A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

by Henry David Thoreau, H. Daniel Peck (Introduction), H. Daniel Peck (Noted by)

Overview

Thoreau's account of his 1839 boat trip is a finely crafted tapestry of travel writing, essays, and lyrical poetry. Thoreau interweaves descriptions of natural phenomena, the rural landscape, and local characters with digressions on literature and philosophy, the Native American and Puritian histories of New England, the Bhagavad Gita, the imperfections of Christianity, and many other subjects. Although it shares many of the themes in Thoreau's classic Walden, A Week on the Concord offers an alternative perspective on his analaysis of the relationship between nature and culture.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140434422
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/01/1998
Series:	Penguin Classics Series
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.11(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.85(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts in 1817. He graduated from Harvard in 1837, the same year he began his lifelong Journal. Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau became a key member of the Transcendentalist movement that included Margaret Fuller and Bronson Alcott. The Transcendentalists' faith in nature was tested by Thoreau between 1845 and 1847 when he lived for twenty-six months in a homemade hut at Walden Pond. While living at Walden, Thoreau worked on the two books published during his lifetime: Walden (1854) and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849). Several of his other works, including The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, and Excursions, were published posthumously. Thoreau died in Concord, at the age of forty-four, in 1862.

Date of Birth:

July 12, 1817

Date of Death:

May 6, 1862

Place of Birth:

Concord, Massachusetts

Place of Death:

Concord, Massachusetts

Education:

Concord Academy, 1828-33); Harvard University, 1837

Table of Contents

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers - Henry David Thoreau Introduction
Suggestions for Further Reading
A Note on the Text
Map of the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack RiversNotes

Editorial Reviews

Cullen maintains a mild, professional tone, appropriate to Thoreau’s contemplations…Much of what [Thoreau] has to say still rings true in our century, and his deep sense of time and nature transcends the ages.”

Kliatt

It’s a special pleasure to have this lovely and idiosyncratic book available in audio format…The reading by Patrick Cullen is fine.”

AudioFile