Profitably Soaked: Thoreau's Engagement with Water

A century of academic scholarship has left us with an incredibly dull and dry image of Thoreau as the moping detached intellectual or the reflective nature mystic. In this collection of quotations compiled from all of Thoreau’s works and arranged under the headings Adventure, Joy, Contact, and Contemplation, editor Robert France counters this prevalent view through nothing less than resurrecting Thoreaubringing him back to the life that he so fully lived. This work clearly demonstrates that Thoreau was very much the thirsting sensualist, using his body at every opportunity as the way in which to engage the world. And it was water, above all else, that served as the means for Thoreau’s deepest immersion into nature.