A masterpiece of American literature, Walden is Thoreau's account of a year spent in a shack beside a pond outside Concord, Massachusetts. Incidents in his daily life and intellectual activities are used as starting points for wide-ranging reflection written in a compelling prose style, seasoned with humor and shrewdness. Thoreau's famous essay on Civil Disobedience, which influenced Ghandi and Tolstoy, states his case for non-conformity. Life Without Principle is Thoreau's unqualified statement of his defiant individualism. In this volume Joseph Wood Crutch has included these works in their entirety, as well as the most pertinent selections from Thoreau's other important writings. With a brilliant introduction, prefaces to each section and a bibliography.
About the Author
Massachusetts native Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was a leading member of the American Transcendentalist movement, whose faith in nature was tested while Thoreau lived in a homemade hut at Walden Pond between 1845 and 1847. While there, Thoreau worked on the two books published in his lifetime: Walden and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, Excursions, and other works were published posthumously.
![Walden, a veritable treasury of American naturalism, teems with biting social observations about daily human life, not least among them:
"Our life is frittered away by detail....Simplify, simplify."
Henry David Thoreau built his small hut on the shore of Walden Pond in 1845. For the next two years he lived there as simply as possible, seeking zthe essential facts of lifey and learning to eliminate the unnecessary details--material and spiritual--that intrude upon human happiness. He described his experiences in Walden, using vivid, forceful prose that transforms his reflections on nature into richly evocative metaphors to live by. George Eliot's review of Walden singles out qualities that have attracted readers for generations, namely "a deep poetic sensibility," as well as Thoreau's own "refined [and] hardy mind." In a world obsessed with technology and luxury, Walden seems more relevant today than ever.
After being imprisoned for refusing to pay Concord's poll tax, Thoreau recounted his experience in an 1848 lecture, "The Rights and Duties of the Individual in Relation to Government." The speech, hardly noticed in Thoreau's lifetime, was later published as "Civil Disobedience." Today it is widely considered the single most important essay concerning the incumbent duties of American citizens and has inspired major civil movements around the world.
With an Introduction and Notes by Jonathan Levin](https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-ezptpblrxu/images/stencil/500x659/products/1113/1811/WaldenCivilBarnesHardcover__88572.1660081611.jpg?c=2 "Walden, a veritable treasury of American naturalism, teems with biting social observations about daily human life, not least among them:
\"Our life is frittered away by detail....Simplify, simplify.\"
Henry David Thoreau built his small hut on the shore of Walden Pond in 1845. For the next two years he lived there as simply as possible, seeking zthe essential facts of lifey and learning to eliminate the unnecessary details--material and spiritual--that intrude upon human happiness. He described his experiences in Walden, using vivid, forceful prose that transforms his reflections on nature into richly evocative metaphors to live by. George Eliot's review of Walden singles out qualities that have attracted readers for generations, namely \"a deep poetic sensibility,\" as well as Thoreau's own \"refined [and] hardy mind.\" In a world obsessed with technology and luxury, Walden seems more relevant today than ever.
After being imprisoned for refusing to pay Concord's poll tax, Thoreau recounted his experience in an 1848 lecture, \"The Rights and Duties of the Individual in Relation to Government.\" The speech, hardly noticed in Thoreau's lifetime, was later published as \"Civil Disobedience.\" Today it is widely considered the single most important essay concerning the incumbent duties of American citizens and has inspired major civil movements around the world.
With an Introduction and Notes by Jonathan Levin")