yetilibrary's review against another edition
3.0
I think this passage from the introduction by Kristen Case expresses my feelings well:
There’s a lot of food for thought here—a lot of starting places, of prompts, of challenges. There are beginnings and middles, but no endings—certainly no conclusions. And that’s fine, but it wasn’t what I was led to believe Thoreau wrote. (I think I prefer this, the reality. Good, right?)
Best read with that blockquote in mind.
Those who look to Thoreau’s writings for a model of self-reliance or environmental consciousness or political activism will likely be disappointed: His positions shift, his stances are famously inconsistent and incomplete, and his most famous actions—moving to Walden Pond and spending a night in jail—are experiments rather than programs.
There’s a lot of food for thought here—a lot of starting places, of prompts, of challenges. There are beginnings and middles, but no endings—certainly no conclusions. And that’s fine, but it wasn’t what I was led to believe Thoreau wrote. (I think I prefer this, the reality. Good, right?)
Best read with that blockquote in mind.
lucasmiller's review against another edition
5.0
I'm shocked that it has taken me so long to read this. My freshman year of High School I used a Barnes and Noble gift card to by a Ralph Waldo Emerson anthology and struggled through "Nature" and understood next to nothing. I spent the next 17 years convinced that the Transcendentalists were hard to read.
Walden is not an easy read, but demands patience more than anything.
I was surprised by how many Thoreau aphorism are found in Walden, and how many of them seemed familiar for never having read it. The first half of the book is very much about the Transcendentalist project, while the back half is very focused on nature. About 35 pages of measuring the depth of Walden Pond. The second half of the book was slow going, but it cannot diminish my rating.
I expect few to take Thoreau at his word. I believe he would be an unpleasant person to be around, but he is an American Diogenes as Guy Davenport point out. His voice is harsh and penetrating and necessary. So very necessary. Recommended.
Walden is not an easy read, but demands patience more than anything.
I was surprised by how many Thoreau aphorism are found in Walden, and how many of them seemed familiar for never having read it. The first half of the book is very much about the Transcendentalist project, while the back half is very focused on nature. About 35 pages of measuring the depth of Walden Pond. The second half of the book was slow going, but it cannot diminish my rating.
I expect few to take Thoreau at his word. I believe he would be an unpleasant person to be around, but he is an American Diogenes as Guy Davenport point out. His voice is harsh and penetrating and necessary. So very necessary. Recommended.
More...