Walden
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1854
- Form
- Essay
- Language
- English
- Length
- Medium · 300 pp120 to 300 pages
- Difficulty
- Demanding3 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendWalden and Civil DisobediencePenguin Classics, 1983Both texts in one cheap volume with Michael Meyer's introduction.
These links go straight to Amazon and Bookshop.org and earn this site nothing today. Prices are the same either way. How this works.
An account of the two years, two months and two days Thoreau spent from 1845 in a cabin he built beside Walden Pond, outside Concord, Massachusetts, compressed into the cycle of a single year. The long opening chapter, Economy, itemises the cost of the house and of his food and argues that most people work far more than they need to. The chapters that follow describe reading, sounds, solitude, visitors, the bean-field, the village, the ponds, winter animals and the thaw of spring, mixing close observation of nature with an argument for living deliberately.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns Walden are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
