Walden

By: Henry David Thoreau

Narrated by: Jack Shelly

Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's Summary

"Walden" (1854) is a work by Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings.

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion." - Henry David Thoreau

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Enjoyable happy read

This is great for hiking, biking or the beach. get outside and you will enjoy.

3 people found this helpful

Poor performance; poor audio quality

Jack Shelley, the narrator, mispronounced several words within the first ten minutes from inside what sounds like a tin can. “Concord.” “Catechism.” “Radii.” Another reviewer suggested these pronunciations might be Canadian, but between the poor audio quality and my mind wandering down the rabbit trial of the possible regional dialects of English, I couldn’t finish this recording. I exchanged it for the version read by Pete Simonelli, which has priven to be superior in every way.

Classic marred by the wrong reader

I'm not sure why a Canadian reader was chosen for this book which is pure Americana? His pronunciation of "about" and all similar words was very distracting as was his mispronunciation of "Concord" the city (then village) in which the book takes place. Oy. If it wasn't for the high quality of the content, I would have trashed the book. There are several versions of Walden available as audiobooks online; I would not recommend this one.

Judge of the world

Thoreau is a holier than thou snob. THIS is what passes for great classic literature? Food for beatnicks, hippies and hipsters. Changing the world by putting everything else down.