Besides 5 of the 6 essays and a lecture included in the most widely read Self-Reliance and Other Essays, the volume also contains several more lectures and 7 additional essays ... but my favorites still remain in the former compilation.

I read this book many years ago when barely a teenager. Recently I noticed it on my mother's bookshelf and decided to refresh my memory by reading it again. I was surprised to realize these essays probably helped to shape my thinking and beliefs. That is not a bad thing.

One of the great tragedies of my grad school experience was that I read so many excellent books so quickly that I can't remember much of them except that they were good. Someone with my handwriting has written thoughtful comments all over the margins of this book, but I couldn't tell you the first thing about Emerson except perhaps that beauty and nature are good, and one should be true to oneself. Did I get that right, Mr. Emerson?

'Self Reliance', 'Divinity School Address', and 'The Over-Soul'.I can't say Emerson's essays endear him to me at all. His system of thought is hopelessly naïf, and his aphoristic style is a double edged sword (in a way) – it makes for elegant, declamatory prose, but it also leads to misinterpretation of the sort that Captain Ahab uses to justify a monomaniacal pursuit. And more relevant to our modern times, people justify their egomania with out-of-context pithy little statements.

Ok, here's the deal because I know I am in the minority. This is just a really tough book to understand. I tried really hard to follow it, but found myself getting lost often. Emerson is a great writer, and when I was in highschool I did read some of his selections, but reading over 300 pages was pretty greulling. There were some quotes that I really liked and connected with, but overall its not something that I enjoyed.One other negative was that the book I read was supposed to have interpretat...

Emerson's more popular essays are rather astounding. I think he is one of those writers whose popular work really is his goodwork--the less popular stuff comes off as didactic and repetitive. My favorites: "John Brown," "Self-Relaince," "American Scholar," and "The Poet." "The Poet" in particular is interesting in how Emerson equates the figure of the poet to "beauty" and "naming" and also speaks of the poet as having "godlike" qualities. But, Emerson quotes his own poetry three times in this es...

If you find yourself living among cornfields and early fall snow during a mounting pandemic and potential civil war, these essays provide perspective.

Good stuff.

Reading Emerson with my Unitarian book group is interesting. For them, he's not just an entry in the American literary canon; he might just hold the answers to some of life's questions. It's an unusual approach for me, but refreshing. Reminds me of my freshman year of college, when I read Plato and Dante and Machiavelli not to analyze and criticize, but for their potential truth value.In the end, though, I remain deeply suspicious of the early Emerson, and particularly his belief in a universal

The sheer richness of Emerson's thought is often underrated. It is intensely referential; when I uncheerfully skimmed my way through "Self-Reliance" in ninth grade, I laughed at the apparently blatantly amoral, relativistic platitudes and the needlessly dense style. Since then, having studied (at a very introductory level) Plato, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Schleiermacher, Western medieval and Eastern dharmic mysticism, I now greatly admire the depth of tradition from which Emerson draws in craft...

Compared to Montaigne Emerson fails. Possibly becausae they are lectures. His language has a tendency to be vapid, full of rhodomontade and rhetorical flourishes which don't necessarily mean a lot. His 'philosophy' is all too often just silly. He talks vaguely of 'poetry' for instance, but this seems to mean little more than 'high' feelings when you, say, see a sunset. He obsesses over special men (yes it is always men) and special races. I agree that this reflects his time but he never rises ab...

Just lovely.

This is my rubber band book. The bands need changing over time. They harden and crack open. I find them pinged across the room. In their death throws, they try to grab a chair leg or other point of terra firma. And fail. They fall. I find them. Toss them and find another. The latest is the color of those centers in Oreos you lick as a child. It's new and looks fresh as cream. But, it will go the same the way as the others. Rubber bands have extinction built into them. Motorcycle helmets, too, if...

one of the best books you will ever read.

It's fitting that I'm writing this review on February 14th, because I am in love with these essays (sorry, Maggie). I've often wondered why essayists don't seem to take on the big themes of life head on. You might get an essay about a visit to a childhood lake or an essay on why eating animals is wrong or an essay on a particular relationship, but I've rarely found in modern writing essays on Love or Self-Reliance (except for that one by Joan Didion which I love to death). The reason, it seems,

Every true man or woman requires infinite spaces and numbers and time fully to accomplish their design.

As a pessimistic Christian and a socialist I wasn't sure how i'd get along with a philosophy rooted in the innate goodness of man and nature and one associated with rugged individualism at that. That said, even if I had strongly objected to Emerson's ideas I would have never the less loved his writing. He seems like he's experiencing an epiphany every sentence. These essays are stimulating to the point of tiring and deserve to be read over and over.Given that Emerson was an American icon who str...

e-book/project gutenberg: text is from the 1907edition by Charles E. Merrill Co, New York, ed. by Edna H.L. Turpin. It's a textbook with 275 pages and includes a variety of essays and some biographical/historical context and information:- Life of Emerson- Critical opinions- Chronological list of principal works- "The American Scholar"- "Compensation"- "Self Reliance"- "Friendship"- "Heroism"- "Manners"- "Gifts"- "Nature"- "Shakespeare: or the Poet"- "Prudence"- "Circles"I enjoyed this a lot, muc...

I know this is a classic…but goodness, graciousthis was a disappointment.Written in another age…for a different reading public…the book is hard to digest in 21st C.I did learn: Does a Transcendentalist believe in God?They believe in the idea of a personal knowledge of God, …. no intermediary (church) was needed for spiritual insight.So I guess my time was not completely wasted….Not conforming with the general opinion of this book…(…Emerson would be so proud of me…)and giving this book 2 stars.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the fathers of the American spirit, not crafting its bill of rights or structure of government, but in defining individuality, pragmatism and spirituality for a new country built on people escaping the old. The seminal essay, "On Self-Reliance," is worth the price of this book alone, as it echoes everything our mothers told us as kids - but the rub is, this is where they got it. It is not the hardest-edged philosophy, Hell, anyone can read this and make sense of it...