Walden

Walden – by Henry David Thoreau is an American literary classic and philosophical non-fiction work that reflects on simple living in natural surroundings and serves as a social critique of the Western world’s materialism and industrialization. Published in 1854, it is part personal declaration of independence, a social experiment, and a guide to self-reliance. The book is an account of Thoreau’s real-life experiment: he lived for two years, two months, and two days in a self-built cabin near Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, on land owned by his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson. He sought to strip life down to its bare essentials, live deliberately, and gain a more objective understanding of society through personal introspection and close observation of nature.