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  • Published: 1 October 1999
  • ISBN: 9781101173787
  • Imprint: PEN US eBook Adult
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 368

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories




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.

  • Published: 1 October 1999
  • ISBN: 9781101173787
  • Imprint: PEN US eBook Adult
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 368

Other books in the series

The New Penguin Book Of American Short Stories, From Washington Irving To Lydia Davis
A Dog's Heart
The Black Tulip
The Lady of the Camellias
Selected Poetry
On Sparta
Man and Superman
Saint Joan
Botchan
Kusamakura
Military Dispatches

About the author

Washington Irving

Washington Irving was born 3 April 1783 in New York. He trained as lawyer before deciding to pursue a literary career and, with his brother, producing a series of satirical essays and poems. Irving wrote under pseudonyms at first: ‘Diedrich Knickerbocker’ for ‘A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty’, and ‘Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.’ for ‘Sketch Book’. The latter included pieces inspired by his travels to London during his unsuccessful efforts to save the family business from bankruptcy, and Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, for which he became famous. Irving worked in Spain as a diplomatic attaché, where he wrote ‘Legends of the Alhambra’ in 1832, and London as secretary to the US legation. His final work was a vast biography of George Washington published in 1855. He died on 28 November 1859.

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