Walden
(Henry David Thoreau)

Walden tells the story of Thoreau’s time spent living in a small home that he built in the woods surrounding the northern shore of Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. The experiment lasted for two years though the book is structured as a single year for narrative coherence.

The book begins with a long chapter (titled “Economy”) that lays out both the reasoning behind the undertaking and the specific financial details of it. He neglects to pay taxes (as a protest against slavery), and sets out to survive on the smallest possible amounts of food, clothing, shelter, and fuel that he can.

The book roughly follows the seasons, joining Thoreau in the summertime as he builds his cabin and begins to explore his beautiful surroundings. Thoreau alternates between exquisite descriptions of his time in Walden and heavy-handed sermons about the nature of modern society. He finds simple living to be the perfect antidote to the high-pressure, low-pleasure world that continues just a couple miles away from him. Part diary, part philosophical statement, Walden at times exhorts his readers to give up working, to live only on fruits and vegetables, and to reject materialism in all its forms.

Although keen on the idea of solitude, Thoreau was by no means a hermit. He describes the many visitors he had at his cabin during his stay, including A. Bronson Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Ellery Channing. He helps a runaway slave along on his journey to freedom in Canada. He also visits the town of Concord regularly, sometimes every day, to keep abreast of the latest news.

As another exercise in self-reliance, Thoreau cultivates 2.5 acres of beans, which he tends to every summer morning. He eventually sells the majority of the crop, making a profit of $8.71, which covers most of his necessities.

While wandering the woods in autumn, Thoreau is caught in a rainstorm. He finds shelter in a small, dirty hut occupied by an Irish family headed by a farmhand named John Farmer. Thoreau encourages the penniless Farmer to live a simpler life and to give up on his aspirations of joining the ranks of the middle class. Farmer politely declines to give up on the American Dream.

Thoreau spends some time following the exploits of his animal neighbors. He narrates an epic battle between red and black ants before taking a few of them back to the cabin to look at under a microscope, which leads him to a meditation on warfare. He also chases a loon around Walden Pond on a boat, which causes him to think about the playfulness of nature, and humanity’s lack of fun.

As winter approaches, Thoreau builds adds a chimney to his cabin and plasters the walls to help insulate him from the coming cold. When winter arrives, he recounts the stories of people who had previously lived in the area, but who have since died. He is visited by a Canadian woodcutter who Thoreau believes is as close as possible to the “ideal man.”

While he is somewhat isolated in his cabin, Thoreau is often reminded of the unstoppable march of progress happening just outside his world: the Fitchburg Railroad passes near Walden Pond. He even runs into a handful of railroad workers during his time there.

During the depths of winter, with Walden Pond frozen solid, Thoreau watches as teams of Irish men cut gigantic blocks of ice from it to ship away and sell at a profit. He receives fewer visitors during the winter, but he begins to prefer it that way. He stays absorbed in nature, paying careful attention to the cold-weather behavior of the animals.

Spring begins to arrive, and with loud crashes against the shore, the icy Walden Pond starts to melt. Thoreau becomes more and more excited at the rebirth and regeneration happening all around him. As he details his departure from the woods, he pleads with the reader to explore their own untapped potential as they go about their lives:

“Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man's abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring.”