13 h 3 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 13 h 3 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 320 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 320 pagesAbout this book
What does your life really cost—and what do you owe a government that acts against your conscience?
Beside Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau builds a small cabin and tests how little he needs to live well. Walden shapes his experiment into a cycle of seasons, from summer through winter to spring. Beans, birds, books and ice become starting points for questions about work, wealth, solitude and the use of each passing day.
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience turns from the cabin to the claims of the state. After a night in jail for refusing to pay a tax, Thoreau asks what a person owes a government that supports slavery and war. Together, these works connect the freedom to live simply with the responsibility to act on conscience.
What you’ll discover
- The price of possessions Question what you buy by asking how much of your life it costs.
- A cabin through the seasons Follow bean planting, winter preparations and spring renewal beside the pond.
- Room for an inner life Explore the pleasure and effort of reading, listening closely and spending time alone.
- Conscience against the state Consider the demands of peaceful resistance when law and moral responsibility pull apart.
- A stubborn questioning voice Meet a thinker whose humor and sharp judgments challenge the habits you take for granted.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy dry wit, a notebook of numbers kept beside a pond, and a writer who questions how you spend your days. It suits readers who care about nature, thrift and conscience.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A house becomes an experiment
- Possessions can become your burdens
- Count the life behind the price
- Free hours are the real wage
- Learn from books and the world
- Solitude can be good company
- Attention makes the pond a teacher
- Conscience comes before obedience
- Freedom connects private and public life
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Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience
A man builds his own cabin by a pond, then spends a night in jail for refusing to pay a tax.
Challenging5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!”
In short
What would you give up to own your own time? In the spring of 1845, Henry David Thoreau borrows an axe, walks to the shore of Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts, and starts cutting young pines for a house.
Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience at a glance
- Reading time
- About 7 h 45 min6 h 5 min fast, 9 h 10 min slow
- Length
- 110,100 words18 chapters
- Pages
- 320 pages483 in large print
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Most people are chained to their own burdens
Thoreau starts with the people around him. He walks through Concord and sees people doing penance in a thousand odd ways. The labors of Hercules were small beside these, because Hercules finished his tasks and these men never do.
He pities young men who inherit farms, barns, cattle and tools. These things are easier to get than to get rid of. The working person, he argues, has no free time to live well. Debt follows people to the grave.
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A man builds his own cabin by a pond, then spends a night in jail for refusing to pay a tax.
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Details
- Language
- English
- Level
- Challenging
- Paperback
- 320 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Hardcover
- 320 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print paperback
- 483 pages · 8.5 × 11 in
- Large print hardcover
- 483 pages · 8.5 × 11 in
- Delivery and returns
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Cite this edition
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/walden-and-on-the-duty-of-civil-disobedience.
Thoreau, H. D. (2026). Walden, and On the duty of civil disobedience. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/walden-and-on-the-duty-of-civil-disobedience
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/walden-and-on-the-duty-of-civil-disobedience.
@book{thoreau2026walden,
author = {Thoreau, Henry David},
title = {Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/walden-and-on-the-duty-of-civil-disobedience}
}
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What is Walden about?
Walden is Thoreau's account of two years and two months living in a cabin he built by Walden Pond near Concord. It covers simple living, costs, reading, solitude, nature and the seasons, and a case for self-reliance.
Why did Thoreau go to Walden Pond?
He says he sought a purposeful life focused on what truly mattered, hoping to discover its lessons rather than reach his final days and realize he had never truly experienced living.
What is civil disobedience according to Thoreau?
He means refusing to support a government that does wrong, especially by withholding taxes, and accepting the penalty. He argues that conscience, not the majority, decides what a person must do.
The author
Henry David Thoreau
1817–1862 · American essayist, poet and philosopher
Henry David Thoreau was an American essayist, poet, and philosopher. He was born in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1817 and died there in 1862. He lived beside Walden Pond from 1845 to 1847. His writings include Civil Disobedience (1849), Walden (1854), Walking (1862), and Cape Cod (1865), published after his death.
“Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!”
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