Book Description
Stone Barrington investigates the secrets of a CIA officer's suicide in this next thriller in the bestselling series.
Stuart Woods's newest bestseller, Dark Harbor, brings us the perfect mix of sexy intrigue and swift suspense that have earned him legions of fans over the years. In this latest thriller, Stone enters the picturesque town Dark Harbor off the coast of Maine, where the shocking deaths of three people have cast a long shadow over this island haven-a locale as mysterious as it is exclusive.
Stone Barrington hasn't heard from his cousin, Dick Stone, in years-though he has fond memories of a teenage summer spent at his house in Maine. Then, Lance Cabot of the CIA interrupts an otherwise pleasant meal at Elaine's with news of Dick's death-apparently by his own hands. It seems that Dick Stone, a quiet family man who doubled as a CIA agent, methodically executed his wife, daughter, and then himself-or did he? What would cause a loving father and husband to murder his family as they slept? Before his death, Dick had appointed Stone executor of his will, giving him full control of the disposition of a sizable family estate. Was Dick preparing for his suicide, or forewarning Stone of his murder?
With the help of his ex-partner, Dino, and his friend Holly Barker, Stone must settle the estate and piece together the elusive facts of his cousin's life and death as a CIA operative. At every step Stone knows he is being watched by Dick's family-and one of them just may be a killer.
Customer Reviews:
Frank and Josephine Hardy rush to the rescue!.......2007-09-06
(This refers to the book-on-tape version) About halfway through this I realized that the mystery wasn't going to have a great resolution and that several seemingly important details (a household appliance, a kidnapping, a murder here or there) were going to be kicked into the rough in the hopes that the reader would forget about them. I was reminded of the Hardy Boys novels I grew up reading, but they're really more tightly structured (although not as much sex) than this book. Getting into the motorboat and quietly going up the cove to the abandoned boathouse! Figuring out from the angle of the bullet that - gasp! - it wasn't a suicide! Hopping into a plane to chase the villains through the sky - to almost crash into them! Almost all action taking place off-camera!
When Woods wants to write about something he cares about (Hollywood and the movie biz, airplanes ... umm, anything else?) he can bang out a darn good tale (The Prince of Beverly Hills). Plots with more depth or intrigue seem to get away from him (thus requiring insertion, as it were, of fairly gratuitous sex scenes to distract the reader - not that there's anything wrong with that) and, with this one, there's a sense in which the reader is just asked to say "keep turning the page - at least some of these details will be 'splained by the end". A book for people who miss Nancy Drew, Frank and Joe and their chums ferreting out the truth while getting into scrapes and escaping peril almost every chapter!
not bad..not bad at all.......2007-08-30
It's been a while since I've read anything but Stuart Woods, must less a Stone Barrington novel. It's nice to see that everything I enjoy about the Stone books was not missing from this one.
Overall I found the book pretty good, although I have to say that stone and his friends constantly walking into money (and the bedroom) does get a little annoying =)
It's Stone's uncanny knack of getting himself and the people closest to him in trouble that makes these books engaging reads. All the usual suspects are in this one: Stone, Dino, Holly Barker (I like how she's now crossed from her own series into the Barrington books), Lance, and a few others.
One thing I found annoying about the book was the way it ended. Woods is great at letting you think you figured out whodunnit only to pull the rug out from under you at the last minute, but a lack of explanation for certain crimes that took place in this book left me a little unsatisfied. I think if the book were another twenty or so pages, it would have been even better.
All in all, another solid addition to the Stone Barrington series of books. A fast and engaging read.
Stone Barrington "light" .......2007-08-22
Having followed Stone through his past adventures this was a resounding disappointment !! Woods must have called this one in !!!!
Dark Harbor.......2007-05-29
"Dark Harbor" is the 12th Stone Barrington novel by Stuart Woods. Barrington travels to Dark Harbor, and island off the Maine coast to execute the will of his first cousin, Dick Stone who had died along with his wife and daughter in what the police ruled as a murder-suicide. Barrington and his former NYPD partner believe that it is a triple murder by the position of the gun. They also learn that Dick was a high ranking CIA officer from Lance Cabot. They think it could be work related. There are 4 other murders and a kidnapping on the island. Stone, Dino, and the local policeman, Young, solve the murders. This is an entertaining murder mystery even though it is not Woods' best effort.
What? Exactly!.......2007-03-30
This book gets two stars because I actually read the whole book. What a dumb plot. And what's with the characters? Everyone has a pilot's license in their back pocket, they all have 5 million dollars waiting for them somewhere, and a bunch of other seemingly disconnected coincidences, which is a lame attempt to resolve the ridiculous plot.
Woods, buddy, please for the love of God and all humanity, get some better names for your characters. Stone Barrington? And his grilfriend is named Arrington? Huh?
Stone Barrington is investigating a murder case about his cousin whose last name is Stone. How stupid is that? What a childish/amateur way of trying to make a plot twist.
The one bright spot in this book...never mind, there isn't one.
Book Description
Henry David Thoreau wrote four full-length works, collected here for the first time in a single volume. Subtly interweaving natural observation, personal experience, and historical lore, they reveal his brilliance not only as a writer, but as a naturalist, scholar, historian, poet, and philosopher. "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" is based on a boat trip taken with his brother from Concord, Massachusetts to Concord, New Hampshire. "Walden," one of America's great books, is at once a personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, manual of self-reliance, and masterpiece of style. "The Maine Woods" and "Cape Cod" portray landscapes changing irreversibly even as he wrote. The first combines close observation of the unexplored Maine wilderness with a far-sighted plea for conservation; the second is a brilliant and unsentimental account of survival on a barren peninsula in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay.
Customer Reviews:
Influential writings whose beauty you will see differently at different stages in life.......2006-10-26
While every artist is tied to their time and place, this is especially true of Henry David Thoreau. To me, Thoreau has always seemed like a beautiful and tender plant that could only exist in a specific time and place. His world was rich enough to allow him to enjoy nature rather than see it as something to tame. Yet it was also rural enough to leave him natural space to enjoy as if it were wild.
It also seems to me that Thoreau's writing is more beautiful and observant than penetrating and intelligent. It is more about the senses than analysis. I think this is why it appeals so much to young people of so many generations and why he became such a symbol for the Back-to-Nature portion of the Boomer generation.
This volume contains his most influential works (the essays and poems are collected in a companion volume also from the wonderful Library of America): A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Walden; or, Life in the Woods, The Main Woods, and Cape Cod. So much has been written about these works that I can't think of anything specific to add except to encourage their being read. However, I would encourage adults who remember reading them in their youth with such enthusiasm to read them again from the vantage point of mid-life. I think they will find somewhat less to be enamored of in the content, but they will appreciate his sheer power of writing more.
The total collection is more than a 1,000 pages and includes a chronology of Thoreau's life, notes on the text, relevant maps of the areas covered in the book, more notes, and an index.
The Library of America's Thoreau.......2006-08-09
While reading the four books of Henry David Thoreau (1817 -- 1862) included in this volume, I was reminded of the piano sonata no. 2, the "Concord" sonata by the American composer Charles Ives (1874 -- 1954) and decided to listen to it again to complement my reading. The Concord is a monumental work in which Ives tried to capture the "spirit of transcendentalism" associated with Concord, Massachusetts. Its four large movements bear the names of Emerson, Hawthorne, Bronson Alcott, and Thoreau. The "Thoreau" movement of the Concord captured in music for me what I had been reading in Thoreau's texts, with its reflective arpeggios, long hymnlike introspective passages, distant sounds of bells, and quiet close. Ives wrote the movement, he said, to reveal the "vibration of the universal lyre" to which Thoreau had alluded in the chapter of Walden titled "Sounds". Those who love Thoreau or the American Transcendentalists should explore Ives's great musical tribute to them and their thought.
This volume is the first of two in the Library of America devoted to Thoreau, with the second book consisting of essays and poems. It includes the two books published during his lifetime, "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" and "Walden" together with two books published shortly after his death, "The Maine Woods" and "Cape Cod". The former two books are philosophical and introspective in tone, even though they include much of the descriptive writing about nature for which Thoreau is famous. They are the writings of Thoreau the Transcendentalist, the Thoreau of Ives's Concord Sonata. The second two books are describes Thoreau's travels. They originated the American practice of writing about nature.
Thoreau's most famous book, "Walden" describes the two years he spent living at Walden Pond, near Concord, from 1845 -- 1847 on a tract owned by Emerson. Walden is deservedly an American classic, as Thoreau reflects upon and attempts to simplify his life, to appreciate it for itself and for the everyday, without the strains of commerce or the pursuit of wealth. It is an eloquent study of learning to be alone with and content with oneself.
Thoreau wrote the first draft of "Walden" while he resided there and also wrote "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" which in 1849 became his first published book, enjoying little success at the time. This book describes a trip Thoreau took with his brother and there are many detailed observations of people, places, and plants and animals. But the book is full of detailed digressions on literature, philosophy, the Greek Classics, friendship, and Thoreau's religious beliefs. This book shows the large influence of Eastern thought on Thoreau. It is filled with allusions and quotations from poetry on virtually every page. It is a joy to read.
There is little overt philosophising in Thoreau's latter two books. But both these books made me want to leave, at least for a short time, my life in the city and to run and visit the wild places Thoreau described. In "The Maine Woods" Thoreau describes three trips he took to Nortwest Maine -- its forests, rivers, lakes, and mountains, in 1843, 1853, and 1857. It includes detailed descriptions of rugged camping, in the rain and sun, on water and on land. The higlight for me was Thoreau's discussion in the first essay of the book of his climb on Mount Ktaadn, with Thoreau's description replete with both actual description and ancient Greek and American Indian symbolism.
Thoreau's final book, "Cape Cod" describes three visits in 1849, 1850, and 1853 (A fourth, later visit to the Cape is not included in the book.) This is Thoreau's only book which features the ocean and the seashore. It describes a rugged place, but the tone is leisurely and humorous in many places as Thoreau takes his reader on a thirty-mile "ramble" over the Cape. Thoreau introduces a memorable character in his chapter "The Wellsfleet Oysterman" and draws a picture of a lighthouse, no longer standing, on the Cape, "The Highland Light." Reading this book made me want to walk the sands and dunes that Thoreau walked and described over 150 years ago.
As with all volumes in the LOA series, this volume is lightly annotated but includes a valuable chronology of Thoreau's life which helps in approaching the texts. Transcendentalism and naturalism both have played critical roles in the development of American thought and you will find them both here. And if you enjoy Thoreau, I encourage you again to approach Ives's masterpiece, the "Concord Sonata" and meet Thoreau realized in sound.
Robin Friedman
A Fine Collection of Great Works.......2006-04-19
Henry David Thoreau is one of America's greatest literary treasures, and this Library of America compilation of his four complete, full-length books is an excellent purchase for any Thoreau fan. It includes possibly Thoreau's most famous work, Walden, as well as lesser-known (but still immensely inspired and entertaining)works. I would highly recommend this purchase to any interested Thoreau reader, as I am yet to find a comparable compilation for nearly as good a deal as this.
I respect no one more than I do Henry David Thoreau.......2004-10-15
It was Thoreau who made me understand that writing had everything to do with one's sum total and worth as a human being, and everything to do with one's passion and sense of purpose in life. It was while reading from an anthology of his work that I first made contact with a superior being. I recognized a mind that I could be intimate with, a mind and soul of someone with whom I could spend endless hours and never cease to learn from.
Thoreau's style is cumbersome. He can be terribly dry, and his paragraphs run way too long. But who cares when passages ignite the page with brilliance, flame from the black and white of paper into the depths of one's being. 'Walden' has more profound and relevant quotes than any other book I've read. They're the purest gems to be found in the rough of a larger work. A work that I wouldn't dare to diminish, but forewarn the reader so that they have the patience and perseverance to continue.
I would like to mention a superb biography written on the life and mind of Thoreau, a biography that exceeds and exceeds in going deeper into the life and mind of this great and humane and very misunderstood man, it is called: 'Henry Thoreau -- A Life Of The Mind,' by Robert D. Richardson Jr. Mr. Richardson not only wrote a biography, he was on a mission, for he knew and believed in what his subject was about. As comprehensive, insightful and exhilerating as any biography can or should be.
The price and quality of this anthology can't be beat. Beautiful to read and beautiful to see on my book shelf. Buy it! Get to know this man of yesterday, today and tomorrow.
I would like to publicly thank Henry David Thoreau.......2004-03-31
I would like to publicly thank Henry David Thoreau for teaching me this:
"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours." -Henry David Thoreau
Zev Saftlas, Author of Motivation That Works: How to Get Motivated and Stay Motivated
Book Description
When naturalist Heinrich sets out for a year in the wilds of Maine accompanied only by his pet raven, Jack, readers everywhere will want to tag along. Looking for the answers to life's questions in the richness of one small place, he settles into a rustic log cabin. There is research to be done - on songbirds, insects, and mosses; but there is also life to be lived - chopping wood, carrying water, and planting a garden. By melding his own life with the life of the Maine wilderness, Heinrich finds meaning within this complex fabric far beyond our ordinary perceptions. Throughout this year where "the subtle matters and the spectacular distracts," he brings us back to the drama in small things, when life is lived consciously.
"Quirky, unassuming, humorous, enlightening, and just a little bizarre." (Washington Post Book World)
Customer Reviews:
A quiet, enjoyable book about living with nature.......2007-01-09
I really enjoyed this book -- it is a quiet, at times poetic, reflection on how one man lived within his environment for four distinct seasons. Heinrich reminds us of how richly varied and fascinating our world is and how much we miss every moment that we are too distracted to really see, smell, hear, and touch the natural world. The book inspired me to try to slow down a bit and take a closer look at the plants, animals, birds, and insects in my own back yard.
A delightful book........2004-09-14
Bernd Heinrich a Zoology Professor at the University of Vermont has written many books on natural history or what is now called nature writing. This is the first I've read and have enjoyed it immensely. His style is a mixture of deep zoological knowledge of the animals and plants of the Maine woods and the pure love of being a human being who can appreciate and really live the surrounding natural world. This is what is needed by all people if they want to appreciate their world. Its a delightful book but does not possess the intensity of Jack Turner's "Abstract Wild" or Doug Peacock's Grisly writing. But it doesn't really need it, it is just a man living in the woods for a year through the beautiful summer pestered by black flies and the stunning autumn into a cold winter and the new life of spring. The book is also full of very well drawn animals and plants. The story starts with him driving to his cabin with his pet raven Jack who, being a raven, is independent minded and eventually leaves. Its too bad Jack was truly fascinating. There is much to do including the chopping of wood for the winter, taking care of his apple trees, raven watching to do. Its amazing how beautiful nature is when someone is watching with all his heart and mind. A delightful book.
Back to Nature.......2004-08-02
Heinrich writes about his observations of Maine's animals and plants from winter silences to spring's new growth. It ranges from lyrical descriptions of wild flowers to more than you want to know about decaying carcasses attracting carrion eaters.
I enjoyed reading it while parked in an RV in a Maine campground. My little window on the woods was so limited, making me appreciate his insights and trained eye. Sometimes he is philosophical, and at other times mundane (justifying why he doesn't wash his dishes more often).
A raven review..........2004-03-07
Not planning to review this book, I changed my mind after perusing the reviews for "A Year in the Maine Woods." Most of them are by people who miss the point of his book (and, dare I say, life) entirely.
Yes, Bernd is foremost a Zoologist, and so does get a bit technical at times, but his over-whelming love of nature--and the sense that he's just a good guy doing what many of us are afraid to do (i.e. kick in our TeeVees and "get back to nature")--is enough for my vote.
In addition to the natural science found in these pages, I very much enjoyed his mundane, day-to-day observations (every time he made coffee or drank a beer, I inwardly smiled). He mixes his love for the woods with a few 21st-century earthly pleasures, as well he should. Of course he's no Thoreau, and I don't think he is in anyway trying to be. Still, he's a damn-sight closer to Nature and the ideas and mind of H.D.T than most.
Truly a pleasurable read. Thanks, Bernd.
Not What I Expected...But Still Okay.......2003-01-31
This is the second book by Heinrich that I have read. The first, Ravens in Winter, I found very enjoyable. (see review)
Based on the title and a review written on the book's back cover, I expected the book to be about Heinrich's year alone, except for his pet raven, Jack. With this in mind I thought we'd learn about his discoveries in nature and also his understanding into his own thoughts as he pondered life in seclusion.
This was not a book about living in the wild woods of Maine in seclusion. Heinrich often went into town and ate, met with neighbors, had family visit, and at one point he had a number of students over for a couple of weeks. Was this bad...no, but not what I expected based on the review on his book's back cover.
Heinrich has a gift in sharing information about nature. His curiosity and excitement for the natural world is contagious. In this respect I wasn't let down. He did go on quite a bit about the various things he noticed, sometimes sharing too much information, but I would just skip the paragraph and move on.
I think what appeals to me most are the times he is in seclusion and reflects on nature and his own life. He endures an amazing amount of cold...below zero, doesn't have running water, and the inside temperature in his cabin dips down below freezing on several occasions. I would enjoy many of the aspects of living in the location he speaks of but I would do it with a few extras...insulation in the walls, and electricity are two that come to mind!
Overall I did enjoy the book and I hope you do too!
Book Description
A vivid and faithful chronicle of life in the great Northern Forest and a storehouse of valuable information on woodcraft and nature. Over half a century ago, John Rowlands set out by canoe into the wilds of Maine to survey land for a timber company. After paddling alone for several days--"it was so quiet I could hear the drops from the paddle hitting the water"--he came upon "the lake of my boyhood dreams." He never left. He named the place Cache Lake because there was stored the best that the north had to offer--timber for a cabin; fish, game and berries to live on; and the peace and contentment he felt he could not live without. Cache Lake Country exemplifies the classic American notion that what is most worth finding lies far from the tracks of civilization, and that what is most worth doing demands resourcefulness and wit. Here is folklore and philosophy, but most of all wisdom about the woods and the inventiveness and self-reliance they demand. The author explains how to make moccasins, barrel stoves, lean-to shelters, outdoor bake ovens, sailing canoes, and hundreds of other ingenious and useful gadgets, all illustrated in the margins with 230 enchanting drawings by Henry B. Kane.
Customer Reviews:
Life in a cabin in the North Woods.......2007-07-31
I'm going to be a little less enthusiastic, but only a little, than some of the other reviewers here. I really did like this book, but for some reason it just didn't quite pull me into the time, place, space the way it did some others- although it didn't miss by much.
This is a very unique book-probably reminding me of my old Boy Scout Fieldbook (a little more detailed and survival-oriented than the handbook) more than a typical non-fiction work. The illustrations are great as well as occasionally light-hearted, and if you are at all handy or have an engineering or for that matter, culinary bent, you will find plenty of recipes and blueprints for food, tools, gadgets- even crystal radio sets or birch bark canoes. While some of these you'd probably have to find some supplemental information to make, most come so well described and diagrammed that you could probably build them or bake them directly from the book.
For me the best part is the author's midwest and at times almost cowboy way of describing life. His time around rough loggers in the days when horses and two man saws were still the order of the day especially captured my imagination. Like many readers, I'm a lot hermit, and the thought of life in a cabin in the north woods with nothing but snow, bear, moose, and wind has a certain charm, and I'm grateful to Rowlands for giving enough of a story to enjoy a bit of that charm vicariously. An excellent and unique book, and for some it will probably become a treasured possession.
what a great book!.......2007-06-24
I have read a lot of outdoor books over the last 40 years, and this is one of the best. I am going to research the author, John J. Rowlands, because he was obviously a fascinating man who lead a very interesting life. This book tells about 12 months living in a cabin on a lake in Northern Onatario. At the time Rowlands was working as a timber cruiser, evaluating forests for use as lumber. He happened upon his ideal lake and was lucky enough to get stationed there by his company. He was also very lucky to have two great friends living within miles (within signaling distance via the various drums, horns etc. they engineered), on other little lakes. Together the three lived every outdoor boy's dream life of independence and adventure. This book has stuff about canoes, wild animals, sled dogs, snowshoes, knives, axes, the history of the lumber camps, and many boy-scout like craft projects. I just wish it was a lot longer.
Paul Schmitt.......2007-05-15
A good book but I didn't think it was as easy to read as friends lead me to believe. A tremendous amount of reference material, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Cache Lake Country: Life in the North Woods.......2007-01-11
I found the book enlightening and informative. Thank you for the opportunity to enjoy and learn from this book.
Most enjoyable book.......2006-11-03
I first read this book in my senior year in high school. Once I rediscovered it I have read it at least once a year. It paints a picture of a world gone by the way and it brings the experience to life. If you love the outdoors, you will find this a pleasure to read. I would recommend it to anyone from 14 years old to 100.
Book Description
An engaging & thoughtful biography of Louise Dickinson Rich, whose writing has touched lives for many years. Also includes more of Rich's writings.
Customer Reviews:
Not as much new info as hoped for.......2006-03-08
I was rather disappointed with this bio on one of my favorite authors. It seemed the source of much of the info was from the author's own books so I was already familiar with it and it held little behind the scenes info. For instance much of the first chapter about her childhood is taken directly from Innocence Under the Elms so almost no new info is given. The diary entries are interesting but very terse, the letters and interviews were limited but do give one a better sense of the author but overall I felt left with more questions than answers.
Here we have "The Rest of the Story".......2003-11-17
"We Took to the Woods," first published in 1942, remains a classic piece of wilderness writing. But Louise Dickinson and Ralph Rich lived together in a remote region of Maine for only ten years. What else did Louise do? This book tells us: she wrote. Through personal interviews with her children and close friends, the details of Louise Dickinson's life are presented. Included are the original texts of letters, journal notes, and diary entries, even though the latter make for somewhat tedious and clipped reading. The second half of the book rewards us with further selected writings from Louise. She lived in a variety of places in both Massachusetts and Maine, and she had a wide circle of friends. Her experiences turned her into a quintessential describer of New England life, whether she was writing for adults or, later on, for children. This is the story of a writer who put in her time and eventually gained fame but not fortune. Of interest to naturalists as well as struggling authors.
Back to the Woods.......2000-12-28
For those who have come late to be adicted to Louise Rich's writings, this is a capstone book to be read last. It fills in the unspoken spaces in the writings of one of Maine's best writers. Alren has let Louise tell her own story and has stayed out of the way of this telling while being supportive at the same time.
Average customer rating:
- Live Like a Philosopher
- Travel wild rivers with Thoreau.
- Visit Maine in the mid-1800s
- A Naturalist, No Longer A Transcendentalist
- Classic 19th century backwoods adventure.
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The Maine Woods (Penguin Nature Library)
Henry David Thoreau
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Cape Cod
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A Year in the Maine Woods
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A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (Dover Thrift Editions)
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ASIN: 0140170138 |
Customer Reviews:
Live Like a Philosopher.......2003-11-10
This screed from Thoreau is obviously not as classic as his work on Walden, but here we may be seeing the beginning of the travelogue business. Thoreau is often misrepresented (by those who haven't read his works, or have read them too many times) as a hardcore back-to-nature hermit who lived off the land and rejected civilization. One read of his Walden story disproves that stereotype, and in this work about three trips to Maine's wild country, we can surely see Thoreau's social side all the more. At the time, the Maine Woods were surely a thrilling landscape ripe for exploration and adventure, and Thoreau gives us an enjoyable travelogue of his ramblings and recreations. A bonus is great coverage of the Indians of the area, especially Thoreau's longtime traveling colleague Joe Ponis. The only problem here is that Thoreau's introspective naturalist philosophy is mostly missing at this stage of his career, and he pretty much accidentally invents descriptive travel writing instead. This is still a worthy exploration if you're interested in the Maine Woods either as they were then or if you wish to explore them today. But Thoreau's classic naturalism is better found in his other works. [~doomsdayer520~]
Travel wild rivers with Thoreau........2002-05-22
One day I took my children to Disneyland, found the quietest corner of the Material Kingdom, and read The Maine Woods. I read it later in the shadows of Ktaadn. In each case I found myself fading into damp, 19th century forests, cataloging with Thoreau the flora of central Maine.
Few could be the equal of Thoreau in making an account of wilderness travels: "The Jesuit missionaries used to say, that, in their journeys with the Indians in Canada, they lay on a bed which had never been shaken up since the creation, unless by earthquakes. It is surprising with what impunity and comfort one who has always lain in a warm bed in a close apartment ... can lie down on the ground without a shelter, roll himself in a blanket ... in a frosty, autumn night ... and even come soon to enjoy and value the fresh air."
The pace of the book is slow but rich in natural wonder: "Once, when we were listening for moose, we heard, come faintly echoing ... a dull, dry, rushing sound, with a solid core to it, yet as if half smothered under the grasp of the luxuriant and fungus-like forest, like the shutting of a door in some distant entry of the damp and shaggy wilderness. If we bad not been there, no mortal had heard it. When we asked Joe in a whisper what it was, he answered, 'Tree fall.' There is something singularly grand and impressive in the sound of a tree falling in a perfectly calm night..."
Visit Maine in the mid-1800s.......2002-04-23
Henry David Thoreau :: _Walden_ :: _The Maine Woods_
John Muir :: _My First Summer in the Sierra_ :: _Travels in Alaska_
The analogy is almost perfect. Each of these writer-naturalists is most often identified geographically with the setting of his best-known work (i.e., Walden Pond or the Sierra Mountains). Each was intrigued by a vastly different habitat located north of his usual stomping ground -- and was so enticed by that wilderness region that he made multiple visits and took copious notes on everything he saw. For Thoreau, it was the forests and mountains of Maine, while Muir delighted in the glaciers of Alaska. Both made their trips by water with native guides but also with at least one old friend along for companionship. They later produced travelogue essays and / or lectures about their journeys, both describing miles and miles of terrain and the very few residents they encountered along the way. Both _The Maine Woods_ and _Travels in Alaska_ chronicle the discoveries made during three separate trips: Thoreau's adventures occurred in 1846, 1853, and 1857; and Muir's happened in 1879, 1880 and 1890. Both men died of a lung disease (tuberculosis, pneumonia) before making final edits on the third portion, the last journey, of each book. Both of the resulting books were put together by surviving relatives and were published posthumously. Eerie, isn't it?
That being said, my advice to the reader of Thoreau is the same as written in my review of Muir's _Travels in Alaska_: Don't read this one first if you haven't read anything else by him. Read _Walden_ and some of the shorter travel pieces before moving on to _The Maine Woods_. Here Thoreau is at once fascinated by the thickness of the forests and appalled by the devastation caused by the lumber industry. You'll follow him up Mount Katahdin and canoe along with him on lakes and down rivers. You'll learn about the kind of true camping that could be done only in the wilds of sparsely-inhabited country. You'll see lots of trees and plants and animals and hear some of Thoreau's opinions about nature and mankind. And you'll be pleased to know that everyone returns home safely in the end.
Thoreau was asked on his deathbed if he had made his peace with God. His retort was, "I did not know we had ever quarrelled." Even though he told a friend that he would die without regret, these kinds of last-minute questions must have forced him to take quiet mental stock of the events of his life in search of something that didn't quite fit with his philosophy. It is said that his final words were "moose" and "Indian." I believe that, with those utterances, he had finally realized his sole regret in life: that he had witnessed the killing of several Maine moose -- the last one, by his Indian guide -- and had done nothing to stop the slaughter. Whenever the hunters were thus engaged, Thoreau retreated to his botanizing and documenting the plant life in the area. He deliberately put blinders on at a time when he could have prevented the animals' deaths. And perhaps his own rationalizing behavior was not made clear to him until the end. For as he says here in the "Chesuncook" chapter, "Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine-trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it." That statement could be a personal chastisement, a reminder to himself. If that's the only wrong performed during your lifetime, Henry, then you did pretty well.
A Naturalist, No Longer A Transcendentalist.......2000-12-18
This is a sad book for me. It marks the end of Thoreau's greatness as a writer. There are a thousand Naturalists, brilliant in their field of expertise, who could have have written works just as good as The Maine Woods and, in fact, have done so. But not one of them could have written a book like Walden. Where is the Thoreau who, as Emerson remarked at his funeral elegy, seemed to have had a sixth sense which the rest of us were deprived of? A sense that could feel and detect the mystical power in Nature trembling all aroung him at all times?...He is not in The Maine Woods in any case. Thoreau was essentially America's Wordsworth. In virtually all of Walden, particularly in chapters such as Higher Laws, there is that sense in his delicious prose and in his descriptions of his interactions with Nature, that there is an unseen power just beyond the veil of the visible, that we stand in the midst of some deep mystery which unadulterated Nature lifts aside from time to time; The same sense famously to be found in Wordsworth's best Nature poems....But you won't find much of this in The Maine Woods. Thoreau seems depressed and morose much of the time, and it is clear that he spends much of his time in his endless classifications of flora and fauna as an escape from the harsh conditions surrounding him through much of the journey. By harsh, I mean aesthetically harsh (as, for example, a previous reviewer has noted concerning the logging already felling trees apace.) Thoreau was a famously physically vigorous man until the end. Physically harsh conditions were nothing new to him. Also, I don't mean to belittle Thoreau as a Naturalist. All are agreed that he was a serious (what we would nowadays call a "professional" one), in no sense amateur. But there is none of the sheer wonder and joy that we find in Walden and which made it my favorite book and Thoreau my favorite writer for years....I keep thinking of a line by Yeats, "...Who could have foreseen that the heart grows old?"
Classic 19th century backwoods adventure........2000-02-16
Thoreau takes the reader on a wonderful journey through the largely uninhabited forests of Maine. It is clear that Thoreau is a botanist. He is continually identifying trees and plants by Botanical as well as Common name. He also identifies the birds he encounters. Sadly the Maine woods were not pristine at the time of Thoreau's journeys. There were scars of loggers, who mainly came for pine trees, along Thoreau's entire route. His journeys also include a hired Indian and Thoreau has recorded Indian names for lakes, rivers, plants and such. Judging by this book, Thoreau has not a lick of humor, so don't expect a laugh. Bits of Thoreau's philosphy are strewn throughout, it's a shame he didn't elaborate. Many measurements were made in "rods" which I have yet to figure out how many feet one rod is. I was a bit surprised to find his journeys were made by canoe, with quite many portages. All in all, this is a great book and I highly recommend it.
Book Description
Henry D. Thoreau traveled to the backwoods of Maine in 1846, 1853, and 1857. Originally published in 1864, and published now with a new introduction by Paul Theroux, this volume is a powerful telling of those journeys through a rugged and largely unspoiled land. It presents Thoreau's fullest account of the wilderness.
The Maine Woods is classic Thoreau: a personal story of exterior and interior discoveries in a natural setting--all conveyed in taut, masterly prose. Thoreau's evocative renderings of the life of the primitive forest--its mountains, waterways, fauna, flora, and inhabitants--are timeless and valuable on their own. But his impassioned protest against the despoilment of nature in the name of commerce and sport, which even by the 1850s threatened to deprive Americans of the "tonic of wildness," makes The Maine Woods an especially vital book for our own time.
Customer Reviews:
With Thoreau in the Maine Woods.......2006-07-27
In 1848, 1853,and 1857, Henry David Thoreau travelled to the wilderness -- forests, lakes, rivers, and mountains in the northwest part of Maine. He wrote three lengthy essays describing each of his journeys, and they were gathered together, as Thoreau had wished, and published after his death, together with an appendix, as "The Maine Woods." It is a moving book, a classic work of American literature, and the founder of a genre of descriptive travel writing.
Readers coming to "The Maine Woods" after "Walden" or "A Walk on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" may be in for a surprise. These earlier books do include extensive descriptions of nature and of plants and animals, but their focus is much more internalized and philosophical. Both books are full of discussions of themes that have little direct connection with nature. They show Thoreau as a Transcendentalist, an American philosopher akin to Emerson and others.
"The Maine Woods", in contrast, shows Thoreau as much more of a naturalist interested in describing the wilderness in great detail for its own sake. I think the book articulates a philosophical temperament akin to Thoreau's earlier books, but it is for the most part implicit rather than stated at length.
The three essays describe Thoreau's journeys at widely separated times to Mount Ktaadn, the Chesuncook River, and the Allegash and East Branch Rivers, journeys that overlapped to some degree. Thoreau travelled with a companion and with Indian guides. He gives the reader pictures of what was still largely a pristine wilderness even though it was, at that early time, already being subject to logging, the growth of towns, and despoilation. We see Thoreau and his companions travelling in canoes or batteaus on the interconnected rivers and lakes of northwest Maine, carrying and portaging their vessels around falls, camping in the woods, observing the vegetation and animals, getting lost, finding shelter from the rain, visiting lumber camps and the hardy residents of the woods, gathering berries, hunting, and much else. The narrative is filled with detail of Thoreau's experiences and thoughts.
I found the most moving part of the book was Thoreau's description of his climb up Mount Ktaadn in the first essay. We see this journey in detail, described with ancient Greek and American Indian symbolism. It concludes with a long peroration of the value of wilderness -- of land not controlled or under the disposition of people. Thoreau observes that "the country is virtually unmapped and unexplored, and there still waves the virgin forest of the New World." The "Chesuncook" essay includes a vivid description of the stalking and killing of a moose and Thoreau's resultant sense of discomfort. It closes with a call for the creation of national preserves for wilderness. The final essay describes a broad spectrum of adventures and places on a day-to-day basis. There are many passages that describe Thoreau's Indian guide, Joe Polis. Although Thoreau was deeply fascinated with the Indian heritage of Maine, some of his treatment of Polis will sound stereotyped to modern readers.
Thoreau's book was the first in a long line of American works devoted to nature. But I was reminded most of the Beat writers in some of their moments, of Jack Kerouac, (a native of Lowell, Massachusetts) in "The Dharma Bums" describing rucksacking and the climbing of a mountain and of the poetry of Gary Snyder.
This book is about the need to leave the beaten path and follow one's star. There are some fine websites in which the interested reader can get more information about the places Thoreau visited. [...]
Robin Friedman
Pure Travelogue.......2006-07-18
This book chronicles the adventures of Thoreau as he encounters wilderness in the guise of backwoods Maine. The book covers 3 separate expeditions that Thoreau made in 1846, 1853 and 1857. On each trip, Thoreau was accompanied by one or more companions, as well as an Indian guide.
Of all of Thoreau's books, this one sticks most closely to nature and travel writing, with little explicit philosophizing. Although Thoreau was accustomed to taking long walks off the beaten track in Massachusetts, it was in Maine where he first encountered genuine wilderness. He found the wild surroundings quite inspiring, and far from being overwhelmed by them, he seemed to want even more. In this book, he presents detailed accounts of the flora and fauna that observed on his Maine journeys. In addition to his observations of the natural world, Thoreau also describes many of the people and tiny communities that he found on his trips through Maine. While he follows his custom of never naming his traveling companions or providing personal information about them, he seems to feel no similar compunction about the privacy of his Indian guides, and describes them and their behavior in detail as if they were suitable subjects of his travel studies rather than co-travelers. One aspect that makes this book timeless is the fact that so much of the natural world that Thoreau describes has remained unchanged in the 150 years since his journeys.
American wilderness as it was in the 1850s.......2005-12-11
Most people are familiar with Thoreau through his Walden. Few know perhaps that he didn't stay put in Concord but journeyed to the Maine Woods and elsewhere, and that these travels were formative of his philosophy and ideas. Thoreau believed the Maine wilderness north of Bangor was every bit as wild as the west and other far flung corners of the continent in the 1850s, and here he shows us an incredible panorama of beauty and wonder. You will gain insight into how Native Americans hunted Moose in the mid-19th Century and why Thoreau, a vegetarian, disdained the killing of animals for meat. One of the most sriking passages is his description of the sound of a huge tree falling in the forest in the distance at night.
In Ktaadn, Thoreau defines the essence of wilderness:
"Nature was here something savage and awful, though beautiful. I looked with awe at the ground I trod on, to see what the Powers had made there, the form and fashion and material of their work. This was that Earth of which we have heard, made out of Chaos and Old Night. Here was no man's garden, but the unhandselled globe. It was not lawn, nor pasture, nor mead, nor woodland, nor lea, nor arable, nor wast-land. It was the fresh and natural surface of the planet Earth as it was made forever and ever."
You do not need to read The Maine Woods on a wooded island in Maine (as I did) to be captivated and transported by it to a higher and greater sense of wilderness than you may ever have imagined.
Average customer rating:
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Nine Mile Bridge Three Years in the Maine Woods
Manufacturer: Islandport Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Maine
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ASIN: 096716625X |
Product Description
Reprint with additional materials of W.W. Norton's 1945 publication.
Average customer rating:
- poignant portrayal of medicine in northern maine in 1950s
- witty and humorous - easy and engaging reading!
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Green Wood and Chloroform: How a Young English Doctor Settled in Rural Maine
Anthony Betts
Manufacturer: Down East Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 089272434X |
Customer Reviews:
poignant portrayal of medicine in northern maine in 1950s.......1998-12-03
Great local color, humorous outlook, authentic reminiscences ofrural medicine.
witty and humorous - easy and engaging reading!.......1998-10-23
I really enjoyed this tale. The author has a neat sense of humor, even when dealing with lots of difficulties on the job. It made me realize what it was like for a general practice back in those days, and likely for todays' rural doctors.
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