1、Walden,Henry David Thoreau,创作背景,1845年，28岁的梭罗住进瓦尔登 自耕自食，两年有余 实验生活 他不是逃避人生，而是在探索人生，批判人生，振奋人生，阐述人生地更高规律。“I went to the woods ,because I wanted to live deliberately .I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. To put to rout all that was not life. And not, when I came to die, discover tha
2、t I had not lived.”,瓦尔登湖与圣经诸书一同被美国国会图书馆评为“塑造读者的25本书”。在当代美国，它是读者最多的散文经典。美国著名作家哈丁曾说，瓦尔登湖内容丰厚、意义深远，它是简单生活的权威指南，是对大自然的真情描述，是向金钱社会的讨伐檄文，是传世久远的文学名著，是一部圣书。,评价,译序：,“瓦尔登湖是本静静的书，极静极静的书，并不是热热闹闹的书。它是一本寂寞的书，一本孤独的书。它只是一本一个人的书。如果你的心没有安静下来，恐怕你很难进入到这本书里去。我要告诉你的是，在你的心静下来以后，你就会思考一些什么。在你思考一些什么问题时，你才有可能和这位享利戴维梭罗先生一起，思考一
3、下自己，更思考一下更高的原则。”徐迟,Walden is not only a good prose which centers on the description of the landscape of the Walden Pond, but also a great philosophy work that is full of educational meanings,Walden contains 18 chapters Economy(经济篇） Complementary Verses（补充诗节） Where I Lived, and What I Lived For（我的生活所
4、在；我的生活追求） Reading（阅读） Sounds（声音) Solitude (隐居） Visitors（访客） The Bean-Field（豆田） The Village （镇子）,The Ponds（湖） Baker Farm（贝克田庄） Higher Laws （更高的法则） Brute Neighbors（禽兽为邻） House-Warming（室内取暖） Former Inhabitants; and Winter Visitors（昔日的居民和冬天的访 客） Winter Animals（冬天的禽兽） The Pond in Winter（冬天的湖） Spring（春天）,
5、Synopsis (contents),Economy This is the first chapter and also the longest by far. Thoreau begins by outlining his project: a two-year and two-month stay at a crude cabin in the woods near Walden Pond. He does this, he says, in order to illustrate the spiritual benefits of a simplified lifestyle. He
6、 easily supplies the four necessities of life (food, shelter, clothing, and fuel). He meticulously records his expenditures and earnings, demonstrating his understanding of “economy,“ as he builds his house and buys and grows food. For a home and freedom, he spends a mere $28.13. Complementary Verse
7、s This chapter consists entirely of a poem, “The Pretensions of Poverty,“ by seventeenth-century English poet Thomas Carew. The poem criticizes those who think that their poverty gives them unearned moral and intellectual superiority.,Synopsis (contents),Where I Lived, and What I Lived For After pla
8、ying with the idea of buying a farm, Thoreau describes his cabins location. Then he explains that he took up his abode at Walden Woods so as to “live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that
9、 I had not lived.“ Reading Thoreau provides discourse on the benefits of reading classical literature (preferably in the original Greek or Latin) and bemoans the lack of sophistication in Concord, manifested in the popularity of popular literature. He yearns for a utopian time when each New England
10、village will support “wise men“ to educate and thereby ennoble the population.,Synopsis (contents),Visitors Thoreau writes about the visitors to his cabin. Among the 25 or 30 visitors is a young French-Canadian woodchopper, Alec Therien, whom Thoreau idealizes as approaching the ideal man, and a run
11、away slave, whom Thoreau helps on his journey to freedom in Canada. The Bean-Field Thoreau relates his efforts to cultivate two and a half acres of beans. He plants in June and spends his summer mornings weeding the field with a hoe. He sells most of the crop, and his small profit of $8.71 covers hi
12、s needs. The Village Thoreau visits the small town of Concord every day or two to hear the In late summer, he is arrested for refusing to pay federal taxes, but is released the next day. He explains that he refuses to pay taxes to a government that supports slavery.,Synopsis (contents),Baker Farm Wh
13、ile on an afternoon ramble in the woods, Thoreau gets caught in a rainstorm and takes shelter in the dirty, dismal hut of John Field, a penniless but hard-working Irish farmhand, and his wife and children. Thoreau urges Field to live a simple but independent and fulfilling life in the woods, thereby
14、 freeing himself of employers and creditors. But the Irishman wont give up his dreams of luxury, which is the American dream.Higher Laws Thoreau discusses whether hunting wild animals and eating meat is good. He concludes that the primitive, animal side of humans drives them to kill and eat animals,
15、 and that a person who transcends this propensity is superior to those who dont. (Thoreau eats fish.) In addition to vegetarianism, he lauds chastity, work, and teetotalism.,Synopsis (contents),Former Inhabitants; and Winter Visitors Thoreau relates the stories of people who formerly lived in the vi
16、cinity of Walden Pond. Then he talks about the few visitors he receives during the winter: a farmer, a woodchopper, and a poet (Ellery Channing).Winter Animals Thoreau amuses himself by watching wildlife during the winter. He relates his observations of owls, hares, red squirrels, mice, and various
17、birds as they hunt, sing, and eat the scraps and corn he put out for them. He also describes a fox hunt that passes by.,Synopsis (contents),Spring As spring arrives, Walden and the other ponds melt with stentorian thundering and rumbling. Thoreau enjoys watching the thaw, and grows ecstatic as he wi
18、tnesses the green rebirth of nature. He watches the geese winging their way north, and a hawk playing by itself in the sky. As nature is reborn, the narrator implies, so is he. He departs Walden on September 8, 1847.Conclusion This final chapter is more passionate and urgent than its predecessors. I
19、n it, he criticizes conformity: “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.“ By doing these things, men may find happiness and self-fulfillment.,I left the woods for as g
20、ood a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one. It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves.,Themes,Walden emphasizes the importance of self-reliance, solitude, contemplation, and closeness to nature in transcending the “desperate“ existence that, he argues, is the lot of most humans.,Thank you！,
