Walden

by Henry David Thoreau Narrated by Rose Clarke

Overview

Walden; or, Life in the Woods is a seminal work by Henry David Thoreau, published in 1854. It chronicles the author's experiment in simple living over two years, two months, and two days at Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau built a small cabin on land owned by his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson, aiming to immerse himself in nature and reflect on the essence of life.The book serves multiple purposes: it is a personal declaration of independence, a social experiment, and a philosophical treatise on self-reliance and individualism.

Thoreau explores themes of labor, leisure, and the spiritual benefits of a simplified lifestyle. He grows his own food, observes the natural world, and engages in deep contemplation about humanity's relationship with nature and society.Through a series of essays, Thoreau articulates his belief that people often become enslaved by material pursuits. He advocates for living deliberately and authentically, encouraging readers to heed their inner voice rather than conforming to societal expectations. Notable quotes from the text include reflections on solitude and the importance of personal integrity.

Ultimately, Walden not only highlights Thoreau's love for nature but also critiques the industrialization of society, making it a foundational text in American literature and Transcendentalist thought.

Editorial Reviews

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up-Henry David Thoreau's classic, first published in 1854 and reporting on his experiences at the eponymous site where he lived in physical and social independence during the mid-1840's, receives refreshing treatment here. William Hope reads leisurely but with feeling, offering listeners the illusion that the author is speaking directly to them. The abridgements are not substantive, so listeners will feel that they have become acquainted with the complexities of a text that is both orderly and sprinkled with irony and other literary devices. The chapters are tastefully set off by musical interludes that complement Thoreau's own rhythms. Not only is this an excellent alternative for students assigned to read the text that is often offered in tiny print without benefit of margins, but it is also possible to suggest this to thoughtful teens who are seeking an intellectually engaging listening experience for their personal enjoyment. Hope's pacing invites readers with minimal skills to accompany their print foray with his narration. The careful editing here assures that they will not become lost between page and sound.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

From the Publisher

"Like Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Walden is one of those seriously important books I feel I must have read and, if I haven't, I should, because seriously important people - Tolstoy, Marx, Gandhi - said that it changed their lives." —Sue Arnold, Guardian


"A lovely read . . . Thoreau was ahead of his time, right down to his hipster beard." —Lauren Laverne, The Pool


"It is as philosophy, as one of the great self-help books, as a spiritual message, that is Walden at its most powerful." —Washington Post

Joel Porte

"Jeffrey Cramer's Walden is the most accurate and readable text of Thoreau's masterpiece. Cramer's version now replaces all other available editions of Walden as the most attractive and reliable way to approach this great American book."—Joel Porte, author of Consciousness and Culture: Emerson and Thoreau Reviewed

Washington Post Book World - Nancy Szokan

Each [volume] is preceded by a substantive, lively and idiosyncratic essay. . . . Together, the essays are a mini-course in Thoreau and the trends he launched in American thought.

Washington Post Book World

Each [volume] is preceded by a substantive, lively and idiosyncratic essay. . . . Together, the essays are a mini-course in Thoreau and the trends he launched in American thought.
— Nancy Szokan

OCT/NOV 08 - AudioFile

Mel Foster's resonant voice narrates this classic text with a precision that sounds nearly detached, but this style is appropriate for a work that emphasizes simplicity and personal accountability. Thoreau's reflections as he lived alone at Walden Pond are insightful; listening to WALDEN is a wonderful way to become better acquainted with his ideas, which are timeless and endlessly apropos to contemporary life. The pacing and delivery of the message are both clear and easy to absorb, making this classic beautifully suited to the audiobook format, especially with Foster's consistent voice taking control. Thoreau maintained that the "mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation"; this audiobook could help one break that silence. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940193740919
Publisher:	Robert Larson
Publication date:	10/24/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Introduction

Economy

When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again.

I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of my readers if very particular inquiries had not been made by my townsmen concerning my mode of life, which some would call impertinent, though they do not appear to me at all impertinent, but, considering the circumstances, very natural and pertinent. Some have asked what I got to eat; if I did not feel lonesome; if I was not afraid; and the like. Others have been curious to learn what portion of my income I devoted to charitable purposes; and some, who have large families, how many poor children I maintained. I will therefore ask those of my readers who feel no particular interest in me to pardon me if I undertake to answer some of these questions in this book. In most books, the I, or first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main difference. We commonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the first person that is speaking. I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience. Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heardof other men's lives; some such account as he would send to his kindred from a distant land; for if he has lived sincerely, it must have been in a distant land to me. Perhaps these pages are more particularly addressed to poor students. As for the rest of my readers, they will accept such portions as apply to them. I trust that none will stretch the seams in putting on the coat, for it may do good service to him whom it fits.

I would fain say something, not so much concerning the Chinese and Sandwich Islanders as you who read these pages, who are said to live in New England; something about your condition, especially your outward condition or circumstances in this world, in this town, what it is, whether it is necessary that it be as bad as it is, whether it cannot be improved as well as not. I have travelled a good deal in Concord; and everywhere, in shops, and offices, and fields, the inhabitants have appeared to me to be doing penance in a thousand remarkable ways. What I have heard of Bramins sitting exposed to four fires and looking in the face of the sun; or hanging suspended, with their heads downward, over flames; or looking at the heavens over their shoulders "until it becomes impossible for them to resume their natural position, while from the twist of the neck nothing but liquids can pass into the stomach"; or dwelling, chained for life, at the foot of a tree; or measuring with their bodies, like caterpillars, the breadth of vast empires; or standing on one leg on the tops of pillars–even these forms of conscious penance are hardly more incredible and astonishing than the scenes which I daily witness. The twelve labors of Hercules were trifling in comparison with those which my neighbors have undertaken; for they were only twelve, and had an end; but I could never see that these men slew or captured any monster or finished any labor. They have no friend Iolaus to burn with a hot iron the root of the hydra's head, but as soon as one head is crushed, two spring up.

I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of. Better if they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they might have seen with clearer eyes what field they were called to labor in. Who made them serfs of the soil? Why should they eat their sixty acres, when man is condemned to eat only his peck of dirt? Why should they begin digging their graves as soon as they are born? They have got to live a man's life, pushing all these things before them, and get on as well as they can. How many a poor immortal soul have I met well-nigh crushed and smothered under its load, creeping down the road of life, pushing before it a barn seventy-five feet by forty, its Augean stables never cleansed, and one hundred acres of land, tillage, mowing, pasture, and woodlot! The portionless, who struggle with no such unnecessary inherited encumbrances, find it labor enough to subdue and cultivate a few cubic feet of flesh.

But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon plowed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool's life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before.

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