Works of Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Vol. 1 Book

This book is based on three trips that Thoreau took to Cape Cod in Oct 1849, June 1850 and July 1855. The second trip he took alone, the first and third with one companion. He spent totally three weeks in Cape Cod. He traveled the length of the peninsula along both the bay side and the Atlantic, across the peninsula and ended in Provincetown.

The book was first published in 1865, compiled from essays in magazines.

There are lines of lyrical beauty to be found within the text. However, for the most part, the prose is dry, albeit informative. Numbers specifying the quantity of a given bird, fish or plant species, the exact length of a vessel or the exact distances between places and objects, often measured in rods, is rather tedious. Scientific details about flora and fauna, historical information about the Cape's inhabitants, in the middle 1800s and in the past, as well as information concerning the Cape's discovery are the topics covered. The writing does come alive occasionally when speaking of particular individuals whose acquaintance he enjoyed. A lighthouse keeper is one example.

I came to the conclusion that Thoreau was out of his domain here on the windblown, stormy and often bare of vegetation landscape of the Cape. He doesn't belong here. He is out of his element. This is reflected in how he speaks of what he sees and the people he meets. You sense disdain. He speaks knowledgeably, but not about something he loves. He praises what he finds pretty, but more often he criticizes. He is a mainland New Englander at his root, and one senses this.

The numerous lines of Latin are seldom translated.

Patrick Cullen narrates the audiobook. The untranslated lines of French were deplorable. Otherwise he is simple to follow and speaks slowly and clearly. I have given his narration three stars. It is good.

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*The Adventures of Henry Thoreau: A Young Man's Unlikely Path to Walden Pond 4 stars by Michael Sims
*Cape Cod 2 stars by Henry David Thoreau
*Henry David Thoreau: A Life by Laura Dassow Walls TBR
*Solid Seasons: The Friendship of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson TBR by Jeffrey S. Cramer