Reviews

Walden, and on the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

farzi_q_pickle's review against another edition

4.0

Since this is such a well-known book, I thought it would be dense but profound and really be worth all the fame. I didn't really enjoy it (but it was very dense at times in terms of extraneous details). I ended up writing "snob" a bunch of times in my text because his arrogance was so off-putting. The first chapter almost made me want to give up...and I'm still wondering if he has some dry humor going on or was serious when he made annoying remarks like how he let his neighbor help him not because he needed it but because he wanted to do that for his neighbor but then later goes on and on about how he built his house himself. There are times where he's talking about spending the day visiting certain trees or watching owls but then bashes other people for doing things that are indulgent, wasteful, etc. He seems to mock the poor a lot and say really obnoxious things about how people would be better off and not have to work if they didn't eat as much.While it does make me want to learn more about his life, I imagine from his degree etc that he was in a much more privileged position than others given that he spent two years living off his friend's land and his lack of appreciation for that made me feel that he is not someone that I would ever want to be friends with because he just sounds so righteous about things he doesn't seem to have lived. The only parts I really enjoyed were the second half of the book because some of his descriptions of nature were really beautiful and I agreed with his views around being in the present moment. His stories of squirrels racing around and imagining all the history that was around ant fights was enjoyable. I would have loved to stick with his imagination and view of the woods and gone without his views on how to live life because c'mon- he was a 30 something year old who just seems really annoying at times.


Editing: Upgrading to 3.5 stars after discussing in book club. I’m appreciating more some of the lines he has in here that are actually cool thoughts but could have suffered from delivery that included way too much detail about randomness. We had a great discussion about this book and capitalism. Someone pointed out he died when he was in his 40s and the possibility of what he might have edited out if he had lived to an older age and grown out (hopefully) of some of the brashness of youth. After reading more about his life, also have more respect for his abolitionist views (just a few throw away lines about helping a runaway slave in Walden… didn’t realize he was a conductor on the Underground railroad), his refusal to pay taxes to a government that made decisions he felt were wrong, and also didn’t realize all the tragedy including siblings dying. So some of my lack of appreciation is the book but some is also my lack of knowledge and context to help me recall how revolutionary he was.

lindseysparks's review against another edition

I decided not to rate this because I didn't like Walden and I really liked Civil Disobedience. With both in one book, how can 8 accurately rate them? I had to skim a bit in Walden. It was just not my cup of tea. Thoreau seems smug and boring, although I love the story of him refusing to pay taxes to a government that allowed slavery. Love love love. And Civil Disobedience is an excellent essay.

yetilibrary's review against another edition

3.0

I think this passage from the introduction by Kristen Case expresses my feelings well:

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.