Henry David Thoreau's 1854 Walden is an indisputable masterpiece of American literature. The book is an intensely influential philosophical work exploring Thoreau's decision to expand his understanding of society through personal introspection from a small cabin at the edge of Concord Massachusetts.

Rather than devolving into Luddite or antiquarian escapism, Thoreau takes this reprise from daily life to engage in philosophical explorations of man, nature and those things which mediate between the two. These explorations are the central reason why Walden endures within the cannon of...