Thoreau's fable of inscribing / Frederick Garber.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Garber, Frederick, author.

Series:

Princeton Legacy Library

Princeton legacy library

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862--Criticism and interpretation.

Thoreau, Henry David.

Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862. Week on the Concord and Merrimack rivers.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (240 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [1991]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Early in Thoreau's career, he became obsessed with the problem of getting to be at home in the world. This ambitious book relates that obsession to his way of fostering at-homeness: "inscribing" himself not only through words but through such occupations as the making of books, houses, and tracks in the woods. Frederick Garber reveals that a complex fable endemic in Thoreau and perceptible from his earliest major writings puts inscribing and the quest for at-homeness in terms of a search for a home of homes, a quest that Thoreau realized must be ultimately unsuccessful. Focusing on Thoreau's major works, particularly on A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Garber explores the rich intertextual dialogue arising from this fable and Thoreau's concerns about at-homeness and inscribing. Garber discloses Thoreau's conviction that human lives are radically open-ended, at least in terms of what we can know in the present. All our modes of inscribing are inadequate, even though we can glimpse the possibility of ultimate words and sentences saying all that ever needed to be said.Originally published in 1991.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABBREVIATIONS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE. Words, Institutions, Hierarchies

CHAPTER TWO. Writing, Subtext, Scene

CHAPTER THREE. Inscribing

CHAPTER FOUR. Autographical Acts

CHAPTER FIVE. A Space for Saddleback

CHAPTER SIX. Writing Home

CHAPTER SEVEN. A Sense of Hierarchy

CHAPTER EIGHT. Origins and Ends

NOTES

INDEX

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [211]-222) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-4008-6168-3

OCLC:

1013960994