I'd buy it just for the introduction

books:


	• Walden and Other Writings (Modern Library Classics) Henry David Thoreau, Peter Matthiessen Modern Library, 2000 - 848 pages average customer review:based on 31 reviews view larger image
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FIVE STARS FOR THE GIRL IN WYOMING!

I have no intention of reviewing the writings of Thoreau. The way I figure it is this : if you don't "get it" (and the world around us clearly testifies that few do), I'm not about to explain it. Besides, several other reviewers here have already done a very admirable job of excavating and cataloging the rich treasures that constitute the thoughts of Concord's timeless, self-professed "mystic, Transcendentalist, and natural philosopher."

I included this book in one of my Listmania Lists a while back, and was surprised to suddenly notice its low average grade today. I came to read the reviews and find out what's gone wrong here, and in doing so, I happened upon the review by the young lady from Rock Springs, Wyoming. Back in the year 2000, she gave 'WALDEN AND OTHER WRITINGS' one Star; titled her review, 'Dumb!'; stated that she "hated this book entirely"; and called for the start of an "anti-Thoreau campaign for students."

But it was her opening sentence that literally caused me to burst out laughing. Unquestionably and by a good margin, this is the funniest thing that I've ever encountered on the Amazon website. Actually, it's almost too perfect to be true. And yet, there it is. It provided me with the best laugh I have had in some time. If you don't appreciate the writings of Henry David Thoreau, then surely you will not appreciate the irony of her statement, but for those of us whose lives have been enriched by the New England SAUNTERER and NONCONFORMIST, this is just too "delicious!" Our Wyoming friend began her diatribe on Thoreau with this classic sentence :

"I HAVE TO MAKE THIS SHORT SINCE I WILL BE GOING OUT WITH MY BOYFRIEND FOR A 4:00 DATE AT McDONALD'S."

"I went to the fast food establishment because I wished to eat inexpensively,
to acquire only the essential promotional toys of a Happy Meal,
and see if I could not keep down what they had to serve,
and not when I came to die, discover that I had not removed the plastic wrap...
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of Chicken McNuggets...
to forgo the hot dog in favor of a Quarter Pound of greasy, round-molded meat
and to put to rout all that was not delivered in under 60 seconds."
-- Henry David Thoreau
'WALDEN' (21st Century edition); chapter II

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I'd buy it just for the introduction

Walden, of course, is a timeless classic. I've read it in its entirety several times, and I keep this book at my bedside so I can flip to my favorite chapters, Solitude, The Ponds, Winter Animals, Spring, etc., any time I wish. Only Thoreau can end a book with the sentence "The Sun is but a morning star". About the only thing I am not that crazy about in this book is the first chapter "Economy", it seems to me that Thoreau just spent a little too much justifying his living at Walden, why he tells a story about himself, etc.

As to this book, you have Walden and a few famous short essays (Civil Disobedience, Life without principle, etc.) in their entirety. Do not expect much from the excerpts from other works (A week, the Maine woods, Cape Cod and the journal), they merely give you very fragmented glimpses of them. However, there is an excellent introduction by J.W. Krutch, very scholarly written and fun to read. I think this alone is worth the price (and you get "Walden" to boot!).

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Different, especially nowadays

How refreshing it was/is to pick up something like this. I had heard about it for such a long time and just refused to buy into the hype. Then again, I've been wanting to move out into the woods and live more simply before I read it. Now that I've finished it, all I can say is, "Don't wait! Read it now!" If you've got any soul left after what the concrete and highways have done to you, you'll love this book.

Also recommended: Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, and Bark of the Dogwood by McCrae

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

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.

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