Description
Before the fall premiere of the new television series, read the original legend of Ichabod Crane, the Headless Horseman, and the singularly spooky town of Sleepy Hollow in Washington Irving's classic book
When Washington Irving first published this collection of essays, sketches, and tales—originally entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.—readers greeted it with enthusiasm, and Irving emerged as America's first successful professional author.
This volume includes "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle," two of America's most recognizable and loved works of fiction and displays Irving's ability to depict American landscapes and culture so vividly that readers feel themselves a part of them. And it is on the basis of these two classic tales that Irving is generally credited with inventing the short story as a distinct literary genre. Also included here are gently ironic pieces about life in England that reflect the author's interest in the traditions of the Old World and his longings for his home in the New.
Table of Contents
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other StoriesIntroduction
A Note on the Text
Preface to the Revised Edition (1848)
The Author's Account of Himself
The Voyage
Roscoe
The Wife
Rip Van Winkle
English Writers on America
Rural Life in England
The Broken Heart
The Art of Book Making
A Royal Poet
The Country Church
The Widow and Her Son
A Sunday in London
The Boar's Head Tavern, East Cheap
The Mutability of Literature
Rural Funerals
The Inn Kitchen
The Spectre Bridegroom
Westminster Abbey
Christmas
The Stage Coach
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day
The Christmas Dinner
London Antiques
Little Britain
Stratford-on-Avon
Traits of Indian Character
Philip of Pokanoket
John Bull
The Pride of the Village
The Angler
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
L'Envoy
Appendix A: "Prospectus" to the First American Edition
Appendix B: "Advertisement" to the First British Edition
Notes
Suggestions for Further Reading
