The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon
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| Author | Washington Irving |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | |
| Released | 1819-1820 |
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, written by Washington Irving, is a collection of essays and short stories, including Irving's best-known works, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle." Other tales include "Roscoe," "The Broken Heart," "The Art of Book-making," "A Royal Poet," "The Spectre Bridegroom," "Westminster Abbey," "Little Britain," and "John Bull." Irving's Sketch Book, followed by James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, became the first works of American literature widely known in Britain and Europe.
Surprisingly, for a work so associated with American literature, little more than five of the thirty-three chapters deal with American subjects: the essays "English Writers on America," "The Traits of Indian Character," "Philip of Pokanoket: An Indian Memoir," and parts of "The Author's Account of Himself" and "The Angler"; and the short stories "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Most of the remainder of the book consists of vignettes of English life and landscape, written with the author's characteristic charm while he lived in England. Irving wrote in a preface for a later edition:
- It was not my intention to publish [the chapters] in England, being conscious that much of their contents could be interesting only to American readers, and, in truth, being deterred by the severity with which American productions had been treated by the British press.[1]
The book was serialized in seven parts in America during 1819-1820, then published in book form in America and England in 1820. Two of the book's early admirers were Sir Walter Scott (who called it "positively beautiful")[2] and Lord Byron (who said of the book, "I know it by heart").[3]
One of the lasting influences of The Sketch Book came from its cycle of five Christmas stories, portraying an idealized and old-fashioned Yule celebration at an English country manor. Most of these customs had in fact been forgotten in England, and were revived there and in America only after Irving wrote about them. Charles Dickens later credited Irving as a strong influence on his own Christmas writings, including the classic A Christmas Carol.
[edit] References
- ^ Irving's preface to the revised edition of The Sketch Book.
- ^ Letter quoted by Irving in the preface to the revised edition of The Sketch Book.
- ^ Warner, Charles Dudley (2004). Washington Irving. Kessinger Publishing, 30. ISBN 1-4179-9953-5.
[edit] Sources
