Simultaneous reviews exhibit the degree of support Irving gained in the nineteenth century. Although numerous reviewers were aware of inadequacy in Irving's work, their recognition is mainly overwhelming. Not all critics have been thrilled; critical response of the author's work has been diverse over the past two centuries. Nevertheless, most modern critics label Irving as one of America’s greatest writers, accountable for implementing an American style of writing, particularly in short stories. His short stories “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle” are treated as American masterpieces, their legacy so great that they have been introduced to popular culture.
A few issues have overshadowed current literary scholarship on Irving,
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Some discuss the writers need to create an American hero, disconnected and original from ones found in British literature. Others argue that he was the first American writer to identify the possibility of American literature to form the status of Americans. A particular critic, Brian Harding, maintains that the relation between Irving's wok and his views on national identity are not straightforward. Deliberating the author's journey to the West, Brian proclaims the while Irving failed to try to re-involve himself with Americans after a lengthy absence in Europe, A Tour on the Prairies is constructed in a European fashion, with stereotypes and foreign analogies. In Brian’s study of Astoria andCaptain Bonneville, he assumes it is demonstrating Irving's doubt about the American system as much as the industry and abilities of American frontiersmen are …show more content…
A majority of scholars acknowledge that Irving was a notable writer, however, not all agree that all his works is entitled to praise. Some state that while Irving's premiere works were encouraging, his keen verdict to appeal to the British in his writing of The Sketch Book decreased his quality in consecutive poems. Although he did renew himself with American writers with the printing of A Tour on the Prairies, he failed to live up to the possible apparent in his first American works. Publishing over one hundred years earlier, critic Alexander Hill Everett admits that Irving's work languishes from irregular language and agrees that in The Sketch Book Irving lacked some of the “vivacity, freshness and power” that distinguished his earlier works. However, Everett preserves that Irving was an expert at history, admiring A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus as one of the most adept works of
Throughout Irving’s story, he used characterization, irony, the dreams, and other literacy devices to bring The Legend of Sleepy Hollow to life for Irving’s audience.
The readings “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving and The Monster by Stephen Crane are to amazing readings. However, these two texts represent violence and conflicts in different ways, which shows that although they have the same concept their tactic for this same concept is used in a different approach.
Irving uses many other images and scenes within this story that could be delved into further. However, I believe these three main points, along with the knowledge of the political climate of the times, shows Irving’s genius in representing both sides of the political gamut. Irving was able to cater to both the British and the Colonist without offending either side. Irving’s genius was that even though this was an allegory of its time, its elements could represent either or both sides of the conflict during the Revolution. This dual representation in an allegorical story ensured his success, in both countries as a writer. It allowed Irving to make a political statement without taking sides.
The original story by Washington Irving starts out in a small town of Sleepy Hollow. Irving paints an image of bountiful crops, beautiful scenery, and prosperous landowners. Ichabod Crane was a local pedagogue, who taught at the local schoolhouse. He was known for his strict ways and yet he was very popular amongst the families of his students- especially the ones who had ?pretty sisters.? Ichabod enjoyed spending fall evenings with the old widows as they sat by a fire and told stories of ghosts and demons and other supernatural beings. One story that was always told was one of the legendary Headless Horsemen. The tale tells of a soldier who had his head shot off with a cannon ball. His ghost now roamed Sleepy Hollow on his horse, looking for his lost head. In place of his head, sits a jack-o-lantern, which had a fiery glow.
Over time the language of the original text of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Irving has been reworked to accommodate the change in audience. The Heath Anthology of American Literature has an unabridged version of the original wording (1354-1373). A complete copy of the original text of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" can be found in the young adolescent classic section of a bookstore or the juvenile section in the library. A juvenile edition of the text adapted by Arthur Rackham from 1928 was a replicate of the original it is filled with seven colored illustrations and numerous sketching. A young adolescent version adapted by Bryan Brown from 2001 has been abridged to accommodate the current young reader. The format is changed in Brownâs edition. The yo...
Most Americans probably believe our times are different from Washington Irving’s era. After all, almost 200 years have passed, and the differences in technology and civil liberties alone are huge. However, these dissimilarities seem merely surface ones. When reading “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” I find that the world Irving creates in each story is very familiar to the one in which I grew up. The players may have changed, and institutions have mostly replaced roles traditionally taken on by people, but the overall pieces still fit the rural lifestyle of contemporary America.
Litz, A. Walton. American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies, Supplement 2, Part 2. New York: Charles
Irving, Washington. "Rip Van Winkle." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998.
Benoit, Raymond. Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." The Explicator. Washington: Heldref Publications, 1996. "
During the founding of the nation, women were often viewed as subordinate to men. This social prejudice was a major characteristic of the nation’s founding. This characteristic of the early United States is present in both “The Legend of Sleepy Hallow” and “Rip Van Winkle”. In “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” Washington Irving creates the character Katrina Van Tassel. She is used to demonstrate the stereotypes of women at the time. In “Rip Van Winkle” Irving uses, Dame Van Winkle to similarly display negative stereotypes of women. These prejudices against women were not only seen in the founding years of this nation, but for many years to follow.
Pickle, Linda S. "Foreigh-Born Immigrants on the Great Plains Frontier in Fiction and Nonfiction." Desert, Garden, Margin, Range Literature on the American Frontier. Ed. Eric Heyne. New York, NY: Twayne, 1992. 70-89
Washington Irving’s short story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” was adapted into a movie titled “Sleepy Hollow” directed by Tim Burton nearly two centuries after the original publication. When the story was adapted as a film, several extensive changes were made. A short story easily read in one sitting was turned into a nearly two-hour thriller, mystery, and horror movie by incorporating new details and modifying the original version of the story. The short story relates the failed courtship of Katrina Van Tassel by Ichabod Crane. His courtship is cut short by the classic romance antagonist-the bigger, stronger, and better looking Broom Bones. Ichabod wishes to marry Katrina because of her beauty but also because of the wealthy inheritance she will receive when her father, Baltus Van Tassel and stepmother, Lady Van Tassel die. However, the film tells the story of Ichabod Crane as an investigator who is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate the recent decapitations that are occurring. These modifications alter the original story entirely, thus failing to capture the Irving’s true interpretation of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” The film and the original story have similarities and differences in the plot, characters, and setting.
In Washington Irving’s work “Rip Van Winkle,” Irving demonstrates all characteristics of an American Mythology rather humorously. These characteristics affect the story attracting the attention of readers and impacting the reader’s experience of the story by relishing America’s unique attributes and values. In “Rip Van Winkle,” Irving incorporates attributes of American Mythology by setting the story in exciting pastimes, filling the story with strange and exaggerated characters, and featuring magical mysterious events.
Irving, Washington. The Norton Anthology American Literature. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2013. Print.
Have you ever imagined being asleep in the forest for twenty years, coming back home and not knowing what has gone on all those years of your absence? Rip Van Winkle went through that, and had to come back home and face some real changes. The author Washington Irving has some interesting characters whom he puts in his short stories. Irving puts some characters in his short stories to reflect on some of his life. For example, Irving has similarities between Rip Van Winkle being asleep in the forest 20 years and Irving was in Europe for seventeen writing short stories and being the governor’s aid and military secretary. These two situations are similar, because they both didn’t know what they were going to come back too and were gone for such a long period of time. Irving does put some of his own life into his short stories and with a reason for his self-reflective works.