Walden (1854) Thoreau

For other versions of this work, see Walden, or, Life in the Woods.

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Walden, or, Life in the Woods (1854)
by Henry David Thoreau

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Walden, or, Life in the Woods is a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and (to some degree) a manual for self-reliance. Walden details Thoreau's experiences over the course of two years, two months, and two days in a cabin he built near Walden Pond, amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau used this time to write his first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. The experience later inspired Walden, in which Thoreau compresses the time into a single calendar year, and uses passages of four seasons to symbolize human development. Warning: template has been deprecated.

The copy presented here is the first edition, published in the United States in 1854 by Ticknor and Fields. For other editions, see Walden, or, Life in the Woods.

2260238Walden, or, Life in the Woods1854Henry David Thoreau

WALDEN;

OR,

LIFE IN THE WOODS.

By HENRY D. THOREAU,
AUTHOR OF "A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND MERRIMACK RIVERS."

I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the
morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake my neighbors up.—Page 92.

BOSTON:

TICKNOR AND FIELDS.

M DCCC LIV.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by
HENRY D. THOREAU,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

STEREOTYPED AT THE
BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

ECONOMY,

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

5

WHERE I LIVED, AND WHAT I LIVED FOR,

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

88

READING,

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

108

SOUNDS,

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

121

SOLITUDE,

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

140

VISITORS,

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

152

THE BEAN-FIELD,

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

168

THE VILLAGE,

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

181

THE PONDS,

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

188

BAKER FARM,

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

217

HIGHER LAWS,

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

226

BRUTE NEIGHBORS,

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

240

HOUSE-WARMING,

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

256

FORMER INHABITANTS; AND WINTER VISITORS,

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

275

WINTER ANIMALS,

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

291

THE POND IN WINTER,

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

303

SPRING,

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

320

CONCLUSION,

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

342

This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse

Walden (1854) Thoreau

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