Nature

Name: Nature
Brand: Dreamscape Media
Availability: InStock
Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
ISBN: 9781666598322

Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Narrator: Phil Paonessa

Unabridged: 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Dreamscape Media

Published: 08/08/2017

Categories: Nonfiction, Literary Collections, Philosophy

Synopsis

This version of Nature is an 1843 revision to the popular essay written and published in 1836. In the original essay, Emerson put forth the foundation of transcendentalism, and suggested that reality can be understood by studying nature. Within the essay, Emerson divides nature into four usages: Commodity, Beauty, Language and Discipline. These distinctions define how humans use nature for their basic needs, their desire for delight, their communication with one another and their understanding of the world.

About Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-nineteenth century. Although he began his career as a Unitarian minister, he gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his contemporaries, formulating and expressing the philosophy of transcendentalism instead. Seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, he disseminated his thoughts through published essays and public lectures across the United States.

About Phil Paonessa

Phil Paonessa is a U.S. Army Veteran of the Vietnam era who works as an automotive-industry project engineer, a public speaker, an actor, a voice actor, and, formerly, a local-newspaper feature writer. The father of three adult children, he is a lifelong resident of Michigan, where he currently resides with his wife.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Ruby on February 11, 2021

A charming essay (as is usually the case with Emerson -- I much prefer his essays to his poetry actually). This essay is split into eight sections, and each of which provides a new way of looking at nature. Emerson illustrates his points with natural images, and his sentence structure is lyrical whi......more

Goodreads review by Whitney on September 10, 2018

i would like to meet one (1) person who understands any of this. there’s some good one liners that i agree with, but most of this book just sounded like a crackhead conspiracy theorist standing on a street corner and yelling WE ARE ALL A TRANSLUCENT EYE THAT CONNECTS US TO THE SPIRIT OF THE UNIVERSE......more

Goodreads review by Sarah on April 27, 2018

Emerson was an ADD/ADHD nightmare in his writing style. I found myself having to reread sentences/paragraphs a lot. This was read directly after reading Thoreau’s Walden so perhaps I am not being fair to him. Thoreau’s direct and clear writing contrasted Emerson’s and I felt I needed Emerson to defi......more

Goodreads review by Simo on September 08, 2017

This is my first Emerson and it was great. The basic idea is that unlike modern dualistic view of the universe, for Emerson matter and spirit are one, so admiring nature is like admiring Jesus Christ, they both give a spiritual feeling. Emerson loves nature and he expresses this love in such a beauti......more

Goodreads review by carl on May 23, 2017

Fascinating! This essay by Emerson takes up about 56 of this little book's pages, and I feel like I could write about 100 pages on it. Written in 1836, it's interesting that Emerson starts off with how the current generation never got to face nature at its most pure, that was a task their forefather......more