Nature and Selected Essays (Penguin Classics)
by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Larzer Ziff
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Read in July, 2007
I sort of feel that both Emerson and Thoreau are starting to sound a little overly dated, and not in a good way... more in the "we're supporting the domination of nature and non-Europeans but are so focused on our own spiritual development that we don't realize it."
Nonetheless, they're both great essayists, and this particular volume has some really wonderful wood prints that illustrate the two pieces.
Nonetheless, they're both great essayists, and this particular volume has some really wonderful wood prints that illustrate the two pieces.
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I think I may have enjoyed this more if I hadn't had to schlep through it in a very very unlively class. In Nature, Emerson lays down the basic philosophy of the transcendentalists. It is important to realize how much of an influence Emerson was on his contemporaries as we see reactions to his ideas in the work of Thoreau, Hawthorne and Melville, to name just a few.
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Nature is endlessly frustrating, but simultaneously endlessly valuable. Emerson repeats himself incessantly and the text is more sermon than prose. But, Nature (albeit initally anonymously self-published) was Emerson's first real publication and represents a time of revolution and transience in American Literature.
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This was perhaps one of the first pieces of writing that helped me realize that writing is more than just finely woven stories. Emerson helped shape a thought, a movement, a way of life and the evidence of it remains in this writing. His influence is also clearly seen in other writers of the time.
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Read in December, 2001
recommends it for:
natural people
This is the best essay/book ever written, at least in English. The prose style seems goofily impressionistic, but there's actually not a wasted word. "Nature" is a deeply moving prose-poem about human perception, the non-human world, and how the two interact.
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Read in February, 2006
Nature changed the way I looked at United States History. Not only a must read for philosophy students (obviously) but for American History students who want to study how Intellectual history changed social history.
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Read in January, 2008
The essay on Self Reliance is a must read :) many times over
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 4.15 (142 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 4.11 (117 ratings) number of reviews: 9popular shelves
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"Undoubtedly we have no questions to ask which are unanswerable."
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