The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Modern Library Classics)

The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Modern Library Classics)
by Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Modern Library Classics)
List Price: $15.95
Our Price: $9.00
You Save: $6.95 (44%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $6.30 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Editor: Brooks Atkinson
Introduction: Mary Oliver
Edition: Paperback
Published: 2000-09-12
ISBN: 0679783229
Number of pages: 880
Publisher: Modern Library

Book Reviews of The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Modern Library Classics)

Book Review: Excellent essays, but poorly edited
Summary: 4 Stars

Emerson's essays are, of course, absolutely superb, and this Modern Library edition is handsomely bound, as are all of the books in this series. The editing, however, is lacking and leaves something to be desired. For example, the header at the top of the page in the Essays: First Series and Essays: Second Series merely states that fact, rather than the actual essay name, which makes it tedious to return to a particular essay--you must first go to the front of the book, locate the correct page number, and then find that, rather than just thumb through the book.

The essays themselves are introduced quite unceremoniously and in a rather understated manner, to say the least. "The American Scholar" is merely introduced with the two brief sentences, "This is the Phi Beta Kappa address that Emerson delivered at Harvard in 1837. It was received with great enthusiasm." The uninitiated reader would have absolutely no sense of the significance of this address. Only if you happen to peruse the brief commentaries all the way at the back of this volume will you stumble upon Oliver Wendell Holmes' famous assessment, "This grand Oration was our intellectual Declaration of Independence." Similarly, the Divinity School Address is introduced merely as, "This address was delivered before the senior class of the Harvard Divinity School on Sunday evening, July 15, 1838. Emerson had been invited to give it, not by the officers of the school, but by the senior class. What Emerson said was so objectionable to many clergymen that the officers of the school publicly disclaimed responsibility for it. Nearly thirty years passed before Emerson was invited again to speak at Harvard." Again, no context is provided to assist the uninitiated reader in appreciating the true significance of this address.

As a collection of Emerson's writings, however, it is indeed both a handy as well as a handsome volume of his "essential writings," and of course, I highly recommend Emerson's writings themselves. "Self-Reliance," "The Transcendentalist," "The American Scholar," the Divinity School Address (which is listed in the table of contents as merely "An Address"), and "Nature" are not to be missed, seminal essays in American literature, and indeed ought to be revisited often and with regularity. "Self-Reliance" and "The Transcendentalist," in particular, are perspectives sorely needed in our society, and it is rather sad that over the course of nearly 200 years, the spirit of the movement that Emerson engendered is nearly lost, if not altogether lost. "Character" is another fine essay which I highly recommend. A fine companion to these essays is the recently published Ralph Waldo Emerson: The Infinitude of the Private Man by Maurice York and Rick Spaulding.

Summary of The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Modern Library Classics)

The definitive collection of Emerson's major speeches, essays, and poetry, The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson chronicles the life's work of a true "American Scholar."

As one of the architects of the transcendentalist movement, Emerson embraced a philosophy that championed the individual, emphasized independent thought, and prized "the splendid labyrinth of one's own perceptions." More than any writer of his time, he forged a style distinct from his European predecessors and embodied and defined what it meant to be an American. Matthew Arnold called Emerson's essays "the most important work done in prose."

General Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Classics of World Literature for Entertainment and Enlightenment
Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul ImageSeth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul
by Jane Roberts
Amber-Allen Publ., New World Library; Published: 1994-05-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.00
Price in other shops: $17.95
The Masks of God, Vol. 1: Primitive Mythology ImageThe Masks of God, Vol. 1: Primitive Mythology
by Joseph Campbell
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1991-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.11
Price in other shops: $18.00
Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics (International Non-Aristotelian Library) ImageScience and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics (International Non-Aristotelian Library)
by Alfred Korzybski
Institute of General Semantics; Published: 1995-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $39.95
The Magic Mountain (Everyman's Library) ImageThe Magic Mountain (Everyman's Library)
by Thomas Mann
Everyman's Library; Published: 2005-06-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.00
Price in other shops: $26.00
Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness ImageMysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness
by Evelyn Underhill
Dover Publications; Published: 2002-03-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.61
Price in other shops: $19.95
Life Divine - U.S. Edition ImageLife Divine - U.S. Edition
by Sri Aurobindo
Lotus Press; Published: 1985-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.00
Price in other shops: $29.95
Basic Writings of Nietzsche (Modern Library Classics) ImageBasic Writings of Nietzsche (Modern Library Classics)
by Friedrich Nietzsche
Modern Library; Published: 2000-11-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.55
Price in other shops: $16.95
War and Peace: 3-Volume Boxed Set (Everyman's Library (Cloth)) ImageWar and Peace: 3-Volume Boxed Set (Everyman's Library (Cloth))
by Leo Tolstoy
Everyman's Library; Published: 1992-12-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $24.56
Price in other shops: $40.00
The Brothers Karamazov (Everyman's Library) ImageThe Brothers Karamazov (Everyman's Library)
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Everyman's Library; Published: 1992-04-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.25
Price in other shops: $24.00
Moby-Dick (Everyman's Library (Cloth)) ImageMoby-Dick (Everyman's Library (Cloth))
by Herman Melville
Everyman's Library; Published: 1991-11-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.94
Price in other shops: $22.00
Similar Books and other products
Leaves of Grass: The Original 1855 Edition (Thrift Edition) ImageLeaves of Grass: The Original 1855 Edition (Thrift Edition)
by Walt Whitman
Dover Publications; Published: 2007-02-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.97
Price in other shops: $3.00
The Spiritual Teachings of Ralph Waldo Emerson ImageThe Spiritual Teachings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
by Richard Geldard
Lindisfarne Books; Published: 2001-03-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.38
Price in other shops: $16.95
Walden ImageWalden
by Henry, David Thoreau
Digireads.com; Published: 2005-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.72
Price in other shops: $6.95
The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics) ImageThe Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)
by Walt Whitman
Penguin Classics; Published: 2005-03-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.14
Price in other shops: $18.00
The Portable Thoreau (Penguin Classics) ImageThe Portable Thoreau (Penguin Classics)
by Henry David Thoreau
Penguin Books; Published: 1964-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.46
Price in other shops: $18.00
Ralph Waldo Emerson: Selected Essays, Lectures and Poems ImageRalph Waldo Emerson: Selected Essays, Lectures and Poems
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Bantam Classics; Published: 1990-09-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.62
Price in other shops: $5.95
Civil Disobedience and Other Essays (Dover Thrift Editions) ImageCivil Disobedience and Other Essays (Dover Thrift Editions)
by Henry David Thoreau
Dover Publications; Published: 1993-05-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops: $1.50
Self-Reliance and Other Essays (Dover Thrift Editions) ImageSelf-Reliance and Other Essays (Dover Thrift Editions)
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Dover Publications; Published: 1993-10-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops: $3.50
Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass ImageWalt Whitman's Leaves of Grass
by Walt Whitman
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2005-04-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $19.68
Price in other shops: $35.00
Walden; Or, Life in the Woods (Dover Thrift Editions) ImageWalden; Or, Life in the Woods (Dover Thrift Editions)
by Henry David Thoreau
Dover Publications; Published: 1995-04-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.35
Price in other shops: $3.50
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories