One of those classics with clear resonances to the present day. A must-read for everyone. ( )

Thousands of reviews have been written about "Walden" by the most famous member of theTranscendal Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
I used to take this tiny 4.5 x 3 inch Shambala edition book on multi-day hiking trips ... Perfect! ( )

Devastatingly wonderful. I had read parts of this at uni, of course, but never the whole work. I wouldn't recommend this for everyone, or perhaps many, but it is the heart of a movement which I hold very dear. ( )

54. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
OPD: 1854
format: public domain Kindle ebook (~280 pages)
acquired: May 2 read: May 2 – Oct 3 time reading: 16:01, 3.4 mpp
rating: 3½
genre/style: classic essays theme: Naturalitsy
locations: Concord, MA around 1850
about the author: 1817-1862. American naturalist, essayist, poet, philosopher, and a leading transcendentalist.

so, hmm. Part of me wants to rant at poor Thoreau, gut all his arrogance, or worse, faux-humble arrogance. That's my emotional reaction. It's not a fair reaction. This stands as an emblem for nature writing, and for independent spirit, and for combining the two together. I like the nature writing effort, and the touches of history, and the attempts at an open mind, the perspective of an abolitionist during deep slavery. I didn't like the independent mind. It was incoherent to me and much too...maga-like. Maybe I would have felt differently ten years ago.

As an aside, I hadn't really thought about how tightly these two ideas are interwoven in nature writing - this bond with nature tied to an angry independence of spirit. Edward Abbey was like this. It's a long trail.

But, back to this book. It has interesting aspects and high points, especially when he ponders deep winter and his isolation, or he rapturously captures Spring; and it has its natural observations and local character observations. But largely it's about guy randomly doing stuff in a self-made hut a short distance out of town. It's random and wandering. A lot more sane than [Desert Solitaire]; and more optimistic than most latter nature writing, usually having a nature-is-doomed stuff aspect, like [Goodbye to a River]. The prose of its time and softens a lot of the literary drama. It moseys along. Maybe that's ok. Somehow I was hoping for something more.

2023
https://www.librarything.com/topic/354226#8262291 ( )

If I could rate this more highly, I would. ( )