Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience

About the book

Walden draws on Thoreau's residence near a Massachusetts pond to examine work, possessions, reading, solitude, neighbours, and the changing seasons. Practical details of a house and a bean field share space with provocative claims about what people call necessary. The voice can be playful, impatient, observant, and deliberately exaggerated, asking readers to test their own habits rather than simply reproduce the author's arrangements. This volume also includes On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, which turns the question of independent judgment towards the individual's relation to government. Read together, the works connect everyday choices with larger obligations of conscience. Their recurring invitation is to notice the difference between living according to inherited assumptions and taking responsibility for the reasons behind one's actions.

• Deliberate living
• Conscience
• Nature and attention

Why read it

For an argumentative, observant voice that makes ordinary decisions about time and work newly open to examination.

Walden with Civil Disobedience · English text