The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories

by Washington Irving, Elizabeth L. Bradley (Introduction), Elizabeth L. Bradley (Noted by)

Overview

"Time hasn't dulled the suspense and humor of Irving's chilling tale....The added treat here is the inviting art of Will Moses." --Parents' Choice

Told true to the original, the tale of the Headless Horseman and his effect on Ichabod Crane is enhanced by brooding, fitting folk-art illustrations.

"Will Moses, the great-grandson of Grandma Moses, has illuminated the original with a fluent retelling and handsome illustrations in an eminently suitable folk-art style....The dynamic full-color illustrations make the book spectacular....Simply splendid!" --The Horn Book, starred review

"The text is lively and compelling [and] the primitive paintings enhance the Hudson Valley setting." --School Library Journal

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780698181595
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/30/2014
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	771,331
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Washington Irving (1783-1859) was an American writer of short stories, essays, and histories. His most well-known works, “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” are enduring classics that were originally published in 1819 and 1820, respectively.

Krista Madsen lives in Sleepy Hollow, New York, where she is a consultant for the regional nonprofit Historic Hudson Valley, writes features for the Hudson Independent, records local oral histories, and runs the wordsmithery Sleepy Hollow, Ink. She is also the creator of #SleepyHollowShorts film festival and the author of the novels Degas Must Have Loved a Dancer and Four Corners. 

Read an Excerpt

The Author's Account of Himself

I am of this mind with Homer, that as the snaile that crept out of her shel was turned eftsoones into a Toad, and thereby was forced to make a stoole to sit on; so the traveller that stragleth from his owne country is in a short time transformed into so monstrous a shape that he is faine to alter his mansion with his manners and to live where he can, not where he would.

I was always fond of visiting new scenes and observing strange characters and manners. Even when a mere child I began my travels and made many tours of discovery into foreign parts and unknown regions of my native city; to the frequent alarm of my parents and the emolument of the town cryer. As I grew into boyhood I extended the range of my observations. My holy day afternoons were spent in rambles about the surrounding country. I made myself familiar with all its places famous in history or fable. I knew every spot where a murder or robbery had been committed or a ghost seen. I visited the neighbouring villages and added greatly to my stock of knowledge, by noting their habits and customs, and conversing with their sages and great men. I even journeyed one long summer's day to the summit of the most distant hill, from whence I stretched my eye over many a mile of terra incognita, and was astonished to find how vast a globe I inhabited.

This rambling propensity strengthened with my years. Books of voyages and travels became my passion, and in devouring their contents I neglected the regular exercises of the school. How wistfully would I wander about the pier heads in fine weather, and watch the parting ships, bound to distant climes. With what longing eyes would I gaze after their lessening sails, and waft myself in imagination to the ends of the earth.

Further reading and thinking, though they brought this vague inclination into more reasonable bounds, only served to make it more decided. I visited various parts of my own country, and had I been merely a lover of fine scenery, I should have felt little desire to seek elsewhere its gratification, for on no country have the charms of nature been more prodigally lavished. Her mighty lakes, like oceans of liquid silver; her mountains with their bright aerial tints; her valleys teeming with wild fertility; her tremendous cataracts thundering in their solitudes; her boundless plains waving with spontaneous verdure; her broad deep rivers, rolling in solemn silence to the ocean; her trackless forests, where vegetation puts forth all its magnificence; her skies kindling with the magic of summer clouds and glorious sunshine-no, never need an American look beyond his own country for the sublime and beautiful of natural scenery.

But Europe held forth the charms of storied and poetical association. There were to be seen the masterpieces of art, the refinements of highly cultivated society, the quaint peculiarities of ancient and local custom. My native country was full of youthful promise; Europe was rich in the accumulated treasures of age. Her very ruins told the history of times gone by, and every mouldering stone was a chronicle. I longed to wander over the scenes of renowned achievement-to tread as it were in the footsteps of antiquity-to loiter about the ruined castle-to meditate on the falling tower-to escape in short, from the commonplace realities of the present, and lose myself among the shadowy grandeurs of the past.

Table of Contents

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow [1820]
Rip Van Winkle [1820]
The Spectre Bridegroom [1820]
The Mutability of Literature [1820]
Westminster Abbey [1820]
The Wife [1820]
Mountjoy [1820]
Adventure of the German Student [1824]
Adventure of the Mysterious Stranger [1824]
The Adventure of My Uncle [1824]
The Adventure of My Aunt [1824]
The Story of the Young Italian [1824]
The Devil and Tom Walker [1824]

Editorial Reviews

"Washington Irving... makes Nathaniel Hawthorne read like Dr. Seuss!"

From the Publisher