Customer Reviews

The Complete Tales of Washington Irving

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Some give the sheaf to Charles Brockden Brown but I far prefer the mellow stylings of Washington Irving, the sage of Tarrytown. When I was a boy I was introduced to this splendid body of work by one of my grade school teachers, a collateral relative of Washington Irving, a man who hailed from upstate New York and who carried in his bloodlines some of the authentically spooky platelets of colonial America. During the Napoleonic period the US was not necessarily a pretty place to live in, and Irving's famous story THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN shows us some of the dark underbelly of American life. You really weren't safe out of your own good, and at night travel was even more dangerous. Plus, as anyone who's read the story of Ichabod Crane knows, people were just as prone to jeer and mock the funny-looking as they are today. The story is heartbreaking on two levels, the naturalistic and the symbolic. We all know someone like Ichabod Crane, and many of us find ourselves mirrored in his lonely gaze and terrifying gallop through Hessian country. Irving, like Hawthorne, wrote out many of his tales swearing they were as "his grandfather told him," and thus they are set in a period before his own, a misty place of the past that he knew how to make terrifyingly real and relevant.

My teacher also reminded us that Washington Irving was a very cultured man who believed, like Johnny Appleseed, in planting America with the fruits of other, older lands, so that among his stories you will find some from Europe, re-told to make them apropos and socially relevant for the rawness of a new world.

For horror and fright Washington Irving has few rivals, and the bonus is an added richness as of old apples carpeting a winter meadow, and thus this book, edited by a Twain expert, smells like spicy cider on New Years Eve; lots of good cheer along with your ghosts.

Washington Irving will always be the "Father of American Literature". This collection of stories is an excellent introduction as to why he was such a great writer. Of course, his two most famous tales are here -- "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle". You also have such gems as "The Stout Gentleman" and other various lesser-known tales from his books. Contrary to how many dull, modern critics today pass him off with disdain for not being "deep enough", these stories will prove otherwise. They are thought provoking and engaging. Take for instance, the narrator in "The Stout Gentleman". He is a traveler who becomes fascinated with a loud, demanding, unseen boarder who occupies a room upstairs at the inn where he happens to be staying. The brilliance of the story rests in the narrator's brief, consuming obsession with exactly who and what kind of a person the stout gentleman is. This collection only brings together all of Irving's fiction; however, his sketches, histories, and biographies are also highly recommended.

Such a great writer and such imagination! Loved to read his stories as a child and now as an adult. The collection of all his stories together in one book is too good...I consider this book to be a classic.

This wonderful collection proves once and for all that there is more to Irving than "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". The stories contained within this volume are wonderfully told and sparkle with imagination. The pieces from "The Alahambra" were the most impressive.

I very much enjoy the writers of earlier times for their leisurely pace. This collection of Mr. Irving's tales did not disappoint me. Living in Louisiana, I found "The Creole Village" of particular interest; I only wish it had been longer.

(This review refers to the PUFFIN Anthology.)

This Puffin anthology presents five of Irving's short stories--tales of fantasy, legend and unrequited love--all set in rural New York and Europe, orignally published in 1820. His literary genius
was quickly evident; the elegant style contributed to his
accolade as "the father of American literature." Despite minimal dialogue the author captivates serious readers with his lush descriptions of scenery, bizarre twists of fate or

imagination, often interspersed with touches of wry humor.

Examining the follies of the human mind, as well as the foibles of the human heart, Irving has chosen the following subjects:
romance, ghosts, ambition, naivety, and pedantry. RIP VAN WINKLE and THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW are set in Dutch New York; THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM in the forests of Germany. THE PRIDE OF THE VILLAGE takes place in rural, Hardyesque England, while MOUNTJOY returns readers to Yankee New York state. This anthology provides delectable reading for an armchair by the hearth--especially in chilly, hobgoblin weather--by a premier raconteur
and US diplomat.