The Sketch Book

This delightful selection of stories and essays was written by Irving under the pseudonym "Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.," and was popular both in America and abroad. In Rip Van Winkle, the title character and Catskill native falls asleep before the American Revolution and awakes 20 years later in the newly formed nation, which seems, in many ways, similar to the colonies of old. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow tells of self-satisfied schoolmaster Ichabod Crane, who is chased out of Sleepy Hollow (and Katrina Van Tassel's embraces) by the headless horseman - and is now rumored to have become a politician. Essay selections focus largely on Irving's observations of England from an American perspective.