Short Story – my copy downloaded and read on my Kindle during June 2012
#46 of 2011-12 – #167 of All Time
- 2 nods out of 5 -
The Worm’s first introduction to Washington Irving was many moons ago whilst reading Joseph Heller’s era defining novel, Catch-22. The novel’s central character, the dynamic and eccentric Yossarian, censors letters and signs them under the name of Washington Irving, before moving onto Irving Washington before boredom sets in. As for the writer himself, Irving garners less attention then might have been expected when living in his early nineteenth century hey-day.
Irving once stood at the top of the queue of American literature; but since his time many other writers – such as the likes of Edgar Allan Poe, a younger contemporary – have pushed ahead, building stronger, longer lasting relationships. Irving, it appears, is left to fend for the surviving crumbs of literary adoration. But yet some of his own stories have snowballed to become greater legends. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is the prime example. Reinterpreted and shot time and again for the big screen (most memorably in recent times in Tim Burton’s and Johnny Depp’s adaption from a decade ago), the story retains a resonance with American audiences. The setting is in the revolutionary period, when the continent appeared a more daunting, quizzical and dangerous place.
The story follows the events of Ichabod Crane – a different prospect to the Depp incarnation in the recent movie version. Crane competes with the energetic Abraham “Brom Bones” Van Brunt for the hand of the beautiful eighteen year-old Katrina Van Tassel. Crane meets his end on walking home from a party, when he is confronted by the ghost of a revolutionary war casualty: the Headless Horseman. Crane disappears off the face of the earth, and this results in Brom Bones marrying the younger girl. The ending remains ambiguous; although it is strongly hinted that the Headless Horseman was not a spiteful ghost, but rather Brom Bones himself.
Despite its limited remit, the story remains a bona fide American classic; first printed in 1820, it remains immersed in the national consciousness some two hundred years later. But for readers from elsewhere – yes, the bulk majority of us – it is a read best avoided. Although a brief read, it rarely excites the modern reader. The “classic” factor, of reading such an influential story, is much more the greater reason to touch this story; collecting the stamp, as it were, rather than posting the letter. Washington Irving, it would seem, remains in the shadow of other American greats. On this evidence, Edgar Allan Poe has nothing to worry about.
Read it here:
http://www.bartleby.com/310/2/2.html/
