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he did it, not because he had the ignoble ambition to be ranked as “a fine writer,” but because he was free from ambition, equally ignoble, of simulating a passion which he did not feel. The period which elapsed between the publication of Knickerbocker’s history and The Sketch-Book was ten years. During this time his mind acquired the habit of tranquilly contemplating the objects which filled his imagination, and what it lost in spontaneous vigor it gained in sureness of insight and completeness of representation. “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” have not the humorous inspiration of some passages in

Knickerbocker, but perhaps they give more permanent delight, for the scenes and characters are so harmonized that they have the effect of a picture, in which all the parts combine to produce one charming whole. Besides, Irving is one of those exceptional authors who are regarded by their readers as personal friends, and the felicity of nature by which he obtained this distinction was expressed in that amenity, that amiability of tone, which some of his austere critics have called elegant feebleness.

—from American Literature, and Other Papers (1887)

Questions

1. Is there anything American about Irving’s writing other than the occasional settings and characters, anything in his spirit or sensibility or way of looking at things that strike you as typically American?

2. Analyze a typical passage of Irving’s prose. What’s good about it? What’s not so good?

3. Hazlitt writes that Irving’s writings are “literary anachronisms.” Poe pretty much agrees. Thackeray describes him as “one of the most charming masters of our lighter language.” Edwin Whipple describes “that amenity, that amiability of tone, which some of his austere critics have called elegant feebleness.” Is this condescension deserved? Or can Irving’s absence of bite or partisanship be evidence of great tolerance, or even an aloof philosophic perspective in which everything is understood and therefore forgiven?

4. In some of Irving’s tales there is what we might call a “spooky” or gothic dimension. Is this dimension the supernatural, or is the supernatural used as a metaphor for the psychological realm or for fear of the unknown?

For Further Reading

Bell, Michael Davitt. The Development of American Romance: The Sacrifice of Relation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.

Irving, Pierre M. The Life and Letters of Washington Irving. 4 vols., 1862-1864. 3 vols. New York: Putnam, 1973.

McClary, Ben, ed. Washington Irving and the House of Murray: Geoffrey Crayon Charms the British, 1817-1856. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1969.

McLamore, Richard V. “The Dutchman in the Attic: Claiming an Inheritance in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon.” American Literature 72 (March 2000), pp. 31-57.

Rubin-Dorsky, Jeffrey. Adrift in the Old World: The Psychological Pilgrimage of Washington Irving. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.

Tuttleton, James W., ed. Washington Irving: The Critical Reaction. New York: AMS Press, 1993.

Wagenknecht, Edward. Washington Irving: Moderation Displayed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1962.

Other Works Cited in the Introduction

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. General editors: Joseph Slater and Douglas Emory Wilson. 6 vols. Cambridge, MA, and London: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1971-2003.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne. General editors: William Charvat, Roy Harvey Pearce, Claude M. Simpson, and Thomas Woodson. 23 vols. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1962-1997.

Horwitz, Howard.” ‘Rip Van Winkle’ and Legendary National Memory.” Western Humanities Review 58:2 (Fall 2004), pp. 34-47.

Irving, Washington. The Complete Works of Washington Irving. General editors: Henry A. Pochmann, Herbert L. Kleinfield, and Richard Dilworth Rust. 30 vols. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969-1970, and Boston: Twayne, 1976-1989.

Pattee, Fred Lewis. The Development of the American Short Story: An Historical