Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson

by Ralph Waldo Emerson Narrated by Phil Paonessa

Overview

Here in one volume are both the Essays: First Series and Essays: Second Series from one of the most influential philosophers in American history.

Although Ralph Waldo Emerson, perhaps America’s most famous philosopher, did not wish to be referred to as a transcendentalist, he is nevertheless considered the founder of this major movement of nineteenth-century American thought. Emerson was influenced by a liberal religious training; theological study; personal contact with the Romanticists Coleridge, Carlyle, and Wordsworth; and a strong indigenous sense of individualism and self-reliance. Emerson’s best work was done between 1836 and 1860, a period which includes his famous Essays.

These essays contain his most important writing and radiate with sensitivity and wonder. Here Emerson’s prose shows him to be both a vigorous thinker and a profound mystic, a man of exquisite feeling combined with stern moral fiber. His strong love of retirement from life, contemplation of the sublime and the mystic, his self-reliance, and his strong character left their stamp not only on such writers as Thoreau, Whitman, and Emily Dickinson but also on the American character at large.

This collection includes the following:

First Series:

1. History
2. Self-Reliance
3. Compensation
4. Spiritual Laws
5. Love
6. Friendship
7. Prudence
8. Heroism
9. The Over-Soul
10. Circles
11. Intellect
12. Art

Second Series:

1. The Poet
2. Experience
3. Character
4. Manners
5. Gifts
6. Nature
7. Politics
8. Nominalist and Realist

Editorial Reviews

Masterpieces of World Literature

Emerson’s Essays proclaim the self-reliance of a man who believed himself representative of all men since he felt himself intuitively aware of God’s universal truths. He spoke to a nineteenth century that was ready for an emphasis on individualism and responsive to a new optimism that linked God, nature, and man into a magnificent cosmos…Scholars have written innumerable articles and books attempting to account for Emerson’s influence—which continues to be profound—on American thought. If agreement is ever reached, it seems likely that it will involve acceptance of the claim that Emerson, whatever his value as a philosopher, gave stirring expression to the American faith in the creative capacity of the individual soul.”

MARCH 2012 - AudioFile

Presenting all but one essay from Emerson's two volumes (ESSAYS: FIRST SERIES and ESSAYS: SECOND SERIES), this production is the most complete collection of Emerson's works. It contains some of his most famous essays, such as “Self-Reliance,” “The Over-Soul,” and “The Poet and Experience.” Narrator Jeff Riggenbach delivers the works authoritatively yet a bit rigidly. His inflections are relatively unvaried, and his baritone voice is comfortable and easy to follow. But he reads a bit quickly for texts this dense, not providing time for the ideas to sink in. This is still a valuable recording, well narrated and providing many great works not otherwise available on audio. But it's odd that the final essay of the SECOND SERIES is not included. K.M. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175637831
Publisher:	Dreamscape Media
Publication date:	08/21/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos