The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories

By Washington Irving and Elizabeth L. Bradley

With his beloved Gothic tales, Washington Irving is said to have created the genre of the short story in America. Though Irving crafted many of the most memorable characters in fiction, from Rip Van Winkle to Ichabod Crane, his gifts were not confined to the short story alone. He was also a master of satire, essay, travelogue, and folktale, as evidenced in this classic collection.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, "Every reader has a first book.... which, in early youth, first fascinates his imagination, and at once excites and satisfies the desires of his mind. To me, this first book was The Sketch Book of Washington Irving... The charm of The Sketch Book remains unbroken; the old fascination still lingers about it."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Sep 30, 2014
• ISBN: 9780698181595

Washington Irving

Nueva York, 1783 - Sunnyside, 1859. Escritor norteamericano perteneciente al mundo literario del costumbrismo. Washington Irving es el primer autor americano que utiliza la literatura para hacer reír y caricaturizar la realidad, creando además el estilo coloquial que después utilizarían Mark Twain y Hemingway.

Reviews for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories

[arelenriel · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved the tales of Washington Irving as a chld. I had no idea that he was also a funny and witty essayist as well.

[thetwods · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While most readers will be familiar with "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", the various less known works collected here are fascinating in the portraits they produce of life in England (Irving's residence at the time of writing and publication). In particular, the Christmas sketches clearly influenced Dickens's own Christmas tales. One of my favorites, which should also be of interest to other members of LibraryThing, is "The Mutability of Literature" in which Mr. Irving visits the library at Westminster Abbey, is dismayed the books seem to be solely collected but not read and is then startled when he takes on old tome off the shelf, opens it, and it coughs and begins talking to him. The book seems unwilling to believe that it is no longer popular, as it was well-liked in its time (hundreds of years ago). It's a very interesting way of making the point that tastes in literature change as the years, and centuries, go by. All in all, there are very few sketches that disappointed me, most provided at least some entertainment or interesting ideas, which, according to the appendixes Irving added to his editions, was his intent.

[figre · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a surprisingly eclectic collection of short stories, essays, images, and general writings. As such, it is hard to get a handle on any flow to the collection. However, this is exactly the collection Irving put together in the 1840’s (in exactly the order with exactly the content that he intended so, if I don’t like his approach to the collection, I guess it’s a little late to file a complaint.) All that being said, it is an excellent selection of Irving’s writings.If for nothing else, pick this collection up to read the original “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. These have been retold and re-imagined so many times it is nice to go back to the basic simplicity of the originals. But your time will not be wasted reading the remainder of the selections. At times Irving is maudlin (more a sign of the times than a comment on his skills) and at other times the scenes are snippets that have no staying power. But at all times, it is apparent why Irving was so popular, just as it is apparent how skilled a writer he was. The prose can turn a little purple, but the overall effect is still good. (A quick aside: One strange thing [to me]; Irving is considered the quintessential American writer, yet many of these pieces [very many of these pieces] are about England.)The collection is classic partly because it is from a classic writer (somewhat self-fulfilling, that.) But it becomes quickly evident why Irving is held with such high esteem.

[schmerguls · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book contains 18 short stories or essays. The first two stories are the title story and Rip Van Winkle, which I read in grade school and remembered well. But I had no book by Irving in my list of books read since I only put in that list books which I read cover-to-cover, and I read those two stories in a school reader. So I read all of this book so I would have something by Irving in my list. Most of the stories or essays are not too bad, and some are quite good. All are written verys starchily, with no hint of dialect or the like. Rip Van Winkle is obviously the best of the bunch, but there is other good stuff in the book, including a thoughtful account of a buffalo hunt in which the hunter has remorse for killing the buffalo he shot--something which far too many buffalo hunters did not have the good sence to feel.

[ak_doug · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a great collection of stories. Washington Irving paints a vivid picture with his words, every story is a window into a time and place.