With their call for "simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!”, for self-honesty, and for harmony with nature, the writings of Henry David Thoreau are perhaps the most influential philosophical works in all American literature. The selections in this volume represent Thoreau at his best. Included in their entirety are Walden, his indisputable masterpiece, and his two great arguments for nonconformity, Civil Disobedience and Life Without Principle. A lifetime of brilliant observation of nature--and of himself--is recorded in selections from A Week On The Concord And Merrimack Rivers, Cape Cod, The Maine Woods and The Journal.
The rating is for Walden only.
Quick thoughts: Thoreau's writing is very digressive, and he himself can come across as a prickly, conceited, misanthropic character. Nonetheless, he does have genuinely good insights about human nature and the natural world, and he is clearly in love with Nature. He suggests that readers take what they want from his book, and if ones does that, finding sentences and ideas that are inspiring, instead of always trying to make sense of the whole, the book has a lot to offer.
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15 September, 2012:
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15 September, 2012:
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