The Sketch Book Of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. - Moorish Chronicles

I stepped upon the land of my forefathers - but felt than I was a stranger in the land. With these words, Washington Irving expresses the dilemma of every American artist in the nineteenth century. The Sketch Book (1820-1) looks simultaneously towards audiences on both sides of the Atlantic, as Irving explores the uneasy relationship of an American writer to English literary traditions. He sketches a series of encounters with the cultural shrines of the parent nation, and in two brilliant experiments with tales transplanted from Europe creates the first classic American short stories, 'Rip Van Winkle' and 'The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow'. Based on Irving's final revision of his most popular work, this new edition includes comprehensive explanatory notes of The Sketch-Book's sources for the modern reader. In her introduction, Susan Manning suggests that the author forged a new idiom, the 'Literary Picturesque', to accommodate and turn to advantage his dilemma of dual literary allegiances.

THE SKETCH BOOK OF GEOFFREY CRAYON, GENT. WA4SHINGTON IRVING, I REPRINTED F R O M THE O R I G I N A L EDITION. -- ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST A M E R I C A N E D I T I O N -- THE following writings are published on experiment should they please, they may be followed by others. The writer will have to contend with some disadvantages. He is unsettled in his abode, subject to interruptions, and has his share of cares and vicissitudes. He cannot, therefore, romise a regular plan, nor regular periods of publication. Should he be encouraged to proceed, much time may elapse between the appearance of his numbers and their size will depend on the materials he may have on hand. His writings will partake of the fluctuations of his own thoughts and feel. ings sometimes treating of scenes before him, son etiines of others purely imaginary, and sometimes wandering back with his recollections to his native country. He will not be able to give them that tranquil attention necessary to finished composition and as they must be transmitted across the Atlantic for publication, he will have to trust to others to correct the frequent errors of the press. Should his writings, however, with all their imperfections, be well received, he cannot conceal that it would be a source of the purest pratlfication for though he does not aspire to those high honors which are the rewards of loftier intellects yet it is the dearest wish of his heart to have a secure and cherished, though humble corner in the good opiilions and kind feelings of his countrymen. THE following desultory papers are part of a series writ. ten in this country, but published in America. The author is aware of the austerity with which the writings ofhis countrymen have hitherto been treated by British critics he is conscious, too, that 111uch of the contents of his papers can be interesting only in the eyes of American readers. It was not his intention, therefore, to have them reprinted in thrs country. He has, however, observed several of them from time to time inserted in periodical works of merit, and has . understood, that it was probable they would be republished in a collective form. He has been induced, therefore, to revise and bring them forward himself, that they may at least come correctly before the public. Should they be deemed of sufficient importance to attract the attention of critics, he solicits for them that courtesy and candor which a stranger has some right to claim who presents hi nself at the threshold of a hospitable nation. February, I 820. C O N T E N T S . Advertisement to the First American Edition . . . . Y . AGB 5 . Adverstisement to the First English Edition . . . . . 7 The Authors Accouilt of Himself . . . . . 9 The Voyage . . . . . . The Wife . . . . . . . . . 2 7 ERiilpg lVisahn W Wriitnekrsle 0 11 A . m erica .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Rural Life in. England . a . . . 65 The Broken Heart . . . . . . . The Art of Book-making . . . . . . . The Mutability of Literature . . . . . . . . 128 Royal Funerals . . . . . . . I 4 0 The Inn Kitchen . . . . . . - 1 5 2 The Spectre Bridegroom . . . . . I 5 5 Westnliilster Abbey . . . . . . . . . 1 7 2 Christmas . . . . . . . . . ., 1 8 4 The Stage-Coach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LEnvoy 3 7 2 GEOFFREY CRAYON, GENT I have no wife nor children, good or bad, to provide for. A mere spectator of other mens fortunes and adventures, and how they playtheir parts which, methinks, are diversely presented unto me, as from a common theatre or S C . - U R T O N ...