Walden and Civil Disobedience ([New ed.])

A transcendentalist classic on social responsibility and a manifesto that inspired modern protest movements Critical of 19th-century America's booming commercialism and industrialism, Henry David Thoreau moved to a small cabin in the woods of Concord, Massachusetts in 1845.

Walden, the account of his stay near Walden Pond, conveys at once a naturalist's wonder at the commonplace and a transcendentalist's yearning for spiritual truth and self-reliance.

But Thoreau's embrace of solitude and simplicity did not entail a withdrawal from social and political matters.

Civil Disobedience, also included in this volume, expresses his antislavery and antiwar sentiments, and has influenced resistance movements worldwide.

Both give rewarding insight into a free-minded, principled and idiosyncratic life.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world.

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