The Spectre Bridegroom

by Washington Irving

Originally published in 1819, "The Spectre Bridegroom" is a ghost story about a baron and his daughter in historic Germany. The tale revolves around the daughter's betrothal to Count Van Altenburg and the strange occurrences that lead up to the wedding.

One of the few Irving stories set outside of the United States, "The Spectre Bridegroom" is often seen as a commentary on the differences between American and European society.

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Gothic, Romance

20 pages

First published January 1, 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

[Steven Serpens · Rating 3 out of 5]

CALIFICACIÓN REAL: 3.5 estrellas

Una doncella de distinguida familia, se queda viuda sin siquiera haberse casado. Posterior a esto, comenzará a recibir extrañas visitas durante las noches; lo que causará que la superstición del lugar, en conjunto con el boca a boca, se encarguen de tejer todo tipo de descabelladas explicaciones en torno al espectral visitante, en una zona donde los mitos y las leyendas tradicionales fomentan todo eso al mantenerse altamente vigentes.

La novia del espectro es una lectura súper rápida y amena. Si bien es cierto que su planteamiento es muy simple, cumple efectivamente su cometido: entretener y atrapar al lector. De la misma manera, no aburre en ningún momento, ya que, gracias a su fluido buen ritmo, no presenta partes que puedan hacerse tediosas o pesadas. Todo esto la convierte en una obra más que ideal para quienes se encuentren en un bloqueo lector; bloqueos cursis en los que no creo, sea dicho de paso.

Tampoco quiero dar muchos detalles sobre la trama, pero, la parte en la que se le ‘’confiesa’’ al barón lo que realmente estaba sucediendo, puede que sea lo mejor de todo el relato; aunque, es una lástima que todo eso haya sido tan breve.
Aparte, me encanta como suele tenerse bien presente al folclore germánico dentro del mismo lore del relato. Esto es algo que le suma organicidad a la historia y a su contexto. Asimismo, me causó gracia cuando al barón le dijeron que podía tener nietos ‘’duendecitos’’, tras haberse resignado en tener como yerno a un supuesto ‘’espectro’’.
Así que, con todo lo expuesto, Washington Irving se acaba de convertir en otro de los autores que se ganan mi voto de confianza. Espero que no defraude a futuro, pues, tengo interés en leer su obra más famosa: La leyenda de Sleepy Hollow, ya que, con lo presentado aquí, es esperable que el autor se supere con su siguiente obra, porque de ser así, estará más que garantizada la buena lectura.

Antes de concluir, debo decir que me costó un poco llegar a calificación final, ya que no me decidía entre otorgarle 3.5 estrellas o ★★★★☆ a este título, pero terminé decantándome por la primera opción de puntuación, buscando ser más objetivo, neutro y realista al respecto; ya que tendría que haber estado en otro nivel como lectura para que pueda obtener una calificación superior.
Y, sinceramente, mis únicos reparos son que la historia se hace algo predecible, sobre todo con el desenlace (cosa que no me molestó), pero como es un título tan bueno y entretenido, no opaca en nada la grata y simpática experiencia que nos ofrece.
También está el hecho de que todo el malentendido de la historia fue ocasionado porque antes no se pudo explicar lo que sucedía, debido a que la gran habladuría del barón no lo permitía. Realmente eso es algo que se torna inverosímil, sin sentido y hasta estúpido; pero de no haber sido así, no se podría desarrollar la historia, ya que justamente de eso depende su existencia.

Ya para terminar, en cierto momento se menciona algo de una leyenda o relato local, en donde un jinete secuestra a una tal Eleonora. ¿Podrá ser posible que Edgar Allan Poe haya tomado prestado aquel nombre precisamente de aquí mismo para su relato homónimo? Eso es algo que veo bastante viable.

Para otras reseñas de la colección Clásicos del terror, de editorial Planeta:

• 1) Historia de un muerto contada por él mismo, de Alexandre Dumas: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• 2) El mortal inmortal, de Mary Shelley: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• 3) La novia del espectro, de Washington Irving
• 4) El vampiro, de John Polidori: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• 5) El cuento de la vieja niñera, de Elizabeth Gaskell: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• 6) La marca de la bestia, de Rudyard Kipling: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• 7) Markheim, de Robert Louis Stevenson: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• 8) El modelo de Pickman, de Howard Phillips Lovecraft: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• 9) La casa del juez, de Bram Stoker: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• 10) La mujer alta, de Pedro Antonio de Alarcón: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• 11) El convidado de las últimas fiestas, de Auguste de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• 12) El Horla, de Guy de Maupassant: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Sommer T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

"No! No!" replied the stranger, with tenfold solemnity, "my engagement is with no bride -- the worms! The worms expect me! I am a dead man. . . The grave is waiting for me -- I must keep my appointment!"

This was brilliant, delightful, and had no right to be this hilarious. I highly recommend it if you want to read a German folktale mixed with some comedy. Also I found this helpful website which gives some background on Irving as a writer: http://www.americangothic.narod.ru/ir...

[Oziel Bispo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Um conto de horror misturado com romance; uma combinação irresistível principalmente quando contado num estilo gótico muito usado por Irving.

[Sergei Ter-Tumasov (Սերգեյ Տեր-Թումասով) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Смешной рассказ о "привидениях". Мне нравится чувство юмора Washington Irving. И нравится, что он один из немногих, кто высмеивает веру людей в приведения (хотя и говорит об этом между строк, так что вначале может показаться, что он в них верит).

[Lily Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spectacular. No other words.

[Faust · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gloomy castle somewhere in the Odenwlad mountains, a pure maiden waiting for her mysterious soon-to-be husband, a pale nobleman riding a black steed through a landscape steeped in silver moonlight. A most excellent setup in the tradition of gothic romance!

The tone shifts effortlessly between creepy and humorous:

From a hollow voice rendered ghastly and sepulchral by a vaulted roof of an archway saying “The worms expect me! I am a dead man ... at midnight I am to be buried - the grave is waiting for me - I must keep my appointment!”

To nonchalantly bigoted (or dare I say - based!) statements such as "It is, however, still quoted in the neighborhood as a memorable instance of female secrecy that she kept it to herself for a whole week."

This has become an instant favorite for me, and I will doubtlessly revisit it whenever I need to stoke the spirit of the spooky season within myself.

[Nicolás Pinto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hay un par de joyitas como "Viaje al país de los Naninga" y "Cinco hombres en la cabaña" que son una merecedores de ser usados como ejemplos de cómo se debe hacer humor en relatos cortos. Sencillamente geniales.
Más allá de estas perlas, igual hay muchos otros que estuvieron muy bien, y varios que resultaron ser sorpresivos. Fontanarrosa siempre encuentra la manera de sorprenderte; no hay modo que puedas imaginar más de uno de los desenlaces a lo que llegan estos relatos.

[mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Relato interesante, aunque me dió risa por los twists que tiene.
Pero sí, lo recomiendo.

[Per · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://archive.org/details/WeirdTale...
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2048/...

Weird Tales reprint of a short story from The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., commonly referred to as The Sketch Book, [...] a collection of 34 essays and short stories [... first] published serially throughout 1819 and 1820.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ske....

The reprint is missing a quote at the start as well as two footnotes, as below:

He that supper for is dight,
He lyes full cold, I trow, this night!
Yestreen to chamber I him led,
This night Gray-steel has made his bed!
SIR EGER, SIR GRAHAME, and SIR GRAY-STEEL.

The erudite reader, well versed in good-for-nothing lore, will perceive that the above Tale must have been suggested to the old Swiss by a little French anecdote, a circumstance said to have taken place in Paris.

[Katzenellenbogen] I.e., CAT’S ELBOW—the name of a family of those parts, and very powerful in former times. The appellation, we are told, was given in compliment to a peerless dame of the family, celebrated for a fine arm.

The story references the Heldenbuch and the Minnelieders...

She could read without great difficulty, and had spelled her way through several Church legends and almost all the chivalric wonders of the Heldenbuch [...] and knew all the tender ballads of the Minnelieders by heart.

...which are https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heldenbuch and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesang respectively:

Heldenbücher (singular Heldenbuch "book of heroes") is the conventional title under which a group of German manuscripts and prints of the 15th and 16th centuries has come down to us. Each Heldenbuch contains a collection of primarily epic poetry, typically including material from the Theodoric cycle, and the cycle of Hugdietrich, Wolfdietrich and Ortnit. The Heldenbuch texts are thus based on medieval German literature, but adapted to the tastes of the Renaissance.

Minnesang was a tradition of lyric- and song-writing in Germany that flourished in the Middle High German period. This period of medieval German literature began in the 12th century and continued into the 14th. People who wrote and performed Minnesang were known as Minnesänger, and a single song was called a Minnelied. The name derives from minne, the Middle High German word for love, as that was Minnesang's main subject. The Minnesänger were similar to the Provençal troubadours and northern French trouvères in that they wrote love poetry in the tradition of courtly love in the High Middle Ages.

There's a radio theater adaption for CBS Radio Mystery Theater [...] broadcast on December 3, 1979 available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzuei...

[Kaylee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another entertaining tale by Washington Irving. His sense of humor, and his skill as a writer and storyteller continually delight me.

In this story, there is to be an arranged marriage, and while the bride's family is waiting to welcome the bridegroom, he gets fatally wounded by robbers en route to the feast. The messenger who goes to relay the news is mistaken for the bridegroom; he decides to play along to have dinner with the beautiful bride, then declares that he has been killed and must go to his grave. When news comes the next day that the groom had indeed been killed, everyone is convinced that they dined with a spectre.

A few days later, when the girl goes missing, one of the aunts concludes that "the spectre must have carried off his bride...bearing her away to the tomb. All present were struck with the direful probability; for events of the kind are extremely common in Germany, as many well authenticated histories bear witness." - I love the tongue-in-cheek way in which Irving pokes fun at his characters' completely earnest superstitions. This was a lot of fun to read.

[Adrian Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short story takes place at a time when belief in the tenets of Christianity sat side by side with beliefs in spirits and older supernatural powers. It concerns a family that is awaiting the arrival of the young man betrothed to their only daughter. Neither they nor she have ever seen this person, as was often the case in such arranged marriages. Unfortunately, tragedy be falls the intended bridegroom when he is attacked and killed by bandits while on his way to his wedding. However, a young man does come to the waiting bride and her family. Is he the ghost of her intended, duty bound to uphold his promise of matrimony?

This little tale is charming in its humor and simplicity. It tells of gullibility and mistaken identity at a time when innocence and imagination held sway over lives much more than they do today. But, most of all, it tells of how love will find a way, no matter what obstacles or trials are put in its path. Definitely a story worth retelling.

[Fabian Lizondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

La verdad le pondría un 3.5, bueno el cuento entretenido, pero esperaba algo mas, las 4 estrellas son por que realmente no me esperaba el final (a pesar de que no me gusto mucho)

[Gabingy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un libro que he empezado y acabado hoy, es súper corto así que mi reseña también será corta. He adquirido "La leyenda de Sleepy Hollow" y antes de empezarla a leer me di cuenta que tenía este cuento corto del autor así que quise empezar a conocerlo con este. Es una historia de terror corta que cumple con el objetivo de sorprender, adentrarte a esta atmósfera oscura y de misterio. Tiene un giro sorpresivo porque cuando piensas que el plot twist va a resultar ser algo te resulta una cosa diferente (yo tratando de no dar spoiler). Es interesante esto porque creo que es una obra está narrado de una forma súper visual, me pude imaginar todo así que mis expectativas por la obra Sleepy Hollow están altísimas (ya que es su obra más conocida). En fin, está buena para pasar la tarde, tal vez hubiera sido mucho más productivo de mi parte leerlo en octubre por halloween pero simplemente no me pude esperar. Le coloco 3.5 estrellas porque cumple con su cometido y se quedará en mi biblioteca.

[Karen Paguay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nos encontramos aquí con un cuento de la tradición alemana, que, como la mayoría de relatos de ese origen, era de terror. Un terror que se basaba en avistamientos de espectros y más objetos considerados sobrenaturales.
La historia nos cuenta sobre una bella y recatada doncella que fue educada como una total dama, sin ser nada atrevida y totalmente dócil, y el primer encuentro con el que será su futuro esposo.
No hay mucho que contar, la historia, en esta edición tiene apenas 60 hojas con letras bastante grandes. Es un cuento disfrutable que no te pondrá a temblar, pero sí hará que pases un buen rato.

[Robert Bussie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a descriptive nature that brings the castle interior to life. The story starts out as an arranged marriage between two people of royalty who have not met yet. The man dies in battle before he meets his to be bride. Their love will not be stopped as he transcends the grave to be with his love....or so it seems.

I liked and disliked the surprise ending. I liked the twist happy ending, however a more ghostly ending would have satisfied me more and earned the book another star in the ratings.

[midnightfaerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little story about a group of Germans with a rich history of tall tales and ghostly hauntings. A man is accosted on his way to meet his arranged bride and gets severely injured. Someone goes in his place and is mistaken for him. I don't want to give too much away. The other reviews already do that. Suffice to say it was a cute story and had me smiling. Enjoyable and one of my first reads for Washington Irving. Highly recommended.

[Brian Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joyful page turner mercilessly mocking olde worlde hierarchies and hangers on. Avoiding the convoluted prose of its time, the lines and characters are laugh out loud funny. Not sophisticated and no apparent underlying moral message but just conceived and executed with great skill.
Can't remember last time I enjoyed a read so much.

[Gabs 🫧 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't understand a thing, it's literal blabber blabber blabber and no plot whatsoever. Where the frick is the suspense and climax? Hello?
Yes, I know this is the beginning of the American novel, but really, it does not even sound like any story told by the fire or whatever, it just makes no sense in today's world and it's honestly sad to read sometimes, I'm sorry.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es un gran relato de terror en el que dos historias se desarrollan en paralelo. Un pueblo entero cree que ha visto al fantasma de un caballero y se ha llevado a la hija del barón, mientras el lector sabe que no es así y teme que le pase lo peor a la pareja de protagonistas.. Graciosa, detallista y bien contada.

[Adryette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me bajó el amor por leer historias, muchas historias. Está la disfruté bastante, el giro de los acontecimientos, lo real y lo falso de las circunstancias. Siento que se vuelve en cierto punto una metáfora, dónde nos encontramos con la inocencia y la casualidad.

[Cikita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual rating is 3,7 i found Washington Irving 's works are quite entertaining, really love his style of writing, this one is really so good if you look for a bit horror touches, but still enjoyable (especially if you are not a fan of this genre) it's really only a quick read :)

[Diego · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una historia bastante interesante que deja un buen sabor de boca. No hay mucho que decir, las descripciones son lo suficientemente detalladas para dar una buena imagen de la situacion sin ser tedioso, cualidad que permite una lectura bastante rápida y agil.

[Shuggy L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Captures the high-spirited antics of a wealthy young man in the pursuit of his bride. I read this folktale as part of the 20 Valentine's Day stories from Old Tales Press. I liked this Germanic folk tale!

[hamatesus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mystery Inc. görse ağlar öyle bir hikaye. Çok beğenmedim doğrusu. Asıl damat gerçekten hayalet olarak gelse ve arkadaşıyla gelinini korkutup adamın foyasını ortaya çıkarsa daha eğlenceli olurdu bence.

[Ria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Out of the three Washington Irving short stories I've read, this one's my favourite. The characters were endearing, the atmosphere was palpable, the mystery was maintained until the very last second and there was more than one memorable scene.

[Galy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me encantó!!!! Mil veces lo volvería a leer toda la vibra spooky se me hizo muy lindo,debo confesar que me sentí confundida por unos momentos pero el final fue bueno,me gusta que es cortito y a diferencia de otros de sus relatos este no es tedioso ni muy descriptivo por lo que se lee rápidamente

[Gaby · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Me gustó mucho su estilo y una historia muy bien desarrollada, sorprendente ya que es bastante corta. He disfrutado bastante este relato de terror.

[Lauren Fullington · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this story even more than the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I will be reading this story every halloween.

[Graciela Ramos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ligerito, folclórico germano, bueno para conocer alguito de La cultura Germana.

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another delightful Washington Irving short story.