• Walden and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

  • By: Henry David Thoreau
  • Narrated by: Robin Field
  • Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (558 ratings)

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Walden and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience  By  cover art

Walden and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

By: Henry David Thoreau
Narrated by: Robin Field
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Publisher's summary

In the early spring of 1845, Henry David Thoreau built and lived in a cabin near the shore of Walden Pond in rural Massachusetts. For the next two years, he enacted his own Transcendentalist experiment, living a simple life based on self-reliance, individualism, and harmony with nature. The journal he kept at that time evolved into his masterwork, Walden, an eloquent expression of a uniquely American philosophy.

During the same period, Thoreau endured a one-day imprisonment for his refusal to pay a poll tax, an act of protest against the government for supporting the Mexican War, to which he was morally opposed. In his essay, "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience," Thoreau defends the principles of such nonviolent protest, setting an example that has influenced such figures as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., and endures to this day.

Public Domain (P)1997 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Walden is a major philosophical statement on the American character....as readable and perhaps even more timely than when it was written." ( Masterpieces of World Literature)

What listeners say about Walden and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

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Exceptional Narration

The quality of the narration is excellent, particularly in tones and emotions imparted.
Some negatively comment on the slower pace of the reading.
I think the tempo is appropriate, if you are the type that require faster digestion of information then I would recommend some other topic entirely.

I will not review the author or the content, you know what you have searched for.

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10 people found this helpful

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Better Than I Remember

I first read (forcibly) these books as a sophomore in high school, and enjoyed it as much as a tooth extraction sans novacaine.
My return to these works is spawned by a curiosity of what I failed to grasp in my youth. Grateful for that curiosity, am I.
Thoreau was a brilliant observer of human kind and its behaviors, as well as a student of great minds. His words would be well referenced in today's political storm, both by our leaders and those abroad.
Robin Field delivers these words in a manner that I often thought Thoreau was reading to me, his own works. I occasionally wondered at the pronunciations of words, considering that when this was written, perhaps those words were newly contrived in the world which Thoreau resided.
I truly enjoyed these books.

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7 people found this helpful

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Outstanding Reading of a Classic

I really felt as if it was being spoken by Thoreau himself. The cadence of the reading is oddly soothing, as Thoreau walks us through his daily life at Walden Pond. Listening to his essay on Civil Disobedience was an easy way to approach this classic, and I found it inspirational and ironically relevant to our current political climate.

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Needs a double listen

When Thoreau discusses philosophy his concepts are very enlightening. I may not have as good a grasp on his material as more learned people, but a large portion of Walden is dedicated to his observations of the pond and wildlife there. If your interests are in his observations then you will be content. However, for myself, I did not come to this book for that. I also put the narrator's speed at about 1.55x because it was too slow for me, especially for listening to descriptions of nature.

Again, Thoreaus' philosophical principals are very intriguing, but I do need to listen to it again as they are deep with meaning. Good listen, highly recommend the beginning and end of this audio book.

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Voluntaryism

What is voluntary is ethical and moral. what s involuntary is unethical and immoral. All government is mob rule.

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Ramblings of a Grouchy Old Man

My title says it all. I like the idea of solitude but found Thoreau to be grouchy and preachy.. I did enjoy the essay at the end.

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This book is my bible

I have grown up with this book playing. Robin Field is the voice of it, and no one could read it better. This has really shaped the way I live my life and see my place in the world. It's audio format is the way to go and enables you to listen to it while working and walking and being in nature. I built a cabin while listening to this and have heard it many times since. This is american philosophy.

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    4 out of 5 stars

ya' can't get here from there...

This is a book that should be listened too. The narrator pace however is quite slow and I was able to listen to the audio on double speed and still have a firm grasp on the words. The irony of it all is that Walden is about slowing down, being still and using basic resources. Yea, still not giving up my ipod!

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Weak performance

The voice talent sounded like a an old preacher chiding a congregation. As for the content, it's an interesting picture of life at the time but it was a tad bit tedious.

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Couldn't even finish it

It's like a philosophy written by a grumpy teenager that hates everything, and simultaneously thinks he knows the best way to live life and won't shut up about it. Thoreau would fit in perfectly with the hipsters in Brooklyn telling you how you're buying the wrong coffee beans. If you're over 30 or even mildly well-read or well-lived you probably won't get much out of this.

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