Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
About:
Walden, published in 1854 by Henry David Thoreau, is a novel that details Thoreau's experiences over the course of two years in a cabin he built near Walden Pond, amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau did not intend to live as a hermit, rather he hoped to isolate himself from society to gain a more objective understanding of it. Simple living and self-sufficiency were Thoreau's goals, and the whole project was inspired by transcendentalist philosophy, a central theme of the American Romantic Period. Thoreau spent nearly four times as long on the Walden manuscript as he actually spent at the cabin. He went through eight different drafts over the course of almost ten years.