A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

Name: A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
Brand: Blackstone Audiobooks
Availability: InStock
Author: Henry David Thoreau
ISBN: 9798228016736

Author: Henry David Thoreau

Narrator: Linda Jones

Unabridged: 12 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Spoken Realms

Published: 09/17/2024

Categories: Nonfiction, Biography & Autobiography, Memoirs, History, Us History, Literary Collections, Travel, Essays & Travelogues, Philosophy, Movements

Synopsis

At the end of summer 1839, the light changing and autumn in the air, Henry David Thoreau and his brother John clambered into their 15-foot-long homemade boat on an adventure north. They traveled the rivers from Concord, Massachusetts, to Concord, New Hampshire. Henry was two years out of Harvard, and his brother John was a few years older. They wound their way up the Concord and Merrimack Rivers by day and camped along the shores at night. This book, Thoreau’s first, ribbons through and around that journey, describing their travels, and musing on history, literature, philosophy, the environment, politics, and the essence of the natural world. The book is also an elegy to his brother—companion on the journey and his best friend—who died a few years after, and whose presence is felt throughout.

About Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) was an American essayist, naturalist, philosopher, and poet. Born at Concord, Massachusetts, and educated at Harvard, he began his career as a teacher. Through his older friend and neighbor, Ralph Waldo Emerson, he became a part of the Transcendentalist circle and one of that group’s most eloquent spokespersons. He is best known for his book Walden and his essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.”

Reviews

Goodreads review by Daniel on December 02, 2019

I loved this book for so many reasons. I guess the first reason is that it was imperfect. It’s Thoreau’s first published work – self-published – a financial failure. I like that. My first novel was pretty much the same. I think most first time authors have to go through something like this. And usua......more

Goodreads review by robin on June 19, 2020

A Week With Thoreau In late August, 1839, Henry David Thoreau and his brother John took a two-week trip on the Concord and Merrimack rivers in a boat called the Musketaquid that they had built themselves. John Thoreau subsequently died of lockjaw in 1842, a death which greatly affected his brother. W......more

Goodreads review by Jim on March 25, 2017

This is a book that is meant to be read slowly. While ostensibly a travel book, it is actually a book of prose and poetic digressions attached onto a thin narrative. Some of those digressions are incredible. The poetry is not quite the same level, but it can be impressive nonetheless. It was in 1839......more

Goodreads review by Phillip on August 10, 2016

This is my second time to read this book. I enjoyed it much more than the first time. Think of it as a beta version of Walden. This book ostensibly presents his experience of a week long boat voyage with his brother John. It is primarily a weave of thoughts of the author inspired throughout the trip......more

Goodreads review by Hannah on August 29, 2018

"But behind the sheaves, and under the sod, there lurks a ripe fruit, which the reapers have not gathered, the true harvest of the year, which it bears forever, annually watering and maturing it, and man never severs the stalk which bears this palatable fruit." At times a simple and poetic travel nar......more