Synopses & Reviews
Before the fall premiere of the new television series, read the original legend of Ichabod Crane, the Headless Horseman, and the singularly spooky town of Sleepy Hollow in Washington Irving's classic book
When Washington Irving first published this collection of essays, sketches, and talesoriginally entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.readers greeted it with enthusiasm, and Irving emerged as America's first successful professional author.
This volume includes "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle," two of America's most recognizable and loved works of fiction and displays Irving's ability to depict American landscapes and culture so vividly that readers feel themselves a part of them. And it is on the basis of these two classic tales that Irving is generally credited with inventing the short story as a distinct literary genre. Also included here are gently ironic pieces about life in England that reflect the author's interest in the traditions of the Old World and his longings for his home in the New.
Synopsis
In Irving's great work, The Sketch Book, fictional historian Diedrich Knickerbocker introduces us to Rip van Winkle, the Dutch colonist who slept through the Revolutionary War; Ichabod Crane, the superstitious, social-climbing schoolmaster; and the pumpkin-topped Headless Horseman, ancestor to countless horror film antiheroes. In addition to 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' and 'Rip Van Winkle', The Sketch Book touches on cultural and historical concerns that remain compelling, thanks to Irving's modern outlook and impressive foresight.
This new edition, with an introduction from Elizabeth L. Bradley, demonstrates how inextricably Irving's writings are woven into the fabric of American culture - high and low.
Synopsis
The timeless collection that introduced Rip Van Winkle, Ichabod Crane, and the Headless Horseman Perhaps the marker of a true mythos is when the stories themselves overshadow their creator. Originally published under a pseudonym as The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories gave America its own haunted mythology. This collection of larger-than-life tales contains Washington Irvings best-known literary inventionsIchabod Crane, the Headless Horseman, and Rip Van Winklethat continue to capture our imaginations today.
About the Author
Washington Irving (17831859) is generally credited with being the father of the American short story and was the first American writer to achieve international renown.
Elizabeth L. Bradley, the author of Knickerbocker: The Myth Behind New York, serves as literary consultant to Historic Hudson Valley, the caretakers of Sunnyside
Irvings Tarrytown, New York, home. She also wrote the introduction and notes for the Penguin Classics edition of Irvings A History of New York.
Table of Contents
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories Introduction
A Note on the Text
Preface to the Revised Edition (1848)
The Author's Account of Himself
The Voyage
Roscoe
The Wife
Rip Van Winkle
English Writers on America
Rural Life in England
The Broken Heart
The Art of Book Making
A Royal Poet
The Country Church
The Widow and Her Son
A Sunday in London
The Boar's Head Tavern, East Cheap
The Mutability of Literature
Rural Funerals
The Inn Kitchen
The Spectre Bridegroom
Westminster Abbey
Christmas
The Stage Coach
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day
The Christmas Dinner
London Antiques
Little Britain
Stratford-on-Avon
Traits of Indian Character
Philip of Pokanoket
John Bull
The Pride of the Village
The Angler
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
L'Envoy
Appendix A: "Prospectus" to the First American Edition
Appendix B: "Advertisement" to the First British Edition
Notes
Suggestions for Further Reading