Published in 1854, Thoreau's "Walden" is one the most prominent works of transcendental literature."Walden" chronicles the two years that Thoreau spent in a cabin on the property owned by his friend and fellow transcendentalist writer Ralph Waldo Emerson. The cabin was near a body of water called Walden Pond. Thoreau's book made Walden Pond so famous that today it's often used to signify any beautifully natural serene scene, the same way someone might refer to any large, opulent hou...

In 1845, noted transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau spent two years, two months, and two days chronicling his near-isolation in the small cabin he built in the woods near Walden Pond on land owned by his mentor, the father of Transcendentalism, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Shedding the trivial ties that he felt bound much of humanity, Thoreau reaped from the land both physically and mentally, and pursued truth in the quiet of nature. In Walden, he explains how separating oneself from the world of...

"I went to the woods because I wished 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 I had not lived."Walden is a series of 18 essays chronicling the two years that Henry David Thoreau spent sequestered in a cabin he built himself near Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts in the mid 1800's. Seeking a way of life free of distraction and full of intent, he aimed to live as...

David Henry Hwang’s beautiful, heartrending play featuring an afterword by the author – winner of a 1988 Tony Award for Best Play and nominated for the 1989 Pulitzer PrizeBased on a true story that stunned the world, M. Butterfly opens in the cramped prison cell where diplomat Rene Gallimard is being held captive by the French government—and by his own illusions. In the darkness of his cell he recalls a time when desire seemed to give him wings. A time whe...

**Winner of the Tony Award for Best Play, nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and soon to be back on Broadway in a revival directed by the Lion King's Julie Taymor, starring Clive Owen"A brilliant play of ideas… a visionary work that bridges the history and culture of two worlds."—Frank Rich, New York Times**Based on a true story that stunned the world, and inspired by Giacomo Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly, M. Butterfly was an ...

Key themes and ideas explored in "Life Without Principle" include:The Value of Time: Thoreau emphasizes the importance of time and laments how people waste their lives pursuing trivial matters and engaging in mindless work. He advocates for making the most of one's time and using it for meaningful and fulfilling activities.Materialism and Money: Thoreau criticizes the emphasis on material wealth and the relentless pursuit of money at the expense of more significant and meaningful pursuits....

This sweeping history opens with England's greatest sea-rovers and the world they revealed, drawing on the voyagers' own journals to turn exploration into vivid adventure. From Columbus's daring theory of a westward route to Asia and the skeptical laughter that greeted him, the narrative follows the widening age of discovery through Cabot, the Portuguese route around Africa, Brazil, the Amazon, and the Moluccas, where Spain and Portugal struggled to divide the globe and claim new empires. ...

This gripping maritime chronicle follows English circumnavigators as they chase profit, survival, and glory through the most dangerous waters of the age. Beginning with the rich but perilous Manila-Acapulco trade, it shows why Spanish galleons, privateering, and the lure of the South Seas drew ambitious seamen into a world where fortune and ruin sailed side by side. At the center is a carefully organized expedition—backed by Bristol merchants and shaped by Dampier's experience—whose well-a...

This sweeping maritime narrative begins with a grand survey of English circumnavigations before turning to Commodore Byron's 1764 voyage in the Dolphin and Tamar, sent by royal order to explore the South Seas. From Madeira, the Canaries, Cape Verde, and Brazil to the lonely waters of the southern Atlantic, the expedition is tested by storms, illness, deceptive landfalls, and the unsettling loss of crew members, while its officers balance practical seamanship with a growing sense of scienti...

This vivid travel narrative traces English voyages around the world, with Captain Cook's circumnavigation at its center and a constant eye for the peoples, lands, and curiosities encountered along the way. It opens with the language and customs of New Holland, then carries the reader through narrow escapes at sea, strange marine phenomena, and the first approach to tropical coasts alive with birds, coconut groves, huts, and signs of habitation. As the expedition moves toward New Guinea, Ti...

To coincide with the bicentennial of Thoreau's birth and TarcherPerigee's publication of Expect Great Things: The Life of Henry David Thoreau, here is a sumptuous rediscovery edition of the first illustrated volume of Thoreau's classic, as originally issued in 1897.In 1897, thirty-five years after Thoreau's death, Houghton Mifflin issued a two-volume "Holiday Edition" of Walden illustrated with thirty remarkable engravings, daguerreotypes, and per...

A transcendentalist classic on social responsibility and a manifesto that inspired modern protest movementsCritical of 19th-century America’s booming commercialism and industrialism, Henry David Thoreau moved to a small cabin in the woods of Concord, Massachusetts in 1845. Walden, the account of his stay near Walden Pond, conveys at once a naturalist’s wonder at the commonplace and a transcendentalist’s yearning for spiritual truth and self-reliance. But T...