Washington Irving: Selected Writings

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Washington Irving: Selected Writings is written by Washington Irving and published by Broadview Press. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 1770489061 (ISBN 10) and 9781770489066 (ISBN 13).

Two of Washington Irving’s works of short fiction from his 1819-20 work, The Sketch Book—Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow—are among the most enduringly popular of American classics. In his own day, Irving’s works were widely read in Britain as well as in America; the English novelist William Makepiece Thackeray described him as “the first ambassador whom the New World of Letters sent to the Old.” This edition takes notice of transatlantic literary history with an appendix of reviews from American and British newspapers, and by printing in facing page format the American and British versions of “Traits of Indian Character” (which differed from each other in a variety of interesting ways). Also included are an excerpt from Irving’s first major work, A History of New York; excerpts from a key source that Irving drew on for “Rip Van Winkle”; and a selection of illustrations showing some of the ways in which this character was imagined in nineteenth-century America. With a concise but wide-ranging introduction and extensive explanatory notes, this edition is ideally suited for course use.