Nature and Selected Essays (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Ralph Waldo Emerson (Author), Larzer Ziff (Contributor)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Classics | Publication Date: May 27, 2003

Through his writing and his own personal philosophy, Ralph Waldo Emerson unburdened his young country of Europe's traditional sense of history and showed Americans how to be creators of their own circumstances. His mandate, which called for harmony with, rather than domestication of, nature, and for a reliance on individual integrity, rather than on materialistic institutions, is echoed in many of the great American philosophical and literary works of his time and ours, and has given an impetus to modern political and social activism. Larzer Ziff's introduction to this collection of fifteen of Emerson's most significant writings provides the important backdrop to the society in which Emerson lived during his formative years.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics; Ninth Printing edition (May 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 014243762X
• ISBN-13: 978-0142437629
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #192,452 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the great essayists -An American original and classic, November 8, 2005

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Nature and Selected Essays (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Emerson is one of the greatest of essayists. His thoughts have a poetic power. But they are often complex and paradoxical and difficult to understand.
The title essay of this collection, 'Nature' is one of Emerson's most famous works. In it he in a sense talks about forgetting the fundamentalist reading of Scriptures and finding a true meeting with God through Nature.
For Emerson , Nature is the great harmonizer and harmony. He writes of our proper moral relation to it as a way of bringing the divinity into our lives.
Emerson makes an analogy between the moral and the spiritual which he claims we can only understand intellectually in proportion to our virtue or the goodness of our character.
In writing of Language and Nature he writes that true poetic speech has a command over, and can move and shape Nature.
Emerson is famous for his optimistic tone and message, but as Stephen Whicher long ago pointed out Emerson also has a darker side and knows the evils that can come in life.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Essential American Literature, April 11, 2010

By 

Bill R. Moore (New York, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nature: Student Bargain Edition (Paperback)

Nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson's first book, is his manifesto and thus the birth of Transcendentalism and true American Romanticism. It got little initial attention but has come to be seen as one of his major works. Though not as famous or acclaimed as later Emerson, it is of great significance not only historically but in terms of his career and the many he influenced. It is remarkable just how much of his writing is here in embryo; in a large sense, he spent the rest of his career refining this. Many key concepts are here: nature's all-encompassing beauty and force, our place in regard to it, art's role, and of course deduction of God from nature. Some speculations are more philosophical, historical, or critical, but all lead to these basic points, which are Transcendentalism's cornerstones. Emerson's characteristically optimistic thought is here in full, as is his signature poetic prose. He now unfortunately has the reputation of being somewhat impenetrable or simply impractical, but it is important to realize that he wrote for the masses; unlike nearly all philosophers, he did not rely on jargon or polysyllables. Time has of course obscured him somewhat, but he is still notably accessible compared to others. Yet his writing has a rare beauty rarely approached in any prose, much less philosophy; it is often as close to poetry as prose can be. That Emerson enjoyed writing - perhaps not the drudgery but certainly the exploration - is clear; he often works himself up to such a pitch that he positively rhapsodizes, producing near-lyrical beauty even when writing about the most abstract metaphysics. Nature has a consummate example - the "transparent eyeball," perhaps his most famous passage. The book has much to tell us even after all these years, and it is indeed somewhat ironic that factors ostensibly making it archaic - greater industrialization, ever-expanding technology, deforestation, etc. - in many ways make it really more relevant than ever. It is quite simply essential for anyone even remotely interested in Emerson or Transcendentalism - nay, American literature or history themselves.

Nature is widely anthologized, meaning this standalone is perhaps not ideal. However, it has an Introduction and Afterword - and even color photos - to make it more attractive. All must decide if this makes it worthwhile, but the important thing is to read Nature in some form.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic isn't a good enough description, August 4, 2003

By 

Ryan Belcher (Mobile, AL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nature and Selected Essays (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

This is a radiant essay on nature's greatness. It's beautifully written by Emerson. This book will stay with you even months after you've read it.