Rip Van Winkle and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Tales

by Washington Irving

legend of Rip Van Winkle

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1967

About the author

People remember American writer Washington Irving for the stories " Rip Van Winkle " and " The Legend of Sleepy Hollow ," contained in The Sketch Book (1820).

This author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century wrote newspaper articles under the pseudonym Jonathan Oldstyle to begin his literary career at the age of nineteen years.

In 1809, he published The History of New York under his most popular public persona, Diedrich Knickerbocker.

Historical works of Irving include a five volume biography of George Washington (after whom he was named) as well as biographies of Oliver Goldsmith, Muhammad, and several histories, dealing with subjects, such as Christopher Columbus, the Moors, and the Alhambra, of 15th-century Spain. John Tyler, president, appointed Irving to serve as the first Spanish speaking United States minister to Spain from 1842 to 1846.

Reviews

[Christie Pardee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not reading the final story is self care.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories by Washington Irving are delightful. They capture the time and place and life as it was in his time. I read them in my youth and found them to be different now. They are not, but how I learned from them today is interesting. I found them more humorous than I remember. I also found underlying subtext that revealed some of his thoughts about the people of the times. My wife and I visited his home in Tarrytown this past October. He never married. He was going to marry and was very smitten with a 17 yer old girl. She died very young. Reading his stories I wondered if the his lost love of his life carried over to his stories.

[Delanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The stories in this book were lovely however there is a lot of racism in it as well as a general hate of women/wives. There are 3 uses of the n word, a characterization of all Muslims as extremely greedy, as well as saying that different races are made for different things, some for servitude. That last statement is such an awful hateful thing to say and its said so causally. Lastly, the beginning of the book warned that the author is obsessed with Dutch things and people. They weren't wrong.

[Eliza Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found these delightfully funny. I could imagine a family sitting around a fire sharing these stories outloud over bowls of popcorn 🥰