Walden

Walden is an account of the two years Thoreau spent living in a small house he built himself beside Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts. Arranged as a single year through the seasons, it mixes practical detail about food, money and building with close observation of animals, plants, ice and weather. Beneath this runs a larger question: how should a person spend a life? Thoreau argues for simplicity, self-reliance and attention to the natural world, and he is often funny and sharp about the habits of his neighbours. It is a foundational work of American nature writing and still widely read.