The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

In other words, it’s a place that seems removed from modernity-modernity, in this case, being 1820. They are like those little nooks of still water which border a rapid stream where we may see the straw and bubble riding quietly at anchor or slowly revolving in their mimic harbor, undisturbed by the rush of the passing current.” “…population, manners, and customs remain fixed, while the great torrent of migration and improvement, which is making such incessant changes in other parts of this restless country, sweeps by them unobserved. The ghost aspect comes from the setting-Tarrytown, a sleepy, dreamy village in the Hudson valley where, Irving tells us: The main body of the story is more like a sit-com than a ghost story. Ichabod is a selfish moocher, Katrina is a vapid tease, and Brom is what we would today call a jock frat boy. These are the three main characters, and they’re all kind of humorously unlikable. One thing that’s interesting is that Ichabod seems to be interested in her largely for a wealth-whether he has affection or even mere lust for her seems beside the point.īut another of Katrina’s suitors, the large, vigorous, Brom Bones (actually Brom Van Brunt, but his nickname is Brom Bones) does not take kindly to the girl he’d been wooing spending all her time with the awkward schoolmaster. He’s mean to his students, unless he sees an opportunity of mooching free meals off their mothers or flirting with their older sisters.Įventually, Ichabod’s fancy is caught by Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter of the wealthy Baltus Van Tassel. He is-if I may cut through the florid 19 th-century lingo-kind of a jerk. It tells the story of Ichabod Crane, a schoolteacher in a region of New York known as Tarrytown in the early 19th-century. “Geoffrey Crayon” being a pseudonym of Washington Iriving. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is a short story, originally published in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane, by John Quidor (1858)

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving