The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Wr - Washington Irving [1]
(from “The Wife,” page 68)
A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.
(from “Rip Van Winkle,” page 77)
“Surely,” thought Rip, “I have not slept here all night.”
(from “Rip Van Winkle,” page 81)
There are certain half-dreaming moods of mind, in which we naturally steal away from noise and glare, and seek some quiet haunt, where we may indulge our reveries and build our air castles undisturbed.
(from “The Mutability of Literature,” page 107)
There is no duenna so rigidly prudent, and inexorably decorous, as a superannuated coquette.
(from “The Spectre Bridegroom,” page 121)
The spectre is known, at all the country firesides, by the name of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow.
(from “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” page 164)
In this by-place of nature, there abode, in a remote period of American history, that is to say, some thirty years since, a worthy wight of the name of Ichabod Crane; who sojourned, or, as he expressed it, “tarried,” in Sleepy Hollow, for the purpose of instructing the children of the vicinity.
(from “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” pages 164-165)
On mounting a rising ground, which brought the figure of his fellow-traveller in relief against the sky, gigantic in height, and muffled in a cloak, Ichabod was horror-struck, on perceiving that he was headless!—but his horror was still more increased, on observing that the head, which should have rested on his shoulders, was carried before him on the pommel of the saddle.
(from “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” pages 187-188)
“It may be one of the royal family for aught I know, for they are all stout gentlemen!”
(from “The Stout Gentleman,” page 210)
“A man is never a man till he can defy wind and weather, range woods and wilds, sleep under a tree, and live on bass-wood leaves!”
(from “Dolph Heyliger,” page 251)
I am always at a loss to know how much to believe of my own stories.
(from “To the Reader,” page 289)
“To rescue from oblivion the memory of former incidents, and to render a just tribute of renown to the many great and wonderful transactions of our Dutch progenitors, Diedrich Knickerbocker, native of the city of New York, produces this historical essay.”
(from A History of New York, page 383)
It has already been hinted in this most authentic history, that in the domestic establishment of William the Testy “the gray mare was the better horse”; in other words, that his wife “ruled the roast,” and in governing the governor, governed the province, which might thus be said to be under petticoat government.
(from A History of New York, page 438)
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See “A Note on the Text” for original publication information
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Published in 2006 by Barnes & Noble Classics with new Introduction,
Notes, Note on the Text, Biography, Chronology, Inspired By,
Comments & Questions, and For Further Reading.
Introduction, A Note on the Text, Notes, and For Further Reading
Copyright © 2006 by Peter Norberg.
Note on Washington Irving, The World of Washington Irving and The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow, Inspired by Washington Irving, and Comments & Questions
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