Community Corner

Is This the Best Book Set in Massachusetts?

The website chose “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau as its choice for best book set in Massachusetts. Thoreau’s book first published in 1854 is a tale of self-sufficiency and living with nature.  

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion,” Thoreau said.

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Thoreau's book beat out other classics, such as “Little Women,” “The Crucible,” “Ethan Frome,” "The Bell Jar," “The House of Seven Gables” and “The Scarlet Letter” as well as books by more recent authors like Dennis Lehane and Robert Parker.

Do you agree with the choice of “Walden” as the best book set in Massachusetts? What’s your choice?

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