Journal
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1820-1882
- Language
- English
- Length
- Long · 600 pp300 to 700 pages
- Difficulty
- Demanding3 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendEmerson in His JournalsHarvard University Press, 1982Joel Porte's one-volume selection, the usual way in to a journal that runs to sixteen scholarly volumes.
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The notebooks Emerson kept from his college years until near his death, which he called his savings bank: he drew on them for his lectures and essays, and many famous sentences appear here first. They record his reading, his walks, his opinions of his neighbours and of slavery, and the deaths that mark the life, of his first wife Ellen, his brother Charles and his five-year-old son Waldo. The tone is by turns exalted, sceptical and flat with grief, and much less finished than the essays.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns Journal are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
