Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-262) and index.
Contents:
Acknowledgements -- Note on abbreviations -- Preface -- Chapter 1: Overture -- Chapter 2: Celebration and Lamentation -- Chapter 3: Sympathy with Intelligence -- Chapter 4: Concord Reflections -- Chapter 5: Transforming Perception -- Chapter 6: Ethics and the Wild -- Chapter 7: Expressive Bones -- Chapter 8: Child of the Mist -- Chapter 9: Deaths and Rebirths -- Chapter 10: Affliction and Affinity -- Chapter 11: John Brown -- Chapter 12: Souls in Infinite Culture -- Chapter 13: Currents of Time -- Chapter 14: Grounding Poetry -- Chapter 15: Face of the River -- Closing Thoughts -- Closing Images, Reveries, Prayers -- Closing Passions -- Chronology -- Works Cited -- Credits.
Summary:
"Excursions with Thoreau is a major new exploration of Thoreau's writing and thought that is philosophical yet sensitive to the literary and religious. Edward F. Mooney's excursions through passages from Walden, Cape Cod, and his late essay "Walking" reveal Thoreau as a miraculous writer, artist, and religious adept. Of course Thoreau remains the familiar political activist and environmental philosopher, but in these fifteen excursions we discover new terrain. Among the notable themes that emerge are Thoreau's grappling with underlying affliction; his pursuit of wonder as ameliorating affliction; his use of the enigmatic image of "a child of the mist"; his exalting "sympathy with intelligence" over plain knowledge; and his preferring "befitting reverie"--Not argument-as the way to be carried to better, cleaner perceptions of reality. Mooney's aim is bring alive Thoreau's moments of reverie and insight, and to frame his philosophy as poetic and episodic rather than discursive and systematic"-- Provided by publisher. "A literary and philosophical exploration of Thoreau as a prose-poet and religious adept who carries us into fresh and unexpected communion with landscape, seascape, open sky, and what he calls "the unfathomable.""-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.