Disdainful of America's booming commercialism and industrialism, Henry David Tho
reau left Concord, Massachusetts, in 1845 to live in solitude in the woods near
Walden Pond. Walden, the account of his stay, conveys at once a naturalist's won
der at the commonplace and a Transcendentalist's yearning for spiritual truth an
d self-reliance. But, even as Thoreau disentangled himself from worldly matters,
his musings were often disturbed by his social conscience.
Civil Disobedienc
e, also included in this volume, expresses his antislavery and antiwar sentiment
s, and has influenced non-violent resistance movements worldwide. Both give a re
warding insight into a free-minded, principled and idiosyncratic man.
