Don’t get me wrong, Thoreau contributed a lot to the world; his views on social disobedience affected many important people (take, for instance, Martin Luther King). However, this book itself proves to be a great undertaking if you are to gain anything at all. His language is very peculiar and hard to understand (which, of course, is partly based on the time period – 145 years ago). His style, while showing his writing expertise, is rather dull and contradictory – promising a very, very long read.
I personally found the amount of “filler” in this book to be a big turn off, for instance: "Blah blah I used X many nails blah blah the ground here is soft..." so on and so forth. Honestly, I couldn't care less about the wildlife or the ecological systems of Walden Pond; if I had wanted that I would have checked out a science publication on the area. Sometimes you get the feeling that Thoreau got lost in his own voice and forgot to stop writing it down.
My final synopsis: many a page of tedious information about his daily life mixed in with insightful thought and useful philosophical ideals. I personally did not enjoy reading about how he built his cabin, how he failed in agriculture, or how he dressed himself. Yes Thoreau is important, but so is my time and reading this book seemingly wasted a lot of it. However, I was able to impart some useful quotes from it – I will save you the time and list them here. Thank me later.
Quotes from “Walden”
"When one man has reduced a fact of the imagination to be a fact to his understanding, I foresee that all men will at length establish their lives on that basis." (p. 9)
"I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and threw them out the window in disgust." (p. 33)
"men have become the tools of their tools." (p. 34)
"[Students] should not play life, or study it merely, while the community supports them at this expensive game, but earnestly live it from beginning to end." (p. 54)
"Many are concerned about the monuments of the West and the East,--to know who built them. For my part, I should like to know who in those days did not build them,--who were above such trifling." (p. 54)
"...my greatest skill has been to want but little..." (p. 64)
"...to maintain one's self on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime, if we will live simply and wisely;" (p. 66)
"I would not have any one adopt my mode of living on any account; for, before he has fairly learned it I may have found out another for myself, I desire that there may be as many different persons in the world as possible; but I would have each one be very careful to find out and pursue his own way, and not his father's or his mother's or his neighbor's instead." (p. 66)
"Men come tamely home at night only from the next field or street, where their household echoes haunt, and their life pines because it breathes its own breath over again; their shadows, morning and evening, reach farther than their daily steps. We should come home from far, from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day, with new experience and character. " (p. 196)
"You only need sit still long enough in some attractive spot in the woods that all its inhabitants may exhibit themselves to you by turns." (p. 215)
"Be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought." (p. 300)
Short Biography of Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was born in 1817. He went to Harvard (his brother helped pay for it by teaching), where he read a book by his neighbor, Ralph Emerson, entitled “nature”. This later played a big part in his life. He and his brother taught school for a while, but in 1842, his brother cut himself while shaving and died of lockjaw in his brother's arms, an untimely death which traumatized the 25 year old Henry. He worked for several years as a surveyor and making pencils with his father, but at the age of 28 in 1845, wanting to write his first book, he went to Walden pond and built his cabin on land owned by Emerson (who had influenced his thoughts towards nature).
After two years (and two months, two days), Thoreau returned to Concord--a bare two miles away which he had visited frequently during his stay at the pond, having completed his experiment in living and his book. Few people were interested in purchasing his book, so he spent the next nine years writing and Walden before trying to publish it. He supported himself by surveying and making a few lectures, often on his experience at Walden Pond. He traveled often, to the Maine woods and to Cape Cod several times, and was particularly interested in the frontier and Indians. He opposed the government for waging the Mexican war (to extend slavery) eloquently in "Resistance to Civil Government," based on his brief experience in jail; he even supported John Brown's violent effort to end slavery.
Thoreau died of tuberculosis in 1862, at the age of 45. His last words were "Moose" and "Indian." Not only did he leave his two books and numerous essays, but he also left a huge Journal, published later in 20 volumes, which may have been his major work-in-progress.
Walden Pond
This is the survey of Walden Pond that Henry David Thoreau did himself in 1846. A rod refers to either an area of 30.25 square yards or a length of 16.5 feet. Thoreau determined that Walden Pond was 175.5 rods long, which is 0.55 miles.
Photographs of Walden Pond –
Past... ...and present.
