The sketch book, with sketch of the author's life, and compositional, critical and explanatory notes / 1892

by Washington Irving, G.A. Chase (Contributor)

The sketch book by Washington Irving with sketch of the author's life, and compositional, critical and explanatory notes / by G.A. Chase 1892 [Leather Bound]

Leather Binding on Spine and Corners with Golden Leaf Printing on round Spine (extra customization on request like complete leather, Golden Screen printing in Front, Color Leather, Colored book etc.) Reprinted in 2019 with the help of original edition published long back [1892]. This book is printed in black & white, sewing binding for longer life, Printed on high quality Paper, re-sized as per Current standards, professionally processed without changing its contents. As these are old books, we processed each page manually and make them readable but in some cases some pages which are blur or missing or black spots. If it is multi volume set, then it is only single volume, if you wish to order a specific or all the volumes you may contact us. We expect that you will understand our compulsion in these books. We found this book important for the readers who want to know more about our old treasure so we brought it back to the shelves. Hope you will like it and give your comments and suggestions. - eng, Pages 426.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Short Stories, Literature, Horror, Fantasy, American

426 pages, Leather Bound

First published June 23, 1819

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

[Roy Lotz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prose writers are voluminous and unwieldy; their pages crowded with commonplaces, and their thoughts expanded into tediousness.

I am a child of Sleepy Hollow, New York, and I have lived in Irving’s shadow almost as long as I can remember.

Every Halloween, this town is inundated with tourists, who come to wander around the lovely old cemetery where the legend is set, and where Irving himself is buried. Behind my house is where they put on the “haunted hayride.” I went every year as a kid. A pickup truck drags groups of twenty in a trailer through a stretch of forest, where volunteers dressed in masks jumped out and scare the kids half to death. And of course no hayride was complete without the headless horseman himself, riding out of the shadows on a black horse with a jack-o’-lantern on his knee.

The town nextdoor is called ‘Irvington’ in Washington Irving’s honor, and it is there that his old house, Sunnyside, is situated. The house is a delightful little dwelling, a small jumble of architectural styles—gothic, Dutch, Spanish—overlooking the Hudson River. Irving was an amateur architect and landscaper, very much of the Romantic school, and re-made the old farm he bought into a charming park, with a little pond, a babbling brook, and paths that wind through the forest nearby. On the property is a sycamore tree that has been growing since 1776, seven years before Irving himself was born.

When Irving bought the property, he had unimpeded access to the river; but that changed when, ten years later, the Hudson Line railroad was built at the river’s edge. Nowadays, trains rattle by every ten minutes or so. All the old train cars have names printed on their sides; and as I sat there on a recent visit, I saw that one of the cars on the passing Amtrak was named “Washington Irving.” He is simply everywhere. There is a statue of Rip Van Winkle outside the Irvington Town Hall Theater. On the walk back to my house I passed by the Washington Irving Middle School, which I attended, the Tarrytown High School, where our football team is the Horsemen, and the Christ Episcopal Church, where Irving himself worshiped, and where his pew is still preserved.*

Outside Philipsburg Manor—an old colonial farm that now serves as a historical site—is an ugly metal sculpture of the Headless Horseman. Right next to it is where the old bridge stood where Ichabod Crane met his fate. There is not much to see now, just a modern concrete construction. But if you keep walking into the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery you can see the Old Dutch Church, and, a little farther on, you will come across the man’s tombstone. Like his house, his grave is neither ostentatious nor grandiose, just a simple stone that lays in a family plot.

The man’s influence is inescapable. It was Washington Irving who originated the nickname ‘Knickerbockers’ (after an imaginary Dutch historian he used as a nom de plume) for the denizens of New York. The New York Knicks owe their name to Irving, and the word ‘knickers’ also derives, through devious channels, to this writer. It was Irving who popularized the myth that Christopher Columbus disproved that the earth was flat, which Irving included in a biography of Columbus he wrote while living in Spain. It was Irving, too, who originated the nickname ‘Gotham’ for New York City.

We even owe our holiday celebrations to Irving, since it was he, along with Charles Dickens, who helped to make Christmas into the secular holiday of gift-giving and merry-making that it is today. Irving played a hand in the creation of Santa Claus, too, with a story about St. Nicholas in his first book. With his love of ghost stories, Irving is also one of the architects of Halloween—and thousands still make the pilgrimage to visit his tombstone in that ghoulish time of the year. I cannot even escape his influence in Spain, since it was Irving who helped to spread the exotic, enchanted image of Andalusia, and who thus helped make Spain a tourist destination; and it was partly thanks to his book of stories about the Alhambra that people began taking an interest in restoring that old ruin.

Washington Irving was named after George Washington, and was born just a few weeks before the Revolutionary War was officially concluded. He was a new man for a new land. An often-told story—difficult to verify—has it that he was taken by his maid to visit George Washington when he was just six years old; there’s a watercolor drawing, still hanging in Irving’s hold house, of the old general patting the young boy on the head. Whether it happened or not, the story seems symbolic of the role that Irving would play in American literature—exactly analogous to George Washington in politics—as a pioneering leader. For it was Washington Irving who was the first American writer to be respected by his English peers. He showed that these unruly savages overseas could aspire to eloquence too.

This book is often marketed as The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories; but its original title is The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., and was published under that pseudonym rather than Irving’s own name. The book, often merely called The Sketchbook, is a sort of parody of the sketchbooks that other wealthy American travelers made on their visits to Europe. It is framed as a travel book, and contains many vignettes about places Irving visited. But Irving does not stick to this theme very diligently. The book also contains some short pieces about Native Americans; and the two most famous stories, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle," are both set in New York, and purport to be found among the old papers of Diedrich Knickerbocker.

Although the collection is miscellaneous, Irving was not a writer of great breadth, and his distinctive style is consistent throughout. Thematically, Irving was a purebred Romantic. He has a taste for quaint customs, forgotten ruins, exotic places, and old yarns—in short, everything antique, out-of-the-way, and foreign, everything that allows his imagination to run wild with conjecture. These preoccupations lead him to investigate old English Christmas customs in the country, and to rail against their disappearance. It also leads him to treat the Native Americans as noble savages, the pure emblems of a disappearing culture, as well as to focus his eye on the old Dutch lore lingering about his native New York.

In truth there is not much substance to his writing. The closest he ever gets to philosophy is the Romantic, Ozymandian sentiment that all things yield to time. Rather, Irving is a stylist. His prose is fluent and easygoing—indeed, remarkably easy to read considering its age—so effortless that the prose practically reads itself. The subject-matter is usually a description of some kind—of what someone is wearing, of a farm or a tavern, of a funeral or a wedding—and he steers clear of all argument and dialogue, maintaining the fluid rhythm of his pen as it flies forward. When he is not describing a gothic ruin, an old curiosity, or a picturesque landscape, he is involved in some ghost story or traveler’s anecdote. Some of these, indeed many, involve love affairs between gallant soldiers and young women who possess “that mysterious but impassive charm of virgin purity in whose hallowed sphere no guilty thought can live”—it’s quite revolting.

But if Irving nowadays strikes one as lightweight and Romantic to the point of silliness, one should remember that he was a pioneer and an innovator—the first American man of letters, and one of the champions of Romanticism when that movement had hardly reached this country. And if he seems more style than substance, one should also remember that Irving wrote to amuse, not to instruct; and it is by that goal that he should be measured. Even now, Irving is a champion amuser; and even if he has some unfashionable tastes, he it still fresh and good-natured after all these years:

If, however, I can by any lucky chance, in these days of evil, rub out one wrinkle from the brow of care or beguile the heavy heart of one moment of sorrow; if I can now and then penetrate through the gathering film of misanthropy, prompt a benevolent view of human nature, and make my reader more in good-humor with his fellow-beings and himself—surely, surely, I shall not then have written entirely in vain.

Surely, surely, he has not.
________________________________
*I recently went to visit this church. As luck would have it, I was about to knock on the door just as the rector, Susan, was on her way out of the building. When I asked about Irving's pew, she very kindly gave me a quick tour. The old pew sits in a corner now, set aside to preserve it. The church also has Irving's bible and prayer book—tattered old things in a glass case—as well as a copy of the 1859 issue of Harper's Magazine that carried a front-page story about Irving's funeral. "So many people came in, they were worried the floorboards would break," Susan said.

[Brett C · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of 34 short stories and essays. They include the famous stories 'Rip Van Winkle' and 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'. This collection is officially known as "The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent." and comes from Washington Irving's pseudonym Geoffrey Crayon. The anthology starts with the author (Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. introducing himself) then proceeds to tell various stories. These works include lots of different themes ranging from historical, to social/societal, to humorous, to cultural, and the Headless Horseman.

'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' is a simple and effective story. It is a tale of Ichabod Crane, the superstitious schoolmaster of the small town. The local legend of the Headless Horseman is from a Hessian soldier who's head was taken off by a cannonball during the Revolutionary War. The story culminates and has remained an American folktale ever since. I have always enjoyed the spooky imagery found in this story.

I enjoyed the little stories and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow remains one of my top favorite stories of all time. I would recommend this to anyone who has enjoyed any of Washington Irving's works and wants to read his collection. Thanks!

[7jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow and the Rip Van Winkle story are probably the most known stories of Washington Irving (going under the name of Geoffrey Crayon here), but this book gives much more than that. Longfellow, Thackeray and Walter Scott were fans, and the author is considered to be the father of American short story. There is much variation here; he traveled and worked in many countries outside America, though this collection concentrates mostly on England, with some stories from the state of New York also (the Dutch immigrants seem to have much influence in them, still remaining in close history). Irving spent time in England 1819-1829, so we can see a point of history here, plus in time of late 18th century too (childhood memories, some history events).

Facts and the supernatural rub shoulders, nature feels close. At the end is an appendix of an article of more Sleepy Hollow memories, notes, and a reading group guide. The stories often start with a quote from literature elsewhere.

Most of the stories are from his travels in England: getting there on a ship, rural life, British Museum researchers, country churches and funerals, on the John Bull caricature, Sunday London, visiting Westminster Abbey (and its library), Christmastime in the country (no tree or presents mentioned - the tree didn't really catch on until after 1840), marveling at old buildings in London, and the Little Britain area in London (which of course got bombed a little during WWII)...

But also people like the Welsh angler, the poetic side of James I of Scotland, Shakespeare (Irving going to see certain places as a fan), and one portrait of Metacomet (here Philip of Pokanoket), a Native American chief who tried to rebel against the white immigrants coming and living on his land. Irving is very sympathetic towards him and other Native Americans, though not without flaw. The only time we meet black characters is in the Sleepy Hollow writings, and there some prejudices show up, though not too jarringly.

I have seen one Sleepy Hollow story, but the story here was also good. Ichabod Crane was such a strange character, thinking highly of himself and having a bottomless stomach (yet very skinny). I didn't feel truly sorry for him, though the somewhat open ending with two possible outcomes was interesting. I did love the pictures of nature and the Dutch food in the story, they were easy to imagine. Rip Van Winkle story was amusing and I felt the hero, though a little behind things afterwards, benefited from his strange time-jump during a sleep in the woods more than if he had just lived another ordinary lifespan.

And like in the Little Britain story, the French fashion crept in in the end, as the second writing about Sleep Hollow says. Industrial progress doesn't feature much (yet), though the state of London air is pretty bad. The power of the British Empire doesn't feel like it's at its fullest power yet... but from the stories the remembering of the recent past and the coming in of the new is often felt (though of course the new in the story will become the old in the future - time goes on).

It's great to get inside the author's head about how he saw things, and what his opinions about certain things in England (and once in Wales and in an Netherlands inn) were. I have loved his book about Alhambra in Spain, and this one was a fine book too. Perhaps I would have liked more stories in his own home country, but that's fine. This is one interesting collection of a view on England of a certain time, with glimpses of certain things and people in his own home state. Loved it.

[Eric Byrd]

"...writers will write, printers will print, and the world will inevitably be overstocked with good books. It will soon be the employment of a lifetime merely to learn their names. Many a man of passable information, at the present day, reads scarcely anything but Reviews; and before long a man of erudition will be little better than a mere walking catalogue."

[Poiema · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. Each chapter is self-contained, so it is a great book to keep at your bedside to pick up occasionally or when the mood strikes. Aptly named, because the author tackles a wide range of subjects---wherever his fancy takes him. Written in the elegant, descriptive English of an earlier era, this is not a book to breeze through quickly. Here is a man who has one foot in England and one in the New World and appears to hold both in affection. His unhurried ruminations as he travels via ocean liner, enjoys an old-world Christmas celebration, visits an ancient cemetery, peruses a dusty library, and cogitates on domesticity are self-contained gems. It had been quite a long while since I had read "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", the final installment in the book. What a pleasure to revisit it! Outstanding in its descriptive humor, it is a not-to-be-missed romp. Irving was one of America's first literary greats and he deserves the reputation. This book is worthy of a second look.

[Francesca Calarco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Growing up in the Hudson River Valley, it was impossible for Washington Irving to not play a role in my formative years. As a kid, I went on a 3rd grade field trip to Philipsburg Manor, the alleged site of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Needless to say, Halloween was pretty fun growing up; I felt special knowing I was so close to what I considered quintessential Hallows' Eve lore.

As an adult, I spent a summer season working as part of the curatorial staff for both the picturesque Washington Irving's Sunnyside (the author's estate) and the 18th century Dutch plantation Philipsburg Manor. Cleaning and carefully placing the historic objects of these old homes to craft visual narratives was a privilege; every workday felt like a journey into vibrant pasts I had romanticized as a child.

While I have read passages of Washington Irving's The Sketchbook throughout my life, this was my first time reading the entire book front to back. The short story collection includes iconic standouts like Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, both of which take place in the Hudson region. Being that Irving was one of the first American authors to gain international prominence, it (still) makes me happy that it was this part of New York that acted as such a prominent setting for his work.

Irving is also an objectively good author. His prose is thoughtful, and even tender at times. The man knows how to craft intricate imagery that breathes life into vivid scenes. Irving was also pretty funny, which puts his work apart from other American authors of the Romantic era. For instance, in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow after Ichabod Crane goes missing, Irving writes of his protagonist, "As he was a bachelor, and in nobody's debt, nobody troubled his head anymore about him" (317). Irving could be cute when he wanted.

The collection overall though, iconic stories aside, is more or less a thematic hodgepodge that largely exemplifies style over substance. This is especially true of his stories that take place in England, and most do. There is a reason they are not as popular as his New York ghost stories. The majority of these stories read like little slices of life or fictionalized historical snippets. Irving tries to ground these narratives in universal human sentiment(s), but I largely found them to be dull and lacking resonance.

This is mostly a mater of personal preference; I have all the nostalgia for the Hudson River Valley, but not much for Irving's version of Victorian England. That said, there is a lot that is great in the collection overall, and I would still recommend it. This book aside, I would wholeheartedly recommend visiting Sunnyside or Philisburg if you have the chance (though do note by bias); the staff is very passionate and would probably have good arguments to refute my criticisms.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

[Charles Dee Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

To the extent that 21st century readers know Washington Irving’s Sketch Book at all, it is most likely because it included the initial publication of two American classic tales, Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. And there could be a good reason that the rest of the 400 plus page tome has slid into obscurity. The Sketch Book could easily be damned with faint praise by describing it as “of its time.” But having recently read the whole thing, I will go even further. At it’s best, other than those two classic stories, The Sketch Book is pleasantly boring.

Irving filled his book with a combination of stories, essays, and reportage, sometimes mixing his genres in a way that is the most contemporary aspect of the book. The problems come with his tone. Given a sentimental topic, he produces treacle. When he waxes philosophical, he offers up commonplaces.

What he does well is describe things. An extensive section on Christmas in a country house is vividly and enthusiastically chronicled. (Like Americans through the centuries, Irving is a sucker for the British upper crust.) His walks around London produce eccentric slices of history and some mild fantasy. What I didn’t need to hear were his thoughts on what makes a “good wife” or his admiration for the tidiness among the better sort of peasantry .

It could also be that the Sketch Book is not meant to be read cover to cover. Browsing and skipping would be the more reasonable approach.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Irving was a graceful writer and an appreciator of nature and human nature.
This collection is rather miscellaneous with everything from short stories to travel and history pieces.
The author was one of the first Americans to have a commercial success with his writing and anyone interested in American literature should read this book.
There are several appreciations of English customs and architecture that are charming and evocative.
Also included are appreciations of Native Americans with a sympathetic treatment of their clashes with the early colonists.
Several pieces are too sentimental for modern taste but do not invalidate the quality of the book.

[Mimi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as scary as I remember, but still a classic October read.

Over the years, I've read, watched, and listened to a number of headless horseman retellings of Irving's tale, which watered down the original story's impact. So while rereading is fun, the experience isn't as good as when I first read it all those years ago (back when I knew very little about genre tropes and urban legends).

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I am always of easy faith in such matters, and am ever willing to be deceived, where the deceit is pleasant, and costs nothing."

Although the title of this volume claims "other stories" in addition to Sleepy Hollow, by my count less than half of the included 34 pieces are stories. Most of what is included here are essays by Washington on a variety of subjects. In fact, in the last essay "L'Envoy", Washington calls his writings "miscellaneous" and goes on to excuse their eclectic nature by saying "Few guests sit down to a varied table with an equal appetite for every dish."

I think this is an apt comparison for his collection. Some of what was included I found very enjoyable to read, while the rest left me feeling less enthusiastic. I particularly enjoyed his essays on sea voyages, London, and literature.

In general, Washington Irving is a very painterly writer who excels at setting a scene and providing an atmosphere for his work. However, some of his stories and essays relied on subject matter that I do not find compelling, such as shrewish wives or country funerals.

[Christine Norvell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will always be a fan of Irving's descriptive romantic style and his distinctive humor. His character sketches and parodies are the best classic comedy. "The Spectre Bridegroom" remains my favorite story, but no story spoilers here.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

To start off this review, I want to make it clear that I read the entirety of The Sketch-Book and not just a select few stories from the work. Most printings nowadays seem only to include a handful of the more notable stories from The Sketch-Book while excluding numerous of the lesser known ones, which I found to be odd. Therefore, I opted to read the complete Sketch-Book so as to get the fullest enjoyment out of the work as the author intended. That means that my review is not just about The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (which seems to dominate the majority of Sketch-Book reviews on this site) but rather it is about all of the stories in this great collection and the overall impact it had on me.

The Sketch-Book is Washington Irving's collection of "sketches" of American and English life as he had experienced them. Irving touches upon a colorful medley of topics and subjects that range from historical accounts of lesser known events significant to English and American life, to the retelling of fictitious folk tales that have captivated audiences of both countries for generations. These tales and accounts can be simple, small in scope, and highly intimate, or they can be grand in scale, complex, and more mentally and emotionally involved. There is practically something here for every kind of reader, be it an avid fan of short stories, a devout history buff, or simply someone who enjoys a well written book. Although this means that not every piece will appeal to every reader, it does, however, mean that The Sketch-Book is a highly diverse, multifaceted collection of excellent works that is sure to entertain and intrigue just about anybody who picks it up. I can vouch for the fact that, even though not every story in The Sketch-Book was the greatest read, there were far more winners than losers in this collection to warrant a high rating.

Like I said, this collection of short stories and essays is far more than merely the vessel through which people get to read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Though I will contend that Sleepy Hollow was, indeed, a great read and an excellent addition to this fine selection of works, I hold that there were far better pieces in the Sketch-Book, and also that this one story does not make or break the book by any means. If you read the Sketch-Book solely for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, you will be sorely missing out on so many other great stories by Washington Irving. I must admit that the only reason I initially considered reading The Sketch-Book was because of its inclusion of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which I have found to be the case for many other readers, as well. Thankfully, I found that so much more was being offered by Irving's book than I ever could have envisioned.

Some of my favorite works from the Sketch-Book include Rip Van Winkle, The Mutability of Literature, The Spectre Bridegroom, the five Christmas stories, Traits of Indian Character, Philip of Pokanoket, John Bull, The Pride of the Village, and, of course, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. For most, I can already tell that they had no idea that some of these stories and essays even existed in The Sketch-Book, through no fault of their own. That is the blame of most publishers who decide which stories are worth printing and which are better left out. That is why I implore any prospective readers of The Sketch-Book to seek out a copy with every story and essay included in it, thereby getting the most complete and, by proxy the most enjoyable, version of the text. I made the mistake of starting off reading the Barnes & Noble edition which only had a handful of stories before realizing I had an incomplete edition, which prompted me to purchase the Oxford edition of the book that had every work included. Do yourself a favor and read the whole Sketch-Book, you will not regret it.

Another great thing about The Sketch-Book worth mentioning is that it is a joy to read for even the busiest readers for whom time is substantially limited. None of the stories in The Sketch-Book (excluding the Christmas saga of stories) require consecutive reading to understand or enjoy them. You can read out of order, as well, if one story piques your interest but comes near the end of the book. I took a long time reading this book not because it was too difficult to read, but rather because I had a lot of other engagement to tend to – but that fact did not ruin my reading experience. I got to read a piece or two of the book whenever I had the time, and I was able to enjoy those reading independent of each other. Simply put, this is the kind of book that you can stop and resume at your leisure, never having to worry about continuity or forgetting plot details like in a lot of other books.

I found The Sketch-Book to be very fun to read the whole way through, for hardly does there exist such a diverse, enjoyable, and even informative book out there that can satisfy so many literary cravings concurrently. I definitely feel that this book is among the greatest classics in literature and should be accorded as such. If you have never considered reading The Sketch-Book for yourself, or perhaps did not know that it offered much more beyond Sleepy Hollow, I highly suggest that you read this fantastic book someday and learn for yourself why I consider it to be one of the best collection of stories and essays I have read in a long time.

[ren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Irving is surprisingly funny sometimes

[Rossdavidh · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a used bookshop in Avignon, France (http://www.camili-booksandtea.com/), I came upon this little tome, printed in Great Britain in 1929. How a set of short stories and essays (some of them blur the lines between the two forms), written by the American Washington Irving in 1820, published in the UK a century later, came to be in a bookshop in the south of France nearly a century after that, for me to purchase and take home to Texas with me, is no doubt a curious tale of its own. I admit, the oddity of it was probably part of why I bought it.

I had, of course, heard of Irving, primarily for "Rip van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", both of which appeared for the first time in this collection. I had not ever actually read either one, however, and I wonder how I managed to make it through so many years of American Literature in school without it. Irving was one of the very first American writers to be successful outside of his home country as well as within it, and this book is one of the main reasons why.

First off, I should admit that if old-fashioned style of narrative doesn't work for you, perhaps you will not appreciate it. For me, this was a bonus, but I don't know that I would have thought so back in my grammar school days. A good portion of the collection is written from the point of view of a fictional American in England for Christmastime, and the antiquated prose style may have worked better for me in part because the topic was inherently tied to old customs. I read it one piece at a time, just before going to bed, and they were especially well-suited for this, putting me into the right frame of mind to release whatever worries I had at the time and drift off to sleep.

"Rip van Winkle" was more or less as I expected it, and enjoyable enough. I was quite surprised to find that "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" was more comedy than ghost tale. It was rather like when I first read Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", and was confronted with a Frankenstein's monster who could speak eloquently. Having seen and heard so many adaptations, many of them only slightly influenced by the original in anything other than the title, it took me a little while to realize how far off my expectations were from the original tale as written. I wonder if it were surprising at all to readers in the original time.

All in all, I found it to be a great source of literary snacks to nibble on, though not to tear through. I may need to find something similar for my bedroom nightstand. Say, he appears to have written another one, "Bracebridge Hall". Hmmmm...

[blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

I set out to read "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" a few years back and was sort of surprised to find it such a whimsical story. (The old Disney cartoon basically nails it.) But it was the only Washington Irving story I'd ever read until now. (It's shocking how few of the authors in the "Authors" card game I grew up with I've actually read, or read much of.)

The Sketch Book confirms that style throughout. Irving is by turns poetic, respectful and even emotional, but a sense of bemusement pervades throughout. He seems to enjoy humans and humanity, and consciously partake of all our superstitious ways (which have not changed in recent times, except to be dressed up in lab coats).

Most of the essays are about his time in England, at a time when he was relatively new there—he would end up spending 17 years abroad—and are little portraits of English life with his own observations mixed in. (Although, in one he has a debate with an old book, and both "Rip Van Winkle" and "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" are part of this collection.)

I'm not sure how seriously I'd regard his observations of Amerinds, though he was probably pretty cutting edge in his defense of Indian character versus the often shabby way they were treated.

Word-wise, Irving isn't too hard to read, although you'll find a lot of the definitions he's using in the "archaic" section. The hardest stuff, actually, are the little quotes (e.g. Herrick) that he puts at the front of each story. These often include characteristically arbitrary Middle English spellings but which were probably well known to the literate folks of the time.

I smiled and chuckled a lot. I would often finish one essay and launch into the next, even when I was trying to budget my reading time carefully. Looking forward to reading his George Washington: A Biography!

[Melanti · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been debating whether to mark this as "Finished" or "Abandoned", but I think I've skimmed more of these stories than read them in full.

This is the collection that includes such stories as "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", "Rip Van Winkle", and "The Spectre Bridegroom". However, the vast majority of this collection isn't stories at all.

This is mostly Irving's travelogue from a trip to England. Thus, much of the book are depictions of places he's been and customs he's seen, along with character portraits of people he met - mostly those he met in passing.

It's a lovely writing style, but, alas, I'm not too interested in what Irving thought of quaint country churches or funerals, etc., so I did end up skimming a lot rather than reading.

In addition to the more famous stories I really enjoyed "The Mutability of Literature" in which Irving talks about how the vast majority of writing is forgotten quickly and only a very tiny portion is retained. He talks about how impossibly quickly new writing was being produced in the time of the modern printing press and how it was good to have critics to try to tame the flood of new works.
He says "All possible encouragement, therefore, should be given to the growth of critics, good or bad. But I fear all will be in vain; let criticism do what it may, writers will write, printers will print, and the world will inevitably be overstocked with good books."

If there were a flood of books printed in 1819, then how many more are going to be published in 2019? With ebooks and self-publishing, there's not even a nominal critic standing by the flood gates now!

[Mommalibrarian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Irving must of been a successful writer already or no one would have published this drivel. It does contain the legend of Sleepy Hollow and the story of Rip Van Winkle but that is not enough to redeem it. I read it because I own it and feel it is not correct to own a book you have not read. Puritan heritage.

The most annoying repetition was that when the legs of the stone figure of the knight reclining on a tomb are crossed it indicates he was a crusader. Interesting the first time but not the nineth.

NOTE: I note that there is a character van Ripper in the Sleepy Hollow book. This and the character of Rip van Winkle are of interest because my maidename was Rippey and I have no idea where it came from.

[Marcos Augusto · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short-story collection, first published in 1819–20 in seven separate parts. Most of the book’s 30-odd pieces concern Irving’s impressions of England, but six chapters deal with American subjects. Of these the tales “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle” have been called the first American short stories, although both are actually Americanized versions of German folktales. In addition to the stories based on folklore, the collection contains travel sketches, literary essays, and miscellany. The Sketch Book was a celebrated event in American literary history. The collection was the first American work to gain international literary success and popularity. Its unprecedented success allowed Irving to devote himself to writing.

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

American in Britain. The sketches are charming. The tales include comic, sentimental, gothic.

[Ryan Wyllie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful prose and full of wit. As for Ichabod Crane, RIP to a real one.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

“In the present rage also for strange incident and high-seasoned narrative they may appear trite and insignificant.”

(1820) The most famous book of America’s first famous author is actually mostly essays about England, from when Irving was living there for business-related reasons. The couple pieces that are not about England are very, very American and immortalized him. Irving hastily made the collection after hearing a rumor someone else was going to. [Note: I saved the Christmas pieces for later this year].

About the book’s reception, I absolutely loved the entry in Wikipedia: “Two of the book's early admirers were Sir Walter Scott (who called it "positively beautiful") and Lord Byron (who said of the book, "I know it by heart"). Years later, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said The Sketch Book was one of the earliest works to excite his interest in literature. As he said, "Every reader has his first book; I mean to say, one book among all others 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…’

“Apart from Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, both of which were immediately acknowledged as The Sketch Book's finest pieces, American and English readers alike responded most strongly to the more sentimental tales, especially The Broken Heart—which Byron claimed had made him weep—and The Widow and Her Son…

"’I am astonished at the success of my writings in England,’ Irving wrote to his publisher, ‘and can hardly persuade myself that it is not all a dream. Had any one told me a few years since in America, that any thing I could write would interest such men as . . . Byron, I should have as readily believed a fairy tale.’”

First things first: Geoffrey Crayon was Irving’s pseudonym. And the fictional Diedrich Knickerbocker, among whose papers were said to be The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle, started as a literary hoax, when Irving passed off his first novel as the work of a Dutch historian who’d gone missing, having left his writings in a New York hotel room.

Also, some interesting tidbits about the author: he was about the same age as the country; he was named after George Washington, who blessed him as a boy; and he came up with the moniker Gotham for NYC.

“Whilst I was yet looking down upon the gravestones I was roused by the sound of the abbey clock, reverberating from buttress to buttress and echoing among the cloisters. It is almost startling to hear this warning of departed time sounding among the tombs and telling the lapse of the hour, which, like a billow, has rolled us onward towards the grave.”

Irving is above all a master of the metaphor. We’re so accustomed to bad, straining, obtrusive metaphors that you almost forget what a simple pleasure the real thing is. In a private letter Edgar Allan Poe talks about Irving’s “faultlessness of style,” even as he criticizes him for his “tame propriety.” Publicly he wrote that Irving’s “chief beauty is beauty of style.” This is what strikes me too, as I said in an earlier review of Sleepy Hollow. Irving’s prose—informal and unstuffy, yet eloquent—is at least sixty years ahead of its time, in terms of ease of style. There’s none of the stiff artifice of contemporaries like Jane Austen. Even as late as the 1870s you have authors like George Eliot still exhibiting the conventions of the 1700s, writing as if squeezed breathless into one of the period’s cumbersome court dresses—dusty, ornaments crumbling. By contrast, Irving’s warm, genial prose seems to belong more to 1920 than 1820. Another strength is his ability to take a wide view of human activity. He seems to zoom out, and out, until the poetic perspective can be found.

As the chapters go on, you begin to see Irving feeling his way toward The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, in his tales’ frequent fictional attributions, in his love of local lore, and in his fondness for communities that are sequestered, whether it be in the country or in the heart of London. Certainly the club “The Roaring Lads of Little Britain” inspired his “rustic lads” The Sleepy Hollow Boys.

“Instead of the great tree that used to shelter the quiet little Dutch inn of yore, there now was reared a tall naked pole, with something on the top that looked like a red nightcap, and from it was fluttering a flag, on which was a singular assemblage of Stars and Stripes.”

I won’t go over the book sketch by sketch. I don’t remember a weak one in the bunch. There were some standouts, however. Of course Sleepy Hollow is the crown of the collection and Rip Van Winkle is imaginative—perhaps the first time-travel story, in a sense. It’s a sort of Back to the Future in the Catskills.

The Widow and Her Son gives to a poor, bereft woman a more profound and lasting tribute than any disdainful priest could have. I only hope she knew it. Irving does much the same in his The Mutability of Literature—helping to save from at least utter oblivion that which (Arcadia by Sidney, Sackville plays, Lyly) he marks as causalities of Man’s forgetfulness.

Little Britain is a humorous and seemingly mild sociological study of a remarkably provincial London neighborhood, but if you look closely it’s quite brutal in the way the author implicates some of the characters. The storyline of the upstart butcher family is worth a reread. Irving, by the way, is a champion of John Bullism. His chapter on the gross caricature, on which the impish people model themselves, is recognizable even today.

“Man is cruelly wasteful of life when his own safety is endangered and he is sheltered by impunity, and little mercy is to be expected from him when he feels the sting of the reptile and is conscious of the power to destroy.”

Traits of Indian Character is fascinating and very relevant, with too many points to recap. Worth multiple reads. In Philip of Pokanoket, Irving again takes up the burden of preserving the memory of one who deserved to be remembered.

Marginalia:

You can perhaps see the origin of that horror trope—the disturbing of old Indian burial grounds—by an anecdote here of an Indian raid, after one of the tribe’s graves was defaced.

Irving takes visiting Brits to task for harping on the lack of creature comforts in the US, “the greatest political experiment in the history of the world,” while missing all of our blessings, which is ironic since the US is now known chiefly for its conveniences and pampered travelers.

I bet the nautical-looking home in The Angler inspired the beached boathouse in David Copperfield. There are a lot of theories about what inspired the headless horseman in The Sketch Book’s next piece, but mine is that this same angler (whose leg had been carried off by a cannonball) probably did.

“He had read several books quite through…” I’m strangely proud that Ichabod Crane is a Connecticut man.

Some quotes (As you can see, Irving spends a great deal of time dwelling on the grave):

“The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced. Every other wound we seek to heal, every other affliction to forget; but this wound we consider it a duty to keep open, this affliction we cherish and brood over in solitude.”

“…but Nature, when she grants but one child, always compensates by making it a prodigy.”

“Other men are known to posterity only through the medium of history, which is continually growing faint and obscure; but the intercourse between the author and his fellow men is ever new, active, and immediate. He has lived for them more than for himself; he has sacrificed surrounding enjoyments, and shut himself up from the delights of social life, that he might the more intimately commune with distant minds and distant ages.”

“For, strange to tell, even the grave is here no longer a sanctuary. There is a shocking levity in some natures which leads them to sport with awful and hallowed things, and there are base minds which delight to revenge on the illustrious dead the abject homage and grovelling servility which they pay to the living… Not a royal monument but bears some proof how false and fugitive is the homage of mankind. Some are plundered, some mutilated, some covered with ribaldry and insult,—all more or less outraged and dishonored.”

On sails: “What a glorious monument of human invention; which has in a manner triumphed over wind and wave; has brought the ends of the world into communion; has established an interchange of blessings, pouring into the sterile regions of the north all the luxuries of the south; has diffused the light of knowledge, and the charities of cultivated life; and has thus bound together those scattered portions of the human race, between which nature seemed to have thrown an insurmountable barrier.”

“Nature seems to delight in disappointing the assiduities of art… and to glory in the vigor and luxuriance of her chance productions. She scatters the seeds of genius to the winds, and though some may perish among the stony places of the world, and some be choked by the thorns and brambles of early adversity, yet others will now and then strike root even in the clefts of the rock, struggle bravely up into sunshine, and spread over their sterile birthplace all the beauties of vegetation.”

“I inquired after the fate of Mr. Roscoe's library… It had passed under the hammer of the auctioneer, and was dispersed about the country… Did such a scene admit of ludicrous associations, we might imagine something whimsical in this strange irruption in the regions of learning. Pigmies rummaging the armory of a giant, and contending for the possession of weapons which they could not wield.”

Again, on a library: “When friends grow cold, and the converse of intimates languishes into vapid civility and commonplace, these only continue the unaltered countenance of happier days, and cheer us with that true friendship which never deceived hope, nor deserted sorrow.”

[Hannah Rehman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Irving’s collection of short stories was interesting, especially the namesake “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Some stories were exceptionally engaging while others felt like they dragged on, with the majority falling into the “just fine” category. Overall, the book was alright but was slightly less enjoyable than I anticipated.

[Humphrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle are probably the best in here. At turns sentimental and comic, the remaining sketches of England are come and go. This was my camping book for 2024. I started it on a rainy April trek on the Kawishiwi River and finished it on a frigid night-before-new year's on Moss Lake.

[Mercurialgem · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Alex Moffat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting collection of gothic short stories

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book on a recent visit to Washington Irving’s home, Sunnyside, located in Tarrytown, New York. If you ever find your yourself in the vicinity it is well worth a visit, particularly if you like the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. You will find that story, along with Rip Van Winkle, in this collection, first published in 1819.

Irving spent a good part of his professional life in England where he established his popularity. He even wrote Sleepy Hollow there, harvesting his childhood memories of his time when he lived there to escape an outbreak of yellow fever in 1798. His success helped change the European perception of Americans, who were then viewed as uncultured workers laboring in fields and manual crafts.

He made a particular impression on a young Charles Dickens whom you can clearly see was inspired by Irving’s satiric and humorous use of eccentric characters in rich and atmospheric settings. Irving’s indulgence into Christmas traditions and the supernatural were also themes Dickens would pick up in his writings.

Regarding the Sketchbook itself, I found there were a few stories that really stood out to me, aside from the famous Rip Van Winkle and Sleepy Hollow. There are precious few stories set in the United States, which was disappointing to discover. But I suppose the British prefer to read about themselves.

If you don’t have the time or patience to read the whole book, be sure to read these stories at least:

* The Spectre Bridegroom - A moody piece that begins as a ghost story but turns into something else. I think this is a hidden gem that is worthy to be named read alongside Winkle and Sleepy Hollow. If you read only one other story from this book, make it this one!

* Five Christmas Stories - If you are a Dickens fan, particularly a Christmas Carol devotee, these five stories are a must read for you. Irving’s influence on Dickens writings are clearly seen in these stories.

* The Mutability of Literature - A wonderfully philosophical contemplation of the fading importance of literature.

* The Country Church - This story gives you a taste of Irving’s characterizations while also seeing some of the class tensions in place during the early 19th Century.

The following is a list of each of the stories in this book with some of my comments:

Voyage - Irving contemplates how a sea voyage across the Atlantic can lead to a jarring arrival when compared to land travel where human customs and cultural slowly blend and morph into each other. This continuity of culture

Roscoe - Irving has his own brush with a celebrity. He pays a homage to the love of books.

The Wife - a tender tale of the unconditional love of a wife. Despite the husband coming to financial ruin, his wife continues to support him, encourage him, and love him.

Rip Van Winkle - the classic tale of a man who wakes from a centuries long slumber.

English Writers on America - a surprisingly caustic take on the British press. He launches a number of invectives that are sadly still true today.

Rural Life in England - as a counterpoint to English Writers preceding this piece, Irving underscores the unique rural character that undergirds all English people. I couldn’t help but think of Tolkien’s works when Irving wrote: “The pastoral writers of other countries appear as if they had paid Nature and occasional visit, and become acquainted with her general charms; but the British poets have lived and rebelled with her.”

The Broken Heart - a melancholy tale of a woman trying to live life after the execution of her husband. It reminded me of the fate of Arwen after the end of Lord of the Rings. “But a woman’s whole life is a history of the affections. The heart is her world; it is there her ambition strives for empire - it is there her avarice seeks for treasures”

The Art of Bookmaking - a fantastical tale of contemporary writers who pilfer the ideas of their predecessors. Irving initially contemplates whether this is a good thing, such as animals who spread the seed of plants. But in a dream he sees these ancient authors come to life and accuse these writers as thieves and descend on them in fury. “After all, thought I, may not this pilfering disposition be implanted in authors for wise purposes? May it not be the way in which Providence has taken care that the seeds of knowledge and wisdom shall be preserved from age to age, in spite of the inevitable decay of the works in which they were first produced?”

A Royal Post - Irving pays homage to the poet king of Scotland, James I. He visits the tower wherein James was held prisoner during his youth and contemplates his poem written about his future wife, Lady Jane. It is a touching work. “It is, indeed, the gift of poetry, to hallow every place in which it moves.”

The Country Church - there is a derogatory I have heard British people of when they say “he comes from new money”. I didn’t quite appreciate what that term meant until reading this story. Irving contrasts two families attending the local church. The first family is that of old nobility with subdued dress and quiet attentiveness to all people. The second family has purchased their way into the nobility and were both ostentatious and boorish. “There is a healthful hardiness about real dignity, that never dreads contact and communion with others, however humble. It is only spurious pride that is morbid and sensitive, and shrinks from every touch.”

The Widow and Her Son - this is a sad tale of an old penniless widow. The story is poignantly placed after the Country Church story, which must have been intentional.

The Boar’s Head Tavern - an interesting travelogue of Irving’s research into an old tavern that was Shakespeare’s setting for Henry IV.

The Mutability of Literature - this was one of my favorite stories. Irving visits an old library within Westminster Abbey and has a fantastical conversation with a mouldering quarto. In the dialogue he contemplates how the changing of language over time consigns old works to neglect, decay, and oblivion. He also considers how poetry is able to endure more so than prose. A very philosophic work!

Rural Funerals - A contemplative on the use of flowers at grave sites and the nature of funerals.

The Inn Kitchen - a short introduction to the Spectre Bridgegroom.

The Spectre Bridegroom - I thoroughly enjoyed this tale that sounds like it will be a ghost story but ends up more as a romance. It is a shame Walt Disney never rendered this tale in animated form. It would have been very endearing.

Westminster Abbey - Contrasting the Mutability of Literature, in this sketch Irving contemplates how authors do outlive the memories of others. “Other men are known to posterity only through the medium of history, which is continually growing faint and obscure; but intercourse between the author and his fellowmen is ever new, active, and immediate…..he has sacrificed surrounding enjoyments, and shut himself up from the delights of social life, that he might the more intimately commune with distant minds and distant ages.”

Christmas Pentalogy - It is impossible not to think of Dickens’ later Christmas Carol when reading these five stories of Irving’s visit to an old manor presided by an old fashioned but gregarious gentleman at Christmastime. If you are looking for some literary stories to put you in the Christmas spirit, you would do well to read these!

London Antiques - A short piece that is skippable.

Little Britain - Irving describes his residency while he was living in London. He details a culture war that was occurring in his neighborhood and clearly sided with the traditional side, like an anthropologist who appreciated and studies the old ways of a people.

Stratford-on-Avon - Irving tours (supposedly) the historic locations of Shakespeare.

Traits of Indian Character - A poignant apologetic work defending the character of the Native American peoples. Irving does indulge (perhaps create?) the Noble Savage troupe, but to a worthy purpose. He wants to change the perception of Indians as vicious savages to be exterminated to a people who have been misunderstood and worthy of compassionate treatment.

Philip of Pokanoket - A telling of the history of King Phillip’s War with the Indians being the protagonists. The narrative is difficult to read in parts as the atrocities of the English are held as equal or greater than those of their enemies whom they deemed “savages”. It is certainly a tragic and horrible chapter in the history of America that was known as such even in 1820.

John Bull - A useful description of a particular English character. Irving references and indicates a fondness of John Bullism in other stories of this volume.

The Pride of the Village - A sad tale of the funeral of a young lady. Despite the terrible subject, this story is beautifully written.

The Angler - A brief homage to the sport of fishing. This is among the few stories that is, at least partially, set in America.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - The story everyone knows!

L’Envoy -A brief letter to the reader hoping he enjoyed it and defending his efforts, as feeble they might be.

[thethousanderclub · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. is an eclectic collection of short stories, personal reflections, and observations by Washington Irving. Most would recognize the periodically adapted and well-known The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. A few others will remember Rip Van Winkle, but most will not be familiar with Irving's many commentaries on New England or old England life—funerals, libraries, authors and readers, aristocratic and commoner society, marriage, love, and even angling (fishing). This collection is challenging to recommend to any one reader because its width and breadth of commentary and story is so diverse. If you enjoy Irving as a writer, then I think you will find plenty to relish. If you came mostly for Irving's fiction, then you will be sorely disappointed.

To begin with Irving's fiction, I was surprised how funny The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle were. Irving's writing is distinctive for its wit and piercing perceptiveness. Both stories do as much to illuminate the life and times of the people as they do to entertain. Between the two stories, perhaps because I'm much less familiar with it, I was most entertained by Rip Van Wrinkle. The hapless and languid protagonist doesn't quite justify our sympathy but your pity. He is the epitome of a henpecked husband and maybe is the great allegorical hope of all such husbands. If only they could fall asleep and make it all go away. Yet, for a story like Rip Van Winkle or even The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, there are plenty of motifs and themes to cull and to expound, which is always the mark of great fiction. I do wish The Sketch Book had more works of fiction because I think Irving's literary powers are more easily accessible and enjoyable through his fiction.

Irving makes a comment in his post-script I thought was really insightful. He reflects on the praise and criticism he had received of the several drafts of his work. He states he was "soon brought to a stand by the contrariety of excellent counsel." He continues: "One kindly advised him to avoid the ludicrous; another to shun the pathetic; a third assured him that he was tolerable at description, but cautioned him to leave narrative alone; while a fourth declared that he had a very pretty knack at turning a story, and was really entertaining when in a pensive mood, but was grievously mistaken if he imagined himself to possess a spirit of humor." Herein lies one of the great burdens of any author—knowing when to accept and reject feedback. I'm not sure what Irving decided to eliminate from this assemblage, but it doesn't seem to be much. The manifold topics addressed by the author and the nature of the commentary make it feel more like a very verbose diary than an observational study similar to something like Democracy in America. Irving is no less discerning than de Tocqueville, I think, and I was at times truly moved and illuminated. His ability to ascend above the superficial is impressive. Yet, too much of his writing feels a bit out of reach, due to the peculiar topics or some other reason I'm not sure.

Not having read Washington Irving's work for myself but only having been exposed to it through adaptations, I was greatly impressed by his writing. His fiction is much more accessible than his non-fiction, but both provide literary satisfaction. Although The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is even more enjoyable than I expected, I adored Rip Van Wrinkle. From a historical perspective, I feel like Irving provides a charming link between the old and new worlds, and I would be interested to learn more about his time period and the impact of his work. I recommend The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. for anyone willing to work a little to enjoy adroit writing from a bygone era, but not to anyone looking for a hurried read of a few short stories. Irving, for better or worse, has a lot more to say than what several short stories can contain.

https://thethousanderclub.blogspot.com/

[Joel Van Valin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the best-known stories from Irving's Sketch Book ("The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle") are set in America, the bulk of the work is a series of vignettes by an American traveling in England. Irving looks in on Westminster Abbey, pops in on Little Britain, tours around Stratford-upon-Avon, enjoys Christmas at an old English manor house and takes us aside to tell a German ghost story ("The Spectre Bridgroom", which after the above-mentioned tales is the most memorable story in the collection). The Sketch Book is a grab-bag of travel writing, tale telling, writerly opinion and historical essay, with just a hint of moralizing thrown in.

Stranded in England when the family merchant business went bankrupt following the War of 1812, Irving tried to make ends meet with whatever he had at hand, and this is it. The main audience was the English reading public. To intrigue audiences with the exotic "new world", Irving writes about his own country, in particular the Native Americans (which which he has much sympathy) and Dutch settlers of old New York (at which he pokes much fun). And to win over his audience he writes about an American's views on their own country - views which are, except for a few jabs about not interfering with other countries in his piece "John Bull", quite kindly. Indeed he seems a merry bachelor beating about the country, writing about Falstaff and ale and Christmas mummers, and only occasionally indulging in overly sentimental tales of pure rural maids wronged by trifling solders, who end up dying of love.

A complete and unabridged version of the Sketch Book is actually hard to come by - most often the stories and other popular pieces from Irving's five or six books are put together as a single collection. It's worth reading in its entirely, though. What would it be like to be an American gentleman gadding about Regency England, enjoying country houses and city backways in the era of Byron and Jane Austen? Read the Sketch Book and find out!

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., by
Washington Irving can be found at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2048/...

I just have to say that the original sketch illustrations in this edition our quite lovely. 1 Star added to overall rating of 4 Stars for The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.

PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION - 4 Stars Great background information by Irving himself on how he got this edition published thanks to Sir Walter Scott.

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 ✔

[David Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, this review is for the whole book, not just 'The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow'. As much as I love the short story (and the film and the TV show), this book offers so much more. I love the writing style of Washington Irving. Regardless of whether he is describing a walk in the woods, a funeral or the history of a native American Indian, there is always a hint of romanticism in the wording and descriptions. Add to this his humorous outlook on things, and you have a superb collection of enjoyable essays / travelogues to add to his outstanding short stories. It was good to read a historical account of areas that I have not visited from somebody who doesn't even live in England, but offers a balanced perspective, whilst adding his own unique interpretation of events (The episode in a library in Cloisters was bizarre). The descriptions helped me visualise the places visited and, although the style may not be to everybody's tastes, I felt completely comfortable reading what could otherwise have been a boring collection of travel notes. I haven't read 'Travellers Tales' yet, which I believe is a separate book including 'The Devil And Tom Gordon', but based on this collection, I would be happy to read more from this author.