A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

Thoreau, Henry David

ISBN 10: 1605206520 / ISBN 13: 9781605206523

Edité par Cosimo Classics 2009-07, 2009

A propos de cet article

N° de réf. du vendeur 6666-IUK-9781605206523

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
• Éditeur: Cosimo Classics 2009-07
• Date de parution: 2009
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 1605206520
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9781605206523
• Reliure: PF
• État de l'article: New

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

Hero to environmentalists and ecologists, and a profound thinker on humanity's happiness, Henry David Thoreau was one of the strongest shapers of the American character in the 19th century. This 1849 book, written while Thoreau was living at Walden Pond, is ostensibly a travel book, written to commemorate an 1839 river journey he took with his brother, John, from Massachusetts to New Hampshire. But the trip is only the framework upon which Thoreau hangs some of his most provocative thoughts on poetry, history, religion, dreams, and the passing of a slower way of life with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, the evidence of which he witnessed from the rivers. While not Thoreau's best-known work, *A Week* may be his most important, a beautifully determined attempt to understand the past and reconcile it with the future that continues to move readers today. Writer and philosopher HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817-1862) was born in Concord, Massachusetts, and educated at Harvard University. His writings on human nature, materialism, and the natural world rank him among the most influential thinkers of American literature.

Présentation de l'éditeur

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849) is a book by Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862). It is ostensibly the narrative of a boat trip from Concord, Massachusetts to Concord, New Hampshire, and back, that Thoreau took with his brother John in 1839. John died of tetanus in 1842 and Thoreau wrote the book, in part, as a tribute to his memory. The book's first draft was completed while Thoreau was living at Walden Pond (1845-47). He was unable to find a publisher, however, and therefore had it published at his own expense.Few copies sold and he was left with several hundred extras and went into debt. A slightly revised version of A Week, based on corrections Thoreau had made himself, was published in 1868, six years after his death.While the book may appear to be a travel journal, broken up into chapters for each day, this is deceptive. The actual trip took two weeks and while given passages are a literal description of the journey — from Concord, Massachusetts, down the Concord River to the Middlesex Canal, to the Merrimack River, up to Concord, New Hampshire, and back — much of the text is in the form of digressions by the Harvard-educated author on diverse topics such as religion, poetry, and history. Thoreau relates these topics to his own life experiences, often in the context of the rapid changes taking place in his native New England during the Industrial Revolution, changes that Thoreau often laments. Henry David Thoreau (see name pronunciation; July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, and historian. A leading transcendentalist,Thoreau is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay Resistance to Civil Government (also known as Civil Disobedience), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state. Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions are his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern-day environmentalism. His literary style interweaves close natural observation, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and historical lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and "Yankee" love of practical detail.He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and illusion in order to discover life's true essential needs.