Cape Cod Paperback – January 7, 2012

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) is probably best known for “Walden” and “Civil Disobedience.” Neither has the readability of “Cape Cod,” one of the accounts he wrote of his extensive travels. He was a great travel writer, eager to describe the places he visited, using a more relaxed tone with lighter philosophical inclination than that used in his controversial essays.As an essayist he was relentless as an advocate for the discovering of life’s true necessities. He was a lifelong abolitionist and champion of civil disobedience. Some described him as an anarchist, although he seemed to favor the improvement of government rather than the destruction of it. While either sitting in prison or residing in solitude on Walden Pond, his writings were heavy with transcendental idealistic musings on “the meanness of the world.” Not so much with his travel tales that seemed to lighten his countenance.Always known for his pointed satire and cunning wit, Thoreau seemed to bring them forward more easily as he rambled around. A Thoreau biographer, Walter Harding, called “Cape Cod” his “sunniest and happiest book. It bubbles over with jokes, puns, tall tales, and genial good humor.” That might be stretching it a bit, but there’s no doubt that the book is pleasant to read, if a bit wordy. After Thoreau left Walden Pond in 1847 he became increasingly interested in natural history and the environment, and began writing more about them in his travels and expeditions. His love of flora and fauna sometimes dominated his writing providing the reader with great skimming opportunities to survive the redundancy.The walks he recorded in “Cape Cod,” were compilations of four treks he took, covering most of Cape Cod’s towns. His observations are full of descriptions of the countryside from the seashore to the marshes, plains, scrubby trees, and fields of the Cape’s inner reaches. His encounters with a shipwreck in which many people were killed, an educational encounter with an oysterman, and a riveting description of a lighthouse are informative and highly readable.I noticed an oddity about his writing. Enthusiastic travel writers are heavy into the food they encounter as they wander. Thoreau tended to ignore the subject. Although he was not a strict vegetarian, meat was low in his priorities because of his perception that it was unclean, and he seemed to subsist on little but air as he trekked around. At one point he mentioned that a clam and a couple of crackers would make a fine dinner,His writing received widespread praise in later years but also received some pointed criticism from some of his well-known contemporaries. Luminaries such as Robert Lewis Stevenson, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Nathaniel Hawthorne all took their shots at him, calling him unmanly, a skulker, and a “woodchuck.” Thoreau answered by invoking the idea that every man needs to consider the scope of his own life and not worry about what he has heard of others.There was a good deal of satisfaction for me in the reading of “Cape Cod.” Thoreau’s ideas are thought provoking, his vistas are well formed, and he is, after all, considered a literary icon. I feel much more intelligent and well read after completing “Cape Cod.”Schuyler T WallaceAuthor of TIN LIZARD TALES

Thoreau's careful descriptions and train-of-thought presentation lend the reader a very different view of Cape Cod. He carefully blends his several trips to the Cape into a single narrative that evokes a time when the Cape was not the vacation mecca it is today. His story is written , for the most part, about the outer cape, Orleans, Truro and Province-town. He uses his many references to the early descriptions and explorations of the to contrast what he sees and how the Cape has evolved to what he sees in the 1850's, which leads the reader to make the same kinds of comparisons with their personal experiences on Cape Cod. The National Park Visitor Center in Eastham has an excellent short film illustrating features of Thoreau's visits and observations on Cape Cod which are basedon this book.

I could not put this piece of delightful reading down. I grew up on Cape Cod as a youngster (many years ago) , andwas fascinated by the travels described by this noted individualist Henry David Thoreau on his visits there. I just lovedthe history of this famous cape as described and written such a long time in the past. Thoreau's descriptions of the nativeCape Codders he encountered brought back fond memories of my youth and my own encounters with many crusty old retiredsea captains who resided there. This book is certainly not for everybody, but it sure brought memories and joy to my heart. Thoreau, was probably a ratherstrange individual, but he certainly wrote with clarity, humor and had an almost uncanny knack for accurate observation aboutnature around him and ordinary people he encountered. Thanks for these wonderful times that such marvelous writings of the past are now being digitized and made available tothe general public.

To enjoy any of Thoreau's writings you have to appreciate his unique prose style. But if you do, his ability to describe the natural world around him is priceless, and leaning about nature during that relatively unspoiled time makes one appreciate what we have lost already and what we likely will lose in the future. Cape Cod is unlike some of his other writings in that there it provides more social commentary on the people who live in this setting at that time.

This is written like a diary with Thoreau's observation of the unique topography of the Cape and digressions on miscellani. Its not a page turner, but if you, like me, have an interest in the times and place just before WWII its a great curiousity read.

Cape Cod is my most favorite place in the world, although I do not live there (wish I did). Been going there for over 50 years on trips, love every part of it. There is no place like it and I buy every book about the Cape that I can find. And no one knew Cape Cod better than Henry David Thoreau - he truly loved it for what it was - the peace of the ocean and the beauty of the waves, the birds and the sand.

It was not exciting but very interesting with his observations of the people and customs back in those times. A relaxing read.

I don't know. It's one of Thoreau's best and strangest and nothing of his so exploresthe darker side of the natural world, and it is uncannily prescient about issues ofextinction, invasive species, and the like. And the descriptions are gorgeous. BUT,what is "Empire Books"? My copy says it's out of Lexington Kentucky, but no EmpireBooks is listed as being in Lexington. It's, in other words, an electronic publisher'spilfering, without any credits, or publishing history, copyright info--wow. And itshows: there are so many typos that a great book becomes a forced pleasure.Empire indeed: probably illegal piracy, and unconsciously sloppy proofing, whichis really baffling.

Cape Cod is a long, sickle-shaped peninsula on the north-east coast of America. Thoreau visited Cape Cod in 1849, 1850 and 1855 and this book is his account of the area. It is a book about beaches, storms, shipwrecks, beach-combing, fishing and walking; about the people of Cape Cod and the way they lived. Because Thoreau's exploration of the area mainly took the form of walking the miles of beaches the book seems to have the tang of salt and the grittiness of the sand in every chapter.Thoreau was always sensitive to the natural world and he is brilliant at expressing the paradox between the strength and fragility of nature, as in his comment on a sandpiper running along the surf line, 'It was a little creature thus to sport with the ocean, but it was as perfect a success in its way as the breakers in theirs.' He is aware too of man's impact on the environment and there is a note of prophesy in his comment 'There are many Herring Rivers on the Cape; they will, perhaps, be more numerous than herrings soon.'There are some rich descriptions throughout the book of things like gathering sea-weed on the shore and the mackerel boats sailing out. In the final chapter there is some account of the early exploration and charting of north-east America which I found a bit tedious but as a whole the book is a hugely enjoyable read.The Kindle store edition is navigable to chapters but, frustratingly, although the original illustrations are all listed as if navigable they are not included.One tip: it's worth printing off a map of Cape Cod from Google maps so that you know where the author is talking about.

Es un libro gratis de envío directo a tu Kindle / PC / móvil / Mac. ¿Qué más puedes pedir? XD. Como mucho, es posible que en algún punto tenga un defectillo de edición (palabras mal separadas, doble línea en blanco, caracteres raros dispersos por alguna página...). Me lo volvería a comprar y lo recomiendo a mis amigos.

para quedarse dormido...literalmente.no me gusta dejar libros sin terminar, pero este pudo conmigo.un poco de descripción de paisajes podía ser interesante pero no pasa nada de nada.

Autor atemporal y necesario hoy más que nunca, es un gran libro a tener en cuenta y una lectura sencilla y profunda, recordemos que es un autor en el que se basan grandes pensadores del siglo XX

Not blown away.