Walden by Henry David Thoreau

WALDEN by Henry David Thoreau is an engrossing account of self discovery, human development, social experiments and is also a guide for self reliance.

Summary Of The Book

WALDEN by Henry David Thoreau is a gripping account of personal independence and details more than two years of the author’s experiences living in a cabin near Walden Pond. The book uses the four seasons as themes to represent the development and spiritual discovery.

Inspired heavily by transcendental philosophy, WALDEN contains various insightful chapters like Reading, Economy, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For, Visitors, Sounds, Solitude, Baker Farm, The Village, The Ponds, The Bean-Field, Higher Laws, House-Warming, Brute Neighbors, The Pond in Winter, Winter Animals, Spring, Former Inhabitants and Winter Visitors and a Conclusion.

WALDEN details the rich benefits obtained by the soul on account of a humble lifestyle. Thoreau was allowed to build a cabin and maintain a garden by his close friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, and would earn his keep by performing various chores around the woodland. The book is an attempt to delink intellectual and moral superiority from poverty. Some other areas covered in the book include classical literature and its benefits, support for philosophers and wise individuals, recollections of the author’s former places of residence and human existence free from social and societal obligations. Thoreau also places particular importance on the wonderfulness of human solitude and loneliness. Societal escape is seen as pleasurable amidst nature and all its benefits.

WALDEN could sell only two thousand copies in five years, but the book came to be regarded as a classic later on. The book is now one of the most acclaimed and celebrated literary works in America. The book has remained popular owing to its promise of a better life for the reader.

About Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau was an American poet, naturalist, author, historian, philosopher, surveyor, and transcendental philosophy expert. Thoreau’s other works include A Walk to Wachusett, Aulus Persius Flaccus, Paradise (to be) Regained, The Service, Wendell Phillips Before the Concord Lyceum, The Landlord, Herald of Freedom, Thomas Carlyle and His Works, Reform and the Reformers, Sir Walter Raleigh, A Plea for Captain John Brown, The Last Days of John Brown, An Excursion to Canada, Walking, Life Without Principle, Journal of Henry David Thoreau, Poets of the English Language, I Was Made Erect and Lone and The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau.

Thoreau’s work is known for its proximity to nature and human experience. Much of his work stands out for their insistence on observation and contemplation. In his work, one can find poetic elements, symbolic and profound meaning and even minute details that convey his thoughts clearly.

Born in Concord, Massachusetts, Thoreau attended Harvard College and studied mathematics, classics, science, rhetoric and philosophy. He has a non profit organization, the Thoreau Farm Trust named after him. His birthplace on Virginia Road has recently been opened for public viewing. His work exists in more than twenty volumes encompassing essays, articles, poetry and journal entries. He died in 1862 at the age of 44.