Excursions cover

Excursions

Rating 4.0
Word count
400K words
Chapters
41

Tags

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Excursions by Henry David ThoreauAuthor: Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Feb 1, 2006

Editor's review

Excursions is a collection of Thoreau's essays that continues his close observation of nature, walking, and everyday life. The prose is quiet and reflective, writing about plants and landscapes as well as the relationship between people and the land; it rewards slow reading and conveys a plain but sharp view of nature. Thoreau's narration does not aim for drama but excels at patient observation and restrained language, and readers can feel a reading rhythm removed from noise between the pieces. For readers who enjoy essays and nature writing, or who want to see Thoreau's writing beyond Walden, this book offers a more scattered and more intimate entry point. As a public-domain ebook, it suits reading in short segments on the go and is easy to excerpt and revisit.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Readers who enjoy nature writing and essays
  • Fans who want to expand their reading of Thoreau beyond Walden
  • People who need quiet texts for bedtime or commute reading in short segments
  • Literature students interested in nineteenth-century American prose

Not a good fit for

  • Readers expecting strong plot or continuous narrative
  • Readers who prefer modern, plain prose and lack patience for classical essay syntax
  • People seeking systematic philosophical argument or a practical nature guide

Reading tips

  1. You do not need to read it straight through; choose pieces by length and interest, one or two at a time.
  2. Jot down landscape descriptions that move you as you read, and look back at your excerpts afterward.
  3. Set aside quiet times such as early morning or bedtime, with a slow reading pace.
  4. You may first read a Chinese translation to grasp the general idea, then compare it with the English original to feel the rhythm of the language.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41

FAQ

What is the relationship between this book and Walden?
Both belong to Thoreau's tradition of writing about nature and life, but Excursions is an essay collection with more independent pieces and more scattered themes. It works as extended reading after Walden, not as a substitute.
What if the English original is hard to read?
Thoreau's sentences are long and full of inserted observational details, so beginners can easily lose the main thread. Read a Chinese translation first to get familiar with the content, then choose short pieces for close reading against the original; do not feel you must finish it in one go.
Is it suitable for classroom teaching?
Yes, especially for courses on nature description and essay writing. The public-domain text is easy to copy and annotate, but it lacks ready-made notes, so teachers need to supply background and explanations of difficult words themselves.

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About the author

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) was an American writer and thinker known for his nature writing and his reflections on individual conscience. The collection here includes 15 of his works, among them the combined volume Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, The Maine Woods, Walking, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, several volumes of his journal, and Canoeing in the Wilderness. Public information is limited, but these works show that his writing drew on close observation of nature during his stay by a pond, his walking trips, and river journeys. His style is plain and precise, combining philosophical reflection with a critical edge. He stressed simple living, closeness to wilderness, and individual moral responsibility, and his influence on later environmental literature and ideas of peaceful resistance has been profound.

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