Henry David Thoreau's story of his years spent in a small cabin in the Massachusetts forests has had an international impact out of all proportion to its apparently simple bucolic subject. But in Walden, Thoreau uses his life in the woods to produce both a social critique of Western Culture, and to examine many fundamental questions of human existence. The book is part voyage of self-discovery, part alternative manifesto for a better world, and comes to a series of conclusions on simplicity, contemplation and self-sufficiency that are surprisingly modern in their outlook, arguing that very little of our modern 'needs ' are necessary to achieve a happy and harmonious existence.