Should you read Henry David Thoreau’s book „Walden“?

I always take the approach of reading over some reviews to figure out if a book fits me. After many people recommended Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, I tried it. This book got more and more attention in recent years, and I was trying to figure out why. And the reviews were promising.

It was hitting the spot in the beginning, I must say. There have been some excellent socio-critical statements. And this surprised me. On the one hand, because the book was written a long time ago, on the other hand, because these statements were surprisingly direct and honest.

But then there was a problem. Thoreau could not „step out“ of these repetitive complaints about society. It felt he was suffering all the time but just dealt with it by blaming people constantly. I did not see the growth I was expecting to be honest. After the first view pages, I had enough. I checked the pages further back in the book and found out; the whole book is a never-ending complaint.

I expected something different. I imagined living in the forest let you mature a bit. Grow out of blaming others into understanding and compassion. Unfortunately, this never happened to him.

When I read the reviews, I thought he was living in a bit of shed deep in a forest. But reading the book, I was given another perspective. He wrote his neighbors were a mile away, which was more the standard than the rarity in Massachusetts of 1854. And I am pretty sure the average countryside person lived much further away from society than he did.

Somehow, this book’s essential topic reminds me of my favorite philosophical book which is Seneca’s Dialogues and Essays. It addresses the same problems, just thousand something years before. And Seneca hits the spot by describing society-based difficulties and, most importantly, learning from them. He sees the issues, understands them, and uses them to live better. I think Thoreau missed the two last points. In Seneca’s book, people may find what they are looking for in Thoreaus‘.