WALDEN - book summaries and study materials

Study Help Essay Questions

1. How is Walden an expression of the transcendentalist vision? 2. Is the claim that the narrator of Walden is an anti-social recluse a valid one? 3. Describe how the narrator’s financial “economy” is expanded to a philosophy of life. 4. What makes Walden a unified work of art rather […]

Critical Essays Extra-Literary Recognition of Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau

Although studies of Thoreau by such twentieth-century scholars as F. O. Matthiessen, Sherman Paul, and Walter Harding have made his writings very popular in university and literary circles, the often hard-hitting truths that Thoreau presents in his books and essays have attracted by themselves a widespread audience. Dr. Martin Luther […]

Critical Essays The Transcendentalist Movement

Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau once declared that he “was born in the nick of time.” This statement may puzzle or startle the reader when he first encounters it, but it should be noted as one of the most significant sentences Thoreau ever wrote. To a great degree, the character of Thoreau’s life and […]

Henry David Thoreau Biography

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817, of rather ordinary parents in Concord, outside of Boston, Massachusetts. His childhood and adolescence, from what little is known about these periods of his life, appear to have been typical for the time. Thoreau attended the Concord Academy as an undistinguished […]

Summary and Analysis Chapter 18 – Conclusion

Henry David Thoreau

Summary The experiment and spiritual quest at Walden Pond is concluded and, based upon the truths discovered and revealed, the narrator makes a final exhortation that his readers also begin a new and finer life. He tells us that just because we live in such and such a town, within […]

Summary and Analysis Chapter 17 – Spring

Henry David Thoreau

Summary Winter finally passed, and spring came in, dramatically announced by the audible breaking-up of the Walden ice. The narrator felt his own spiritual “thaw” and revitalization coming on, and he further describes the pond’s thaw in terms of this feeling — “it stretched itself and yawned like a waking […]

Summary and Analysis Chapter 16 – The Pond in Winter

Henry David Thoreau

Summary One winter morning the narrator woke somewhat confused from a restless and troubled sleep: “I awoke with the impression that some question had been put to me, which I had been endeavouring in vain to answer in my sleep, as what — how — when — where?” It has […]

Summary and Analysis Chapter 15 – Winter Animals

Henry David Thoreau

Summary With all of the ponds in the area frozen, the narrator found new and shorter routes by which to roam the countryside. Most important, by standing in the middle of ponds such as Flint’s, he was able to scan the landscape from unique points of view. Thus, on this […]

Summary and Analysis Chapter 14 – Former Inhabitants; and Winter Visitors

Henry David Thoreau

Summary This chapter begins with the narrator attempting to preserve his happy, summer state of mind in the midst of winter. He buoyantly tells us, “I weathered some merry snow storms, and spent some cheerful winter evenings by my fireside.” Yet, while making the best of his situation, it is […]

Summary and Analysis Chapter 13 – House-Warming

Henry David Thoreau

Summary October arrived and the narrator began to prepare for the winter months. While admiring the brilliant autumn foliage, he gathered grapes, collected half a bushel of chestnuts, and brought in a small store of wild apples for coddling. Gradually the weather got colder, and when the wasps began flocking […]