The Complete Tales of Washington Irving

by Washington Irving, Charles Neider (Editor)

Washington Irving (1783–1859) was the first American literary artist to earn his living solely through his writings and the first to enjoy international acclaim. In addition to his long public service as a diplomat, Irving was amazingly prolific: His collected works fill forty volumes that encompass essays, history, travel writings, and multi-volume biographies of Columbus and Washington. But it is Irving’s mastery of suspense, characterization, tempo, and irony that transforms his fiction into virtuoso performances, earning him his reputation as the father of the American short story. Charles Neider has gathered all sixty-one of Irving's tales, originally scattered throughout his many collections of nonfiction essays and sketches, into one magnificent volume. Together, they reveal his wide range: besides the expected classics like "Rip Van Winkle," "The Spectre Bridegroom," "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," and "The Devil and Tom Walker," his fiction embraces realistic tales, ghost stories, parodies, legends, fables, and satires. For those familiar only with secondhand retellings of Irving's most famous tales, this collection offers the opportunity to step inside Washington Irving's imagination and partake of its innumerable and timeless pleasures.

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

840 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

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

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rip Van Winkle - 5 Stars
The Spectre Bridegroom - 4 Stars
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - 5 Stars
The Stout Gentleman - 3.5 Stars
The Student of Salamanca - 5 Stars
Annette Delarbre - 4.5 Stars
Dolph Heyliger - 5 Stars

Strange Stories by a Nervous Gentleman
The Great Unknown [a preface] - 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
Adventure of the German Student - 5 Stars
Adventure of the Mysterious Picture - 4 Stars
Adventure of the Mysterious Stranger - 4.5 Stars
The Story of the Young Italian - 5 Stars

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 Great Expectations - 5 Stars
Grave Reflections of a Disappointed Man - 4 Stars
The Booby Squire - 4 Stars
The Strolling Manager - 4.5 Stars

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

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

The Adventure of the Mason - 4 Stars
Legend of the Arabian Astrologer - 4 Stars
Legend of Prince Ahmed Al Kamel - 4.5 Stars
Legend of the Moor's Legacy - 4 Stars
Legend of the Three Beautiful Princesses - 5 Stars
Legend of the Rose of the Alhambra - 4 Stars
The Governor and the Notary - 3.5 Stars
Governor Manco and the Soldier - 4.5 Stars
Legend of the Two Discreet Statues - 4.5 Stars
Spanish Romance - 3.5 Stars
The Legend of the Enchanted Soldier - 3.5 Stars
Wolfert's Roost - 5 Stars
The Creole Village - 3.5 Stars
Mountjoy - 4 Stars
The Widow's Ordeal - 3.5 Stars
The Grand Prior of Minorca - 5 Stars
A Contented Man - 5 Stars
Guests from Gibbet Island - 4.5
The Early Experiences of Ralph Ringwood - 5 Stars
The Count Van Horn - 4 Stars
Don Juan—A Spectral Research - 5 Stars
Legend of the Engulphed Convent - 5 Stars
The Phantom [Enchanted] Island - 4 Stars

[regina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Literature from this era isn't for everyone. You have to be willing to fully engage in the wordplay. You must enjoy British humour, for although the author was American, his style was nursed in old Blighty.

Unlike most lit today, Irving's tales shun dialogue in favour of rich, complex and often hilarious narrative.

Slow down, pick a grassy spot under a tree, and allow yourself to be transported.

[John P · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, this is a BIG collection. There are a lot of stories in here each with a full complement of words.

I had only heard of his two 'major' works - Sleepy Hollow & Van Winkle - and knew of them through seeing the cartoon versions and hearing about them over the years; they are certainly part of our American literary heritage. But I had not read the originals nor had any idea that Irving authored so many other writings.

After reading the introduction (which, by the way, is interesting and educational all on its own), Sleepy Hollow took on a new character for me. It is a tale populated with vividly described characters for sure, but the tale itself lies over an equally vividly described location - a sort of historical document of the tale's locale in the eastern US. It's a region I have just recently visited, in fact, and so the descriptions and landmarks were especially engaging. He reuses this and other nearby locations in a number of additional tales filling out quite a complete overview of the region, its people and their customs, not to mention their folklore.

A point that I had never picked up before about Van Winkle: yes, he fell asleep in the mountains only to return to his town after many years but the fact that he had slept through the revolutionary war was never made clear (at least not to me). A great deal of the tale's charm rests in his discovery of the differences caused by the revolution, and this side of the story was a pleasant surprise.

There are a number of tales set in Europe and these again are very descriptive of the areas, people, and their romantic fairy tales [my description] and lore. Some are a little light on substance but there are enough gems in here for me to strongly recommend this work. Because of this somewhat inconsistent quality, I give only 4 stars to the collection although there is 5-star work within.

Last, I have to say that Irving qualifies as a word-master. It must be discouraging to would-be writers to come across someone who can, without apparent effort, convey the most subtle nuance of feeling, situation, or conflict and do it in a convincing and elegant manner. He reminds me of Hawthorne in this regard.

[w gall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Washington Irving makes his stories interesting; you definitely want to read to the end of them to see how to things turn out. There were unfamiliar words, but most of them became clear in context. Also, they contain a lot of adventure, unusual characters, and a variety of settings in the world.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Along with Poe, good quick short stories to read when you're in the mood for some crafty language and an old-fashioned scare (Legend of Sleepy Hollow). I should have kept my dictionary close-by as I was going through this one, but despite frequency of his 50-cent words, I thoroughly enjoyed these tales and felt very sophisticated when I was finished.

[Rhonda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't realize Washington Irving wrote so many stories! Out of this complete collection of tales, I read "Knickerbocker's History of New York" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."

I had high expectations for Knickerbocker's since I've certainly heard it is funny, and at first I was disappointed. But the book gets better as it goes along, and the renditions of New Amsterdam's history during Stuyvesant's era were entertaining and funny enough here and there to make me laugh out loud. Irving's descriptions of military actions and of government officials are particularly humorous.

Sleepy Hollow was great, of course. I've read it before and thoroughly enjoyed the re-read.

I'm setting aside the collection now to continue my project of reading works by authors in the Hall of Fame of Great Americans, but would like to return to some more of Irving's short stories and his biography of George Washington down the road.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not read all the stories in this book, but certainly the dozen I did read were worthwhile. Despite the fact that he wrote almost 200 years ago, his stories are still fresh and extremely accessible. He carries over well into modern times, which is not alwasy the case with authors of that era.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a big fan of the stories from "The Sketch Book," the others that are included here are just as good. "The Student of Salamanca" and "The Devil and Tom Walker" are both particularly good.

Makes me wish that there was still a sitting-around-the-inn-storytelling-culture in the US.

[Countess of Frogmere · Rating 5 out of 5]

Washington Irving's tales are a cornerstone of American folklore, including "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Washington Irving is one of my favorites. Especially his tales of an old English Christmas - I read them every December!

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot more depth to these stories than the kids versions, that's for sure! Sleepy Hollow is haunting, pun intended. Rip Van Winkle is also a little more complicated than I gave it credit.

[P.S. Winn · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many stories ranging from 3 stars to many five stars give this collection a four star average. Be prepared to be taken on some amazing and many dark journeys.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Language: G (0 swears)
Romance/Sex: G (love, marriage)
Violence: PG (fighting, death)
Appropriate Age: 8+ (antiquated language, some scary subjects)
Triggers/Warnings: ghosts, death, abuse, prison, war, antiquated race/gender treatment

Overall Irving writing is amazing! His writing is so skilled, cleaver, beautiful, and timeless. Like this line from Ringwood: I was a stout boy for my
years, while my uncle was a little wiffet of a man;
one that in Kentucky we would not call even an
`individual;' nothing more than a `remote circumstance.'

His story telling was diverse too: ghost stories, romances, adventures, tragedies!

After listening to a bunch I decided to rate each story individually. Although listening to the audiobook sometimes it was hard to keep track of which story was which, as Irving was the GOAT at layering stories! And honestly I just missed rating a few mediocre ones because I didn't care that much. It's a lot, but it's fun for me to remember my favorites.


Rip Van Winkle **** sweet, slow, cleaver, classic
The Spectre Bridegroom ****** very cleaver, very sweet, favorite- friend sent to unknown fiancé to announce death of real betrothed, but instead falls in love
Sleepy Hallow **** classic fun
The Stout Gentleman ****** awesome super short- This boarder just really wants to see this other boarder SPOILER he does
Student of Salamanca ***** student falls in love with scholar's daughter, but evil guy steals her, condemns scholar to Spanish Inquisition, SPOILER student really wealthy and saves her.
Annette Delarbre-
Dolph Heyliger *** troubled kid works for doctor before a ghost guides him to a ship that he falls off of. Kid meets hunting party, falls in love. Hears from a ghost where a treasure is, lives happily ever after. But only a few sentences about turning his life around.

Tales by a nervous gentleman - 3-5 layers of story telling
The Hunting-Dinner - guests share ghost stories because one guest's room is "haunted" then share meal, fun ****
The Adventure of my Uncle **** ghost story with unsatisfying ending
The Adventure of my Aunt ***** "ghost story" with fun twist and cleaver character
The Bold Dragoon or The Adventure of my Grandpa *** Grandpa's furniture became a dragon
Adventure of the German Student ***** short but good like Scary Stories to tell in the dark - he married a corpse
Adventure of the mysterious picture ** picture watching him, no ending
Adventure of the mysterious stranger ** not much
The story of the young Italian ** falls in love, kills in passion, repents

Buckthorne and His Friends
Literary Life **
A literary dinner ***
The club of queer fellows **
The poor-devils Author **
A practical philosopher ***** people only find you interesting for who you are, not who you are trying to be so funny imitate someone else
Buckthorn or the man of Great expectations ****
Grave reflections of a disappointed man ****
The booby squire ***
The strolling manager **
The Italian banditti ***
The Inn at Terracina
Adventure of the Little Antiquary
The belated travellers
Adventures of the popkins family
The painters Adventure
The story of the bandit chieftain **
The story of the young robber **** SO sad
The adventure of the Englishman ***

The Money-Diggers
Hell gate **
Kidd the Pirate **
The devil and Tom Walker **
Wolfert Webber or golden dreams ***** gold digger, gets chased by a ghost, ends up being rich because of his land
Adventure of the black fisherman (This tale occurs within Wolfert Webber) ***
The adventure of the Mason *****
Legend of the Arabian astrologer ***** cleaver astrologer steals princess from corrupt king
Legend of the prince Ahmed Al Kamel - The pilgrim of love ***** cleaver and sweet
Legend of the Moor's Legacy * makes all women look bad and Moors a little evil
Legend of the three beautiful princesses *** left handed king tried to protect daughter, two of the three elope
Legend of the Rose and the Alhambra ***
The governor and the notary **
Governor manco and the soldier ***** cleaver, happy ending
Legend of the two discreet statues **
Spanish romance ***
The legend of the enchanted soldier ***
Wolfert's roost ** more of a history than story
The Creole village *** history and appreciation for life of the slaves, not modernly PC
Mountjoy *** interesting, about a know-it-all put in his place, but not a favorite
The widow's ordeal ***** exciting, fun, and romantic
The Grand prior of minorca *** fine ghost story
The contented man ***** cleaver, happiness is all in the attitude, great!
Guests from gibbet Island *** decent ghost story
The early experiences of Ralph Ringwood **** nice mostly undeserved happiness for a charming youth
The count Van Horn * a tragedy without purpose or redemption
Don Juan: a special research ** probably would be better if I knew Don Juan better
Legend of the engulphed Covent **
The phantom island ***** I love that the book ended with another Rip Van Winkle story but this time one is of an ambitious sailor with a less happy ending.

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is quite a brick, weighing in at a hefty 850 pages! It's not Washington Irving's faut, of course, but the book was just impossible to manage physically. I wasn't ever able to hold or read it comfortably.

Irving's writing style is similar to Edgar Allan Poe (they were near-contemporaries, although Irving's heyday was about 15 years earlier). Most of the stories start with lots of throat-clearing and scene-setting before the action takes off. I generally enjoy this early-19th century romantic verbosity and slow pace, but perhaps not 850 pages' worth. So I chose several stories that I had either heard of (Sleepy Hollow and RVW, of course) or that were highlighted in the helpful introduction.

My primary takeaway was the gloriously fun and archaic vocabulary! Check out these beauties: termagant, virago (there are so many hilarious words for unpleasant women), galligaskins, assiduity, henpecked, rubicund, jerkin, flagon, quaffed, fowling-piece, gambol, "the rheumatism" (adding a "the" to old-timey disease names never fails to make me giggle), bilious, potation, sylvan, punctilious, palfrey, stripling, wight, cognomen, psalmody, eel-pot, peradventure, swain, pillion, purlieu, slammerkin, and the all-time champion, ycleped! For real! I was so taken with these magnificent words that I often lost track of the actual stories. It's a good thing I didn't read the whole book or this list (and this review) would be 100 times longer.

[Veysel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Düşüncemi söyleme yürekliliğine sık sık fırsatım oldu ki kadınlarla çoğu karşı konulmaz kader yenilgilerine uğradım. Bir adamın ruh halini yıkan ve onu yere serip geride bırakan bu felaketler, daha yumuşak bir sevişmenin tüm enerjisini ortaya çıkarıyor gözüküyor, hem çok korkusuzluk veriyor, hem de onların karakterini yükseltiyor ki arada bir de yüceliğe yaklaştırıyor. Bir kadının yumuşak ve hassas bakışından hiçbir şey daha dokunaklı değildir, tüm zayıflık ve bağımlılığına rağmen, üstelik her saçma pürüzle hayat dolan, hayatın refah dolu yollarını arşınlarken, aniden rahatlatıcı biri olmanın zihinsel gücünde yükselirken, hem bir talihsizlik durumunda kocasını destekliyor, hem de ona katlanıyor; sarsılmaz metanetiyle, sıkıntılar şiddetiyle patladığı anda.

[M Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than Hawthorne, worse than Poe.

Irving writes in the style fashionable 200 years ago when everything moved much, much more slowly. As a result, one almost has to meditate before reading this or one will get very impatient with the author. To compound the issue, the better tales are in the second half of the book: it took me literally years to finish this book. Once my world slowed down and I got to the second half of the book, it became quite enjoyable. The first half of the book, when my world was going too fast, was as enjoyable as reading Das Kapital.

[Audrey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not get 5 pages into this, the way the guy writes is so difficult to read/comprehend. I read a lot of older literature, but I'd read a whole page of this and realize I hadn't understood a word of what was just said.

[Mommalibrarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

So old they are tedious to read. Unfortunately Disney has improved those it touched. I leave this book to the scholars.

[Laura Daniels · Rating 3 out of 5]

Christmas gift from my son, who resides in the Hudson Valley. I enjoyed reading Rip Van Winkle. I came away from the story with a poem and two haikus. I love a NY fairytale

[harper · Rating 1 out of 5]

sooooo hard to get through

[Natacha Pavlov · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Partial delightful read of the volume; namely Strange Stories by A Nervous Gentleman & a few others.

[Sierra Ghironzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fell in love with Washington Irving in high school. When you meet a writer who feels like your reading your own words from a past life, you cannot help but read all of their work over and over again.

[treva · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you decide to read this, you will have to don your Racial and Gender Stereotypes Filter. Because I weary of exoticizing peoples who are not Caucasian and/or not Christian, I was underwhelmed by many of the stories that came from the Alhambra, which often deal with fables or fairy tales about the Moors in Spain. Dusky maids, curses placed on worthy Christian knights, that sort of thing.

I feel Irving is really at his best with things like Sleepy Hollow, Rip van Winkle, and the Knickerbocker tales -- the ghost stories, pirate stories, and legends of the early Dutch settlers of New York. Maybe a good case for the 'write what you know' camp. They are often laced with biting social commentary, and I thoroughly enjoyed the tale of Mountjoy, with its utterly clueless hero.

So there is some good stuff here. It didn't blow my mind or knock my socks off. And be prepared to go head to head with the cultural insensitivities of Irving's time.

[Patra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hadn't realized Washington Irving had written so many short stories until I came across this book. I'm a huge fan of the short story, so of course I had to try it out. I ended up enjoying Irving's stories, but not loving them. I think he would be very good in small doses, but not all at once. I had several favorites - The Student of Salamanca (a classic love story with a little mystery), The Adventure of the German Student (a scary/horror story) and MountJoy (a cute story about a boy that thinks he knows everything). I actually didn't really care for his most famous stories: Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. His man topic is the supernatural. He seems to have loved a story that was truly fiction - the less realistic, the better.

[MariMel · Rating 4 out of 5]

No wonder Irving was America's first great author. His writing was lovely - witty, charming and varied. Although reading 800 pages was a lot of Irving, and slow plots by modern standards, it was fascinating to see his wide range of topics from the charming but sentimental Tales of the Alhambra to lots of scary ghost stories (oddly enough, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow wasn't scary), tales of travel and adventures, many cultures and locations represented. This deepened my affection for Irving.

[Prmom]

Checked out in anticipation of our trip to Historic Hudson, Sleepy Hollow tour. Saw his grave and home and the backdrop of his writing. Got the children the graphic novel version of LSH to follow. Will also read Rip Van Winkle and Dolph Heyliger (his most acclaimed short story). Enjoying more while experiencing Irving's home.

[Severind Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm trying to figure out where the four stars came from, because as I recall it...most of these stories were not memorable. Not even the ones I expected to be. I suppose it wasn't a bad read. But there were many stories I skimmed through. Read it if you like classics. Or if you REALLY like The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, I guess.

[Peg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great to revisit some of my favorite Washington Irving Tales, but too much to sit and read the book from cover to cover. Have purchased a copy (used Amazon) and look forward to savoring the rest of the stories at a leisurely pace.

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great storyteller!

[Barbara]

I don't remember this at all....