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Too lazy to check out Sparknotes? (TM) See very brief abstracts below . . .
  Walden; or, Life in the Woods Walden
IMPORTANT THOREAU MISCONCEPTION: He did NOT live, as Microsoft Encarta and other sources say, in a “primitive hut” on the shores of Walden pond. He lived his hand-made cabin there, and the cabin is described in detail in Walden, if historians cared to read what they were writing about. *ahem* Now that that’s settled, an abstract of Walden would read briefly as follows:
1) the life of quiet desperation which most men lead.
2) the economic fallacy responsible for the situation in which they find themselves
3) what the life close to nature is and what rewards it offers
4) the “higher laws”
As a whole, his Walden experiment investigated whether one can be happy by living simply and whether simplicity is underrated. By building a cabin outside of Concord, Massachusetts, on the shore of Walden pond and living there exclusively by the labor of his hands (alright, and a few meals from family and friends), Thoreau plunged into solitude, simplicity, and meditation. The volume Walden is a publication of these findings.
Critics have claimed that Walden is an entirely bogus episode because of what they foresee happening if everyone abandoned their responsibilities in society and selected a marsh to inhabit. The rebuttal is much more well-founded: Thoreau himself said, “[Walden] as a whole is not . . . a treatise or an exhortation but . . . merely the personal account of an adventure not recommended to others.” Additionally, it has been said that if we all lived like Thoreau, we would return to barbarism. By obeying our loftiest instincts, there would indeed be less splendor in our houses, less luxury and richness, etc., but how does this compare to the grandeur and beauty that would appear in the souls of men? (see Bibliography, “Recognition of . . .”) He’s also been called selfish. His response is under the heading of “Philanthropy” in Walden. There, he provides defenses against this charge, for those who can appreciate it.

  Civil Disobedience This essay is among most widely used in support of acts against institutions. Written in response to the Mexican War, among other things, Thoreau wrote to inform his fellow citizens of exactly what the title implies: The Duty of Civil Disobedience. In protest of the government’s support of slavery and war, Thoreau refused to pay his poll tax and was jailed overnight, until a relative paid in his stead. This pamphlet details that escapade and Thoreau’s thoughts about the role of men in organizations. Also, it is therein that one of his most famous quotations “The masses of men lead lives of quiet desperation,” is found. His ideas have found their way into the minds and pens of Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, and Tolstoy. His impact cannot be overestimated, and his thoughts have been resurrected for events like the British labor movement and resistance to Hitler. In the US alone, Emma Goldman, Upton Sinclair, and Norman Thomas were all arrested for reading from “Civil Disobedience” on the public platform. As disciples developed in categories: nature lovers, solitaires and political proteges, Senator Joseph McCarthy had Civil Disobedience removed from US Libraries, an act Thoreau would have considered an honor. It is in this essay Thoreau achieves a peak of brevity, clarity, and poignant remarks, applicable to innumerable situations.

Journal:
From the fall of 1837 to the year of his death (1862), Thoreau made regular entries in a journal. Tradition has it that it was Emerson who suggested the task to him, but whomever the source, the journal would occupy about two million words, more than seven thousand printed pages, before its termination. “To read [his journal] is to receive a very rich and detailed account of his private life; but it is also to remain almost completely unenlightened concerning the personality . . . of which his fellow citizens took note,” wrote biographer, Krutch. Therein, he recorded page after page of speculation and observation, many entries becoming rudimentary drafts of later pieces. However, unlike contemporary conceptions of journals, Thoreau’s bore little to no account of his personal life and activities. One would have difficulty placing any given page in any sort of time frame, were it not for his meticulous attention to season and nature. In fact, because much of his journal was sorted (and/or edited) before his death, there is no telling exactly what sort of progression the many volumes followed. Still, his journal is his uninhibited self at its best, seemingly approaching gut reaction as much as possible. His journal is also where he addresses his own writing, making comments like the one below: “My faults are: Paradoxes, saying just the opposite, a style which may be imitated. Ingenious. Playing with words, getting the laugh, not always simple, strong, and broad. Using current phrases and maxims, when I should speak for myself. Not always earnest. “In short,” “in fact,” “alas!” etc. Want of conciseness.” (Journal, volume 7, pg. 7-8)
 

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers:A Week is a memorial to Henry’s brother, John. He invokes John as his literary muse in the first epigraph and covers topics that were also dear to John. It is a somewhat rambling volume showing Thoreau’s unique voice in its earliest, undeveloped form. He begins with accounts (in detail) of the events of his journey and proceeds to incorporate philosophy, all branches of metaphysics, and even narrative poetry. In each chapter, it is evident that some effort has been made to relate subject to weekday, but Thoreau wastes no energy holding himself there. Chief points of interest for this work lie in the cyclic and overall patterns, showing the author’s ability to juggle immediate with eternal and induction with overriding literary form. It was for this, his first book, that Thoreau was called an overappreciated eccentric, in love with himself, disagreeable, and bellicose in nature. An unbiased reader will find, though, that Thoreau’s contradictions and apparent satisfaction with himself and his status are merely elements of his philosophy, not attempts to lord his greatness over the masses of desperate woodchucks.
 
   
 

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