Washington Irving Classics: The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon With The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, & Tales of a Traveller

by Geoffrey Crayon (Pseudonym)

This edition binds together The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon including The Legend of Sleepy Hollow with Tales of a Traveller, which was also published under Washington's Geoffrey Crayon pseudonym.

Apart from "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" — the pieces which made both Irving and The Sketch Book famous — other tales include "Roscoe", "The Broken Heart", "The Art of Book-making", "A Royal Poet", "The Spectre Bridegroom", "Westminster Abbey", "Little Britain", and "John Bull", His stories were highly influenced by German folktales,[1] with "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" being inspired by a folktale recorded by Karl Musäus. Tales of a Traveller was written while Washington lived in Europe.

Genres: Classics

618 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1936

About the author

Geoffrey Crayon is a pseudonym of Washington Irving.

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sketch-book has a lot more in it than Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle (entertaining though they are), and deserves to be read more widely than it is.

A highlight for me are the essays about Christmas, which describe a celebration of the holiday on an English estate which tries to keep alive the "old traditions."

Irving was in full myth-making mode here, so the reader should never assume there's any actual reporting going on, but the pieces are entertaining and are a nice complement to Dickens and other nineteenth-century writers about the holiday. If the style is slightly stuffy, that only fits the material, and I suspect fans of period dramas will find a lot to like in them.

(And if you do like them, be sure to give some of the other stories in the sketch-book a try.)

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE SKETCH BOOK OF GEOFFREY CRAYON, GENTLEMAN:
The Author's Account of Himself- 5 Stars
The Voyage -5 Stars
Roscoe - 4 Stars
The Wife - 4 Stars
Rip Van Winkle - 5 Stars
English Writers on America - 3.25 Stars
Rural Life in England - 3.25 Stars
The Broken Heart - 3 Stars
The Art of Book Making - 2.5 Stars
A Royal Poet - 5 Stars
The Country Church - 4 Stars
The Widow and Her Son - 3 Stars
A Sunday in London - 3.5 Stars
The Boar's Head Tavern, East Cheap - 4 Stars
The Mutability of Literature - 3.5 Stars
Rural Funerals - 4 Stars
The Inn Kitchen - 3 Stars
The Spectre Bridegroom - 4 Stars
Westminster Abbey - 5 Stars
Christmas - 3 Stars
The Stage Coach - 4 Stars
Christmas Eve - 4.5 Stars
Christmas Day - 3.5 Stars
The Christmas Dinner - 5 Stars
London Antiques - 4 Stars
Little Britain - 3.5 Stars
Stratford-On-Avon - 5 Stars
Traits of Indian Character - 5 Stars
Philip of Pokanoket - 5 Stars
John Bull 3.5 Stars
The Pride of the Village - 3 Stars
The Angler - 4.5 Stars
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - 5 Stars
L'Envoy - Irving's closing thoughts on the second volume of the London edition - 3.5 Stars

TALES OF A TRAVELLER
PART I STRANGE STORIES BY A NERVOUS GENTLEMAN:
The Great Unknown - 3.5 Stars
The Hunting-Dinner - 4 Stars
The Adventure of my Uncle - 5 Stars
The Adventure of my Aunt - 3.5 Stars
The Bold Dragoon, or the Adventure of my Grandfather - 4 Stars
The Adventure of the German Student - 5 Stars
The Adventure of the Mysterious Picture - 4 Stars
The Adventure of the Mysterious Stranger - 4.5 Stars
The Story of the Young Italian = 5 Stars

PART II BUCKTHORNE AND HIS FRIENDS:
Literary Life - 3 Stars
A Literary Dinner - 3.25 Stars
The Club of Queer Fellows - 3.5 Stars
The Poor-Devil Author - 4.5 Stars
Notoriety - 3 Stars
A Practical Philosopher - 3.25 Stars
Buckthorne, or the Young Man of Expectations - 5 Stars
Grave Reflections of a Disappointed Man - 4 Stars
The Booby Squire - 4 Stars
The Strolling Manager - 4.5 Stars

PART III. THE ITALIAN BANDITTI:
The Inn at Terracina - 4 Stars
The Adventure of the Little Antiquary - 3.5 Stars
The Belated Travellers - 4 Stars
The Adventure of the Popkins Family - 3.5 Stars
The Painter's Adventure - 4 Stars
The Story of the Bandit Chieftain - 4.5 Stars
The Story of the Young Robber - 5 Stars
The Adventure of the Englishman - 5 Stars

PART IV THE MONEY-DIGGERS:
Hell-Gate - 3.25 Stars
Kidd the Pirate - 3.5 Stars
The Devil and Tom Walker - 5 Stars
Wolfert Webber, or Golden Dreams - 4 Stars
The Adventure of the Black Fisherman - 5 Stars

[Rob Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

We all know, or think we know, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. Both tales are in the Sketchbook, but there is so much more. First of all, if you haven’t read the two stories listed above, it would behoove you to do so. There is more in them then the TV renditions you’ve seen. What fascinated me even more was some of his descriptive essays, especially the one covering a walk through Westminster Abby. The book is a delight, each essay and story being quite different, but well targeted.

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The bicentennial of Tales of a Traveller (1824) by Washington Irving is worthy of celebration. Irving was a pioneer fiction writer, biographer, and observer of the early republic. He was also a pioneer of the U. S. folk horror literary category. Tales of a Traveller is itself a treasure trove of folk legends, strange tales, droll comedy, and night action.