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Originally published: Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1975.
From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are descendants from the original Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by name of Sleepy Hollow... A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere. Washington Irving
Washington Irving's Life of George Washington (published in five volumes in 1856-59) was the product of his last years and remains his most personal work. Christened with the name of the great general, Irving was blessed by Washington while still a boy of seven, and later came to know many of the prominent figures of the Revolution. In these pages he describes them using firsthand source material and observation. The result is a book which is fascinating not only for its subject (the American Revolution), but also for how it reveals in illuminating detail the personality and humanity of a now remote, towering icon. Here is an intimate portrait of Washington the man, from Virginia youth to colonial commander to commander-in-chief of the patriot army to first president and great guiding force of the American federation. But one cannot read Irving's Life without marveling at the supreme art behind it, for his biography is foremost a work of literature. Charles Neider's abridgment and editing of Irving's long out-of-print classic has created a literary work comparable in importance and elegance to the original. George Washington, A Biography, Neider's title for his edition of Irving's Life, makes the work accessible to modern audiences. The extensive introduction provides a detailed analysis of Irving's life and times, and the difficulties he faced as he worked against his own failing health to finish what he felt was his masterpiece. This new edition of the superb biography of America's first citizen by America's first literary artist remains as fresh and unique today as when it was penned.
Rough draughts of some of the following tales and essays were actually written during a residence in the Alhambra; others were subsequently added, founded on notes and observations made there. Care was taken to maintain local coloring and verisimilitude; so that the whole might present a faithful and living picture of that microcosm, that singular little world into which I had been fortuitously thrown; and about which the external world had a very imperfect idea. It was my endeavor scrupulously to depict its half Spanish, half Oriental character; its mixture of the heroic, the poetic, and the grotesque; to revive the traces of grace and beauty fast fading from its walls; to record the regal and chivalrous traditions concerning those who once trod its courts; and the whimsical and superstitious legends of the motley race now burrowing among its ruins.
Two of Washington Irving’s works of short fiction from his 1819-20 work, The Sketch Book—Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow—are among the most enduringly popular of American classics. In his own day, Irving’s works were widely read in Britain as well as in America; the English novelist William Makepiece Thackeray described him as “the first ambassador whom the New World of Letters sent to the Old.” This edition takes notice of transatlantic literary history with an appendix of reviews from American and British newspapers, and by printing in facing page format the American and British versions of “Traits of Indian Character” (which differed from each other in a variety of interesting ways). Also included are an excerpt from Irving’s first major work, A History of New York; excerpts from a key source that Irving drew on for “Rip Van Winkle”; and a selection of illustrations showing some of the ways in which this character was imagined in nineteenth-century America. With a concise but wide-ranging introduction and extensive explanatory notes, this edition is ideally suited for course use.