The Portable Emerson (Viking Portable Library) (Paperback)

by Ralph Waldo Emerson (Author), Carl Bode (Editor), Malcolm Cowley (Editor) "For us Emerson's first book remains the hardest..." (more)
Key Phrases: Editor's Note, New England, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 - April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early nineteenth century.

Product Details

• Paperback: 720 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (August 27, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140150943
• ISBN-13: 978-0140150940
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #133,714 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not as well edited as it could be, March 1, 2002

By	Kerry Walters (Lewisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I love Emerson. For my money, he's one of the most insightful thinkers and beautiful stylists this country has produced. He deserves better than he's received from "professional" philosophers who tend to dismiss him as "just" a person of letters (as if that were a shameful thing to be!).

But this collection of Emersonia is seriously flawed. It prints the essays in Emerson's first collection, but only two from his second. It omits some of his best poems (including "The Sphinx," which Emerson himself so valued that he always had it printed at the very beginning of all the books of poems he published during his lifetime), as well as all of the later essays. In their place, the editors choose to print Emerson's "English Traits," a pleasant enough travel book but rather fluffy compared to the rest of his works. As the editors admit in their Introduction (itself a rather disappointing effort), they tend to feel uncomfortable with Emerson's work on mysticism, and so they decided to leave out of their anthology huge chunks of it. But since Emerson is first and foremost a mystical writer, this is to seriously misrepresent him.

In short, read Emerson--but find a better one-volume collection of his work than this one.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Master of all Existentialism., March 29, 2000

By	Roland G. Martinez "Roland Martinez" (Nashua, Nh) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Emerson is one of the greats, there is no doubt about that. The reason that I only gave this book four stars is that this bok includes some of the worst of Emerson. His essays on Self Reliance and on Faith in America are timeless classics, however his essay on for example, English traits was very very dry. I do recommend it, but keep in mind that unless you really really dig Emmerson you may not like over half of this volume.

13 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Emerson, May 7, 2000

By A Customer

Emerson's writings are eaily and clearly displayed in this wonderful publication. My thirst for poetry was easily quenched with his powerful and meaningful words. I would recommend this book to anyone who wishes to read thoughtful and discriptive literature.