations from poetry on virtually every page. It is a joy to read.

There is little overt philosophizing in Thoreau's latter two books. But both these books made me want to leave, at least for a short time, my life in the city and to run and visit the wild places Thoreau described. In "The Maine Woods" Thoreau describes three trips he took to Northwest Maine -- its forests, rivers, lakes, and mountains, in 1843, 1853, and 1857. It includes detailed descriptions of rugged camping, in the rain and sun, on water and on land. The highlight for me was Thoreau's discussion in the first essay of the book of his climb on Mount Ktaadn, with Thoreau's description replete with both actual description and ancient Greek and American Indian symbolism.

Thoreau's final book, "Cape Cod" describes three visits in 1849, 1850, and 1853 (A fourth, later visit to the Cape is not included in the book.) This is Thoreau's only book which features the ocean and the seashore. It describes a rugged place, but the tone is leisurely and humorous in many places as Thoreau takes his reader on a thirty-mile "ramble" over the Cape. Thoreau introduces a memorable character in his chapter "The Wellsfleet Oysterman" and draws a picture of a lighthouse, no longer standing, on the Cape, "The Highland Light." Reading this book made me want to walk the sands and dunes that Thoreau walked and described over 150 years ago.

As with all volumes in the LOA series, this volume is lightly annotated but includes a valuable chronology of Thoreau's life which helps in approaching the texts. Transcendentalism and naturalism both have played critical roles in the development of American thought and you will find them both here. And if you enjoy Thoreau, I encourage you again to approach Ives's masterpiece, the "Concord Sonata" and meet Thoreau realized in sound.

Robin Friedman

[Michael Holm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

In March of 1845, 29 year-old Thoreau borrowed an axe and went into Walden woods about a mile and a half from Concord, Massachusetts to build a simple cabin in which he lived the next two years alone. In 1854 he published Walden in which he describes his getting away from it all so he could read, write, observe nature and think. Two years later he left the cabin and pond because he had "other lives to live".

The bulk of the 300 pages is nature-writing, reporting his observations and experiences in the woods, wildlife and the pond. Thoreau is one of the first American nature writers to call attention to the wonders in our wilderness and advocate communion with nature. The structure of the book 'Walden', two years compressed into one cycle of the seasons, is now commonly used by nature writers. His reports testify to his powers of observation: the patterns of thawing sand, the color of lake ice, the formation of ice in the pond, the activities of wildlife. Thoreau took nature walks most, if not all, of his life. Nature was his passion. 'The Pond' and 'The Pond In Winter' chapters are the best of the book's nature-writing.

His writing is well-seasoned with rather pugnacious comments about civilized living and American society. With remarkable self-confidence he advocates simplifying our living so that we can concentrate on living life. The primary goal is to remind us that life is a spiritual and intellectual journey for each of us. Working for the necessities should be kept to a minimum. This objective, vague as it is, is what makes the book so rewarding. Picturesque analogies adds spice to his prose, such as the picture of well-to-do people burdened on the road of life with taking care of their property their whole life, to the extent that their lives are hi-jacked by it. They are become slaves of their property. Another example is 'driving life into a corner to learn what it is' as if life was a chicken you were trying to catch.

Quotable phrases are plentiful, such as, "as if you could waste time without injuring eternity" , "Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!", "We do not ride on the railroad, it rides upon us" and "It is life near the bone where it is sweetest." They express a practicality that forgoes all but the bare necessities of life in order to get time for personal and intellectual growth so that at the end of life there will be no regrets for things overlooked.

His example has inspired others to retreat to solitude in order to realize themselves and re-evaluate their values: Annie Dillard and Anne Lindberg among others. Perhaps most of us should attempt to do the same at least once in our life. But it is very difficult for a family person to obtain such an opportunity. Thoreau was a single man all of his life albeit he lived with his parents a lot. He doesn't suggest a way for families to find solitude, but perhaps taking long walks alone as he did would be likely be recommended.

The book has some inconsistencies but the writing is excellent and inspirational. It is a fine book to read at least once. 'Economy', 'Where I lived and What I Lived For', and 'Conclusion' can well be re-read occasionally. It is a tonic from time to time whenever I feel a bit over-whelmed by the stress of modern American civilization.

[Zina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book ever written, not the easiest to read but poetically intoxicating.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just read Walden from this compilation of Thoreau’s writing, but I skimmed the rest. I’ve heard Thoreau quoted so many times throughout my life, and have never picked up one of his books. I think Walden is probably his most well-known work, and therefore, a good place to start. He has good insights for the reader and has a way of bringing a thought to a concise statement to get his point across.

He lives out in the woods for 2 years, and in that time, builds a house, plants a field, fishes, reads, and studies the geography and life of the area. His call is to simplify life and he wants to see for himself that it can be done. Instead of trying to build our lives up with security, we are free to live without the being tied to burdensome possessions. I think it could be classified as a book of lessons (not quite proverbs). Here are some insights from the book that help give the an idea of its contents:

“I think that we may safely trust a good deal more than we do…Nature is as well adapted to our weakness as to our strength. The incessant anxiety and strain of some is a well nigh incurable form of disease…How vigilant we are! determined not to live by faith if we can avoid it; all the day long on the alert, at night we unwillingly say our prayers and commit ourselves to uncertainties.”

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world…”

“Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous…When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, -- that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality.”

“We think that that is which appears to be.”

“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains.”

“Give me the poverty that enjoys true wealth.”

“Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations.”

“My Good Genius seemed to say…Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth. Rise free from care before the dawn, and seek adventures. Grow wild according to thy nature…Let not to get a living be thy trade, but thy sport. Enjoy the land, but own it not. Through want of enterprise and faith men are where they are, buying and selling, and spending their lives like serfs…their life pines because it breathes its own breath over again…We should come home from far, from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day, with new experience and character.”

[Comparing a man’s character to the pond] “Perhaps we need only to know how his shores trend and his adjacent country or circumstances, to infer his depth and concealed bottom…It is true, we are such poor navigators that our thoughts, for the most part, stand off and on upon a harborless coast, are conversant only with the bights of the bays of poesy, or steer for the public ports of entry, and go into the dry docks of science, where they merely refit for this world, and no natural currents concur to individualize them.”

There are great insights in this book that need to be remembered even today in our life of even great technology and pampering. There are things that we can do without that will help us to enjoy this life that God has given us.

There are times when the book gets a little bogged down in the details of the adventure, and others when he is arrogant, comparing his superiority to the dullards around him. At times he meticulously keeps track of everything he purchases, sells, and does throughout the day. He also has a disdain for most farmers and railroad workers. I assume because those were the more industrialized professions at the time of his writing. He would probably be dumbfounded if he wrote a little whole later (during the industrial revolution), not to mention in the 21st century. He assumes that people in those professions have given up their soul for their work. This may have happened a lot (and may happen more today than ever), but rather than disparage the profession, disparage the action. He seems to have the arrogance of youth, which hasn’t experienced much, but talks much.

He also errors on the side of idealism, and has a desire for a utopian dream. One comment he makes is this:

“You who govern public affairs, what need have you to employ punishments? Love virtue, and the people will be virtuous. The virtues of a superior man are like the wind; the virtues of a common man are like the grass; the grass, when the wind passes over it, bends.”

He doesn’t take into account the tendency of people to be lazy and selfish. He also says later on that “compassion is a very untenable ground” when contemplating the incredible cycle of life and death on earth. These seem to be contradictory. The thought that I have is that he has been affect by both Darwin and Bhagavad Gita (which he claims as the most holy text, due to its oldness). He may be trying to bring those together.

This book had great insights for me and really is a good reminder when life seems to be running out of control. I finished reading this while sitting in the woods waiting for a deer that never came. I realized how long it had been since I’d just sat and thought about life, and what I was doing in my part of it. I think it’s important not to get so caught up in doing things that we forget about what we’re doing.

[Brian Willis · Rating 4 out of 5]

(The collection gets a 4, Walden is an undisputed 5 star masterpiece).

I was fortunate to take a trip to Massachusetts and to Walden Pond a couple of months ago and it was a heart melting experience. It also greatly enhanced my first reading of Walden here.

I didn't get to "Walden" even as an English major. I would say that I wasn't ready for it at that time anyways. Thoreau notes the minutiae of nature around the pond where he famously chose to live for a couple of years. Having a "mind's eye" knowledge of the topography and orientation of the area that Thoreau describes greatly enhanced my reading experience. I took a mental stamp of the view from the cabin's foundations and imagined myself as Thoreau.

I can report from personal experience that Thoreau's observations are very accurate. Though he noticed how progress was already degrading the natural environment in the area, particularly the recently built railroad tracks just off the pond (which remain to this day), the preservation undertaken by the Walden Woods Project have restored it to the sense that "Walden" illuminates what it looks like today. I encountered the woodchucks, the particular bird calls, the visitors who still go for swims and a few boats that floated on the pond, the topography Thoreau notes around the 1.75 mile circumference of the pond, the quality of the water particularly around the shore, the conditions of choosing to live there, as well as the remoteness from Concord town center. Having walked the tiny boundaries of the cabin site as well as seen the replica next to the Visitor Center, I can perfectly envision what HDT describes about his living experience. It was cozy and private, but visitors abounded and were welcome. Down to the quality of the water and how it distorted vision (I can vouch for the colors he described and even can say that yes indeed the bathers' skin looks whiter than natural through the translucent distortion of the light through the water.

Walden is a masterpiece of environmental description and advocacy. Thoreau even foresees the catastrophe of climate change and its impact on the natural world. By taking two years to live there, he notes and describes husbandry, living in solitude and with visitors, the peculiar sounds of the natural world, living through the still winter, the thawing of the spring, growing food, building a fire, staying warm, cooling off with a swim, the behavior of the local animals, frugalness, the consequences of the absence of social conviviality, and local inhabitants. He even measures the depths of the entire pond to counteract the mythology of it being bottomless (it reaches 100 feet in the center and slowly rises until it reaches the shore).

The other pieces describe the natural world as brilliantly: "A Week" is a rowing trip with his brother upstream with camping on the shore, "The Maine Woods" doing the same for that region with a stark description of Ktaadn, an arctic peak, and "Cape Cod". There is indeed a reason that "Walden" dominates our imagination and it is deserved. Thoreau was the first writer to combine a vast erudition from Harvard education with a modest sensibility to put the natural world into words. Nobody has really done it the same way since. A vital contribution to world literature.

[Nicholas Trandahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite possibly the most referenced and important piece of literature I’ve read. These works crafted the man I am and the man I aspire to be.

[Shawn]

Same with Emerson. I read Walden in HS. Would like to give it a new look with grown up eyes.

[Daniel Rutledge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I realized that I'm not rereading Walden, but that I'm always reading Walden.

[Paul Of · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not for every one. You either like this dry stuff or you don't. For me - twas a given since I like all of HDT writings.

[Mike Mikulski · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers - A Week is structured as a long form journal of a boat trip taken by Henry David Thoreau and his brother John from Concord, Massachusetts to Hooksett, New Hampshire in 1839. While parts of A Week describe the journey and hw the landscape appeared in 1839, it is much more a meditation on many topics. Thoreau explores thoughts on commerce, religion, art, agriculture and nature. He reminisces about memories of a trip with his brother and how they spur memories of the classic Greek and Roman literature he had read. When Henry Thoreau was 24 in 1842, his older brother John, then 26, died in a mater of 10 days after cutting himself with a razor and contracting lockjaw. A Week is also Thoreau's way to take a deep look at his life and memories at that point in his life. The book was written while Thoreau spent time living on Walden Pond. I am not that familiar with the many classical references Thoreau spreads throughout A Week, but I found many parts of the book beautiful and deeply thoughtful. How often do we think of people we lost in the framework of a trip or a special occasion we have spent together in order to bring them closer.

This is the second time I have read Walden and it is still a vision of how to slow down and look at life closely. I always enjoyed the detail of how Thoreau built his cabin and planted his garden to support himself during a year long stay. This read, I found the interactions with others who lived around Walden enlightening and enjoyable, Irish workers and settlers living outside of Concord in search of affordable living' workers on a rail line being installed as well as men harvesting ice in the winter. Visitors who stray out from town occasionally to talk or walk. It is always worth a visit back to a read of Walden.

The Maine Woods and Cape Cod are two journals published after Thoreau's death. The maine Woods describes three trips to the wilds of Maine. The first in 1846 centering on a hike through the Maine wilderness and focusing on a climb of Mt. Ktaadin. The second trip took place 7 years later and describes a boat trip to Lake Chesuncook in Northern Maine. The third trip takes place a year later in 1857 the the headwaters of the Penobscot and St. John's rivers by canoe. All three taken together describe how the Maine wilderness changes with the impact of logging and settlement. The third narrative is notable for the description of Thoreau's Penobscot Guide Joseph Poulis who is clearly admired for his knowledge of the nature, woodcraft and long history of the region. Poulis, Thoreau and a third companion travel in Poulis's birchbark canoe through the back waters of Maine. Thoreau's descriptions of the trees, birds, flowers, swamps, falls and mosquitos are memorable, thoughtful and amusing.

Cape Cod is a synthesis of two walking trips Thoreau took along the length of the Cape in 1849 and 1855. Thoreau begins the journal with a description of a ship wreck of the St. John just off of Cohassett, Massachusets very close to the completion of it's voyage from Galway. Filled with Irish immigrants, 99 people died in the wreck. Thoreau comes across the scene just 3 days after the wreck and the power of the sea and the strength and courage of those who sail it's waters are a common theme throughout the book. Thoreau also describes the stark beauty of the Eastern Atlantic edge of the Cape which is almost empty at the time of his travels describing wind shaped sand cliffs, powerful waves and a constantly changing view brought about by the clouds and the light of the sun and moon. I kept thinking about how interesting it would be to try to recreate this walk today to see how the landscape and people of the Cape have changed over more than 150 years.

[Sabrina L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoreau's most famous book, "Walden" describes the two years he spent living at Walden Pond, near Concord, from 1845 -- 1847 on a tract owned by Emerson. Walden is deservedly an American classic, as Thoreau reflects upon and attempts to simplify his life, to appreciate it for itself and for the everyday, without the strains of commerce or the pursuit of wealth. It is an eloquent study of learning to be alone with and content with oneself.

Thoreau wrote the first draft of "Walden" while he resided there and also wrote "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" which in 1849 became his first published book, enjoying little success at the time. This book describes a trip Thoreau took with his brother and there are many detailed observations of people, places, and plants and animals. But the book is full of detailed digressions on literature, philosophy, the Greek Classics, friendship, and Thoreau's religious beliefs. This book shows the large influence of Eastern thought on Thoreau. It is filled with allusions and quotations from poetry on virtually every page. It is a pure joy to read, and I recommend you do so in a place of quiet and solitude so you can reflect.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this collection of Thoreau's best works an overall favorable rating due to their literary significance, but I quickly found that his style isn't for me. Too much of what I call organized rambling. While I can appreciate some of the insightfulness and detailed observations, there were too many esoteric tangents that became distracting to the main themes of each story. A trip to Walden Pond and his original cabin site in Massachusetts during my reading helped me visual parts of that particular story, but even that was overshadowed by the frequent departures into peripheral topics. Overall, the excessive philosophical bent didn't hold my attention to an appreciable degree, which made the reading less enjoyable.

[Jeffrey Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is not read much anymore but should be. It presents a more human face upon Thoreau than does Walden which is more formal. It is also a very good introduction to Walden which was mostly written while Thoreau was resident at the pond.

[Barry Wightman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back to Walden after all these years. Much to savor.

[Anne M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Library of America editions are always a good bet and this one is no exception. A convenient collection perfect for taking along as a traveling companion.

[Menia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Υπεραγαπημενος και μοναδικός Θορω! Το βιβλίο δε συναγωνίζεται βέβαια την Ουολντεν, αλλά είναι μαγικό το πώς στην ουσία διαβάζεις ποίηση μεταστοιχειωμενη σε πεζό λόγο! Τα λόγια είναι περιττά!

[Kevin Perrine · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

a relaxing pleasure to read

[Cary Boswell · Rating 3 out of 5]

The travel and nature parts are beautiful. Some of his philosophical musings are drivel.

[Sagar Jethani · Rating 1 out of 5]

It bear repeating that for all of his originality, Thoreau was a truly terrible writer.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is wicked tucking boring and I love it. Great as an audiobook or real book to fall asleep. Especially if you are from the area.

[Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too discursive and hard to understand (primarily as a result of lots of outdated references).

A tightly edited version 1/4 as long would have been more successful (in both senses).

Quit at 15%

[DURTY · Rating 5 out of 5]

IT’S NO GREEN ACRES BUT THEN, WHAT IS?

[Reid Burroughs · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book written while he lived at Walden Pond. If you like boring pastoral type books you would like it. Im rather fond of these types of books. A bit like reading journals.

[Marilyn]

This is a boxed set from Book of the Month Club- not all 3 in one set and Cape Cod is not in the set.

[James Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the story so much, well done, Henry

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are perturbations in our orbits produced by the influence of outlying spheres, and no astronomer has ever yet calculated the elements of that undiscovered world which produces them. I perceive in the common train of my thoughts a natural and uninterrupted sequence, each implying the next, or, if interruption occurs, it is occasioned by a new object being presented to my senses. But a steep, and sudden, and by these means unaccountable transition, is that from a comparatively narrow and partial, what is called common sense view of things, to an infinitely expanded and liberating one, from seeing things as men describe them, to seeing them as men cannot describe them. This implies a sense which is not common, but rare in the wisest man's experience; which is sensible or sentient of more than common.

In what enclosures does the astronomer loiter! His skies are shoal, and imagination, like a thirsty traveller, pants to be through their desert. The roving mind impatiently bursts the fetters of astronomical orbits, like cobwebs in a corner of its universe, and launches itself to where distance fails to follow, and law, such as science has discovered, grows weak and weary. The mind knows a distance and a space of which all those sums combined do not make a unit of measure, -- the interval between that which appears, and that which is. I know that there are many stars, I know that they are far enough off, bright enough, steady enough in their orbits, -- but what are they all worth? They are more waste land in the West, -- star territory, -- to be made slave States, perchance, if we colonize them. I have interest but for six feet of star, and that interest is transient. Then farewell to all ye bodies, such as I have known ye.

[Hannah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thoreau is a very intellectual man with beautiful naturalistic beliefs that he incorporates into his descriptive books. However, over 300 pages of describing a week on the river is a bit much for me, personally speaking. Thoreau had wonderful points to make about Nature, but trashing the other religions for an entire chapter was a bit harsh. Cape Cod was much better and easier because there was actual dialogue, but Thoreau remains one of the hardest authors I've ever read. Sometimes I like challenges, like Homer's epic poems for example, but I really had to push myself through this book, which is extremely rare for me.

My term paper on these two books will be posted here within the month. Oh boy...

[Dianna Caley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Walden surprised me. I hadn't read it before and thought it would be a diary of his time in an isolated cabin. Instead, it was a diary of the place and the historical, mythological, and philosophical connections it inspires mapping its reality and its inspirations. His other books were beautiful too. A week was a beautiful record of exterior and interior visions on his trip. Maine woods is a detailed naturalist history of a landscape experiencing radical change as timber is being harvested in mass quantities. Cape cod is an amazing record of coastal communities and the hardships of living and working in an environment where storms and floods can wipe out hundreds, but which is nonetheless beautiful and dramatic.