Washington Irving, página 4 de 24

Ichabod Crane, un atildado maestro de escuela, es trasladado a Sleepy Hollow, o el Valle Dormido, lugar famoso por las leyendas de fantasmas, espectros y espíritus que habitan el mismo. Profundamente molesto por su estancia en el Valle, rodeado de campesinos analfabetos, supersticiosos y sin altura de miras, la existencia de Crane dará un vuelco cuando conozca a la rica heredera Katrina van Tassel. Esta, sin embargo, cuenta con un admirador inesperado, Brom van Brunt, un joven lugareño del cual Ichabod tratará de librarse por todos los medios.

In condensing into one compact volume Mr. Irvings elaborate Life of Washington, care has been taken to retain, not only all the important facts connected with Washingtons career, but also those circumstances and incidents which may be supposed to contribute to a full estimate of his character in all its aspects. Nor have any portion of the great events connected with the era in which he filled so grand and controlling a part been unduly neglected or subordinated. The work, in its present abbreviated form, still presents a continuous and complete record of American history during the period of Washingtons official life. Mr. Irvings language, as a rule, has been retained; but in cases where a variation from his sentences has been necessary, in order to secure the requisite brevity, the paragraphs are enclosed in brackets.

“Hace muchos años, poco antes del estallido de la Revolución Francesa, mi tío pasó varios meses en París. Los ingleses y los franceses mantenían por aquel tiempo muy buenas relaciones, al contrario d

Los Cuentos de la Alhambra son una serie de relatos ocurridos o relacionados con este bello edificio, gracias a ello el lector pasará un rato entretenido y además conocerá muchas curiosidades sobre

Irvings most famous work is - without doubt - this book. The Sketch Book appeared in 1819 and 1820 and contained 34 short stories and essays of English manners, written in a half-sentimental style, with a good deal of liveliness and consierable talent. Among the most prominent stories are "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow."

In 1836, Irving published " Astoria ; or, Anecdotes of an Enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains ;" a somewhat curious example of literary skill. A voluminous commercial correspondence was the dull ore of the earth which he rened and wrought into symmetry and splendor. Irving reduced to a regular narrative the events to which it referred, bringing out the picturesque whenever he found it, and enlivening the whole with touches of his native humor. His nephew, Pierre M. Irving, lightened his labor materially by examining and collating the letters and making memoranda of their contents.

"The Life Of George Washington" is a monumental work on the life of one of the most famous American presidents. Originally published in five volumes between 1853 and 1859, it is a treasure chest of information on Washington and the Civil War. This work is presumeably the most intimate and fascinating biography of a man who worked his way from an Army commander to the first President of the United States. This is volume two out of five.

The productions of Washington Irving are deservedly held in high estimation, not so much, perhaps, for their intrinsic merits as literary compositions, although in this respect they hold no mean position, as for the inimitable tracings of adventurous life which they display through all their gradations and variety, and for the interest they keep alive in the reader, without outraging nature.Several hundred miles beyond the Mississippi extended a vast tract of uninhabited country, where there is neither to be seen the log-house of the white man nor the wigwam of the Indian. It consisted of large grassy plains, interspersed with forests and groves, and watered by the Arkansas, the Grand Canadian, the Red River, and all their tributary streams. Over these fertile and verdant wastes roamed the elk, the buffalo, and the wild horse, in all their native freedomand these were, in fact, the hunting-grounds of the various inhabitants of the Far West. Thither repaired the Osage, the Creek, the Delaware, and other tribes, that had linked themselves with civilization, and lived within the vicinity of the white settlements; and here resorted also the Pawnees, the Comanches, and a variety of fierce and as yet independent rovers, the nomades of the prairies, or the inhabitants of the skirts of the Rocky Mountains.

Knickerbockers History Of New York was published in 1809. Nearly forty years later Washington Irving, the real author, says it was his purpose in the history to embody the traditions of New York in an amusing form, to illustrate its local humors, customs and peculiarities in a whimsical narrative, which should help to bind the heart of the native inhabitant to his home. He adds: "In this I have reason to believe I have in some measure succeeded. Before the appearance of my work the popular traditions of our city were unrecorded; the peculiar and racy customs and usages derived from our Dutch Progenitors were unnoticed, or regarded with indifference, or adverted to with a sneer. Now they form a convivial currency, and are brought forward on all occasions; they link our whole community together in good humor and good fellowship; they are the rallying-points of home feeling, the seasoning of our civic festivities, the staple of local tales and local pleasantries; and are so harped upon by our writers of popular fiction that I find myself almost crowded off the legendary ground which I was the first to explore by the host who have followed in my footsteps.

It is proper to state that the contents, in large measure, consist of the scattered productions of Irvings pen which it was his intention to have brought together and included in the collective edition of his works. It is illustrative of the wars between the Spaniards and the Moors, and consists of the " Legend of Pelayo," the " Chronicle of Count Fernan Gonzalez," the most illustrious hero of his epoch, who united the kingdoms of Leon and Castile, and the " Chronicle of Fernando the Saint," that renowned champion of the Faith, under whom the greater part ,of Spain was rescued from the Moors. " These old Morisco-Spanish subjects," is the language of one of his published letters, " have a charm that makes me content to write about them at half price. They have so much that is high-minded and chivalrous and quaint and picturesque, and at times half comic, about them." In another letter, written about the same time, in 1847, he remarks : " I have now complete, though not thoroughly finished off, the Chronicle of Pelayo, the Chronicle of Count Fernan Gonzalez, the Chronicle of the Dynasty of the Ommiades in Spain, giving the succession of those brilliant sovereigns from the time that the Moslem Empire in Spain was united under the first and fell to pieces at the death of the last of them ; also the Chronicle of Fernando the Saint, with the reconquest of Seville. .....

The winter of 1822 found Irving in Dresden. In that year was published "Bracebridge Hall," the groundwork of which is a charming description of country life in England, interspersed with narratives, the scene of which is laid in other countries. Of these, the Norman tale of " Annette Delarbre" seems to many readers the most beautiful and affecting thing of its kind in all his works; so beautiful, indeed, that one can hardly see how one who has once read it can resist the desire to read it again. In " Bracebridge Hall" we have the Stout Gentleman, full of certain minute paintings of familiar objects, where not a single touch is thrown in that does not heighten the comic effect of the narrative. The most popular novelists of the day have learned from this pattern the skill with which they have wrought up some of their most striking passages, both grave and gay. In composing " Bracebridge Hall," Irving showed that he had not forgotten his native country; and in the pleasant tale of Dolph Heyliger he went back to the banks of that glorious river beside which he was born.