Washington Irving, página 5 de 23

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.

We are here presented with a good addition to Mr. Irvings Life of Columbus. None of the disciples of that great man achieved discoveries equal to his, and many of them were actuated by motives more questionable than the desire to extend our knowledge of the globs on which we live. To secure the first fruits of the pearl fisheries of Paris and Cubaga, or to explore the coast of Veragua, which Columbus had represented as the Aurea Chersonesus of the ancients, contented the ambition of many of his immediate followers. Some there were, however, who did more ; especially Vasco Nunez de Balboa, whose discovery of the Pacific Ocean forms one of the most beautiful and striking incidents In the history of the New World; and Juan Ponce de Leon, the conqueror of Porto Rico, and discoverer of Florida. Of all the captains and admirals sent out by Spain to follow up what Columbus had begun, Vasco Nunez is our favorite; and there are points in his history, that make us pause with wonder and admiration at the daring spirit of the man who surmounted, by his courage and perseverance, so many appalling difficulties ; not the least of which was the piecemeal transportation across the then untraversed mountains of Darien, of the first European ships that ploughed the waves of the Pacific. Nunez was a follower worthy of Columbus.

"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 four out of five.

Washington Irving (1783-1859), considerado"patriarca de la literatura americana"y"el mejor escritor de habla inglesa de su tiempo", narra en libro las fascinantes leyendas populares relacionadas con la Alhambra, recogidas en su visita a España en 1829.Con 32 paginas de laminas a todo color de la Alhambra y grabados de la epoca.

In una piccola valle sonnolenta, un cavaliere senza testa semina il terrore con le sue scorribande notturne Ma chi e questo essere misterioso e inafferrabile? La leggenda di Sleepy Hollow come non la avete mai letta! si potrebbe dire ai tanti che la conoscono solo attraverso il cinema e la televisione. Ma come mai un racconto del 1820 continua ancora oggi a stimolare la fantasia (e le paure) di registi e sceneggiatori? E il racconto di Washington Irving e davvero come ce lo hanno presentato loro? Una lettura curiosa e arguta che svela un mondo ormai scomparso dove il confine tra realta e immaginazione, verita e apparenza non e mai certo. Un piccolo classico travestito da racconto da paura. Il racconto e accompagnato dalle illustrazioni di Giulia Caruso. Un ebook dei Dragomanni (www.idragomanni.it).

Alimited edition of the "Legends of the Conquest of Spain," with which this volume commences, was published in 1835. These Legends, consisting of the "Legend of Don Roderick," the "Legend of the Subjugation of Spain," the "Legend of Count Julian and his Family," formed No. III. of the "Crayon Miscellany." For the Chronicles which follow them, with the exception of "Abderahman" and "Spanish Romance," which have appeared in the "Knickerbocker Magazine," I have drawn upon the unpublished manuscripts of Mr. Irving, bequeathed to me by his will. This portion of the volume 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. I have selected these themes from a mass of unpublished manuscript that came into my hands at [Pg vi] the death of Mr. Irving, because they bore the impress of being most nearly, though not fully, prepared for the press, and because they had for him a special fascination, arising in part, perhaps, from his long residence in that romantic country. "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."

THE customary antithesis between "American" literature and "English" literature is unfortunate and misleading in that it seems to exclude American authors from the noble roll of those who have contributed to the literature of our mother-tongue. Of course, when we consider it carefully we cannot fail to see that the literature of a language is one and indivisible and that the nativity or the domicile of those who make it matters nothing. Just as Alexandrian literature is Greek, so American literature is English; and as Theocritus demands inclusion in any account of Greek literature, so Thoreau cannot be omitted from any history of English literature as a whole. The works of Anthony Hamilton and Rousseau, Mme. de Stael and M. Maeterlinck are not more indisputably a part of the literature of the French language than the works of Franklin and Emerson, of Hawthorne and Poe are part of the literature of the English language. Theocritus may never have set foot on the soil of Greece, and Thoreau never adventured himself on the Atlantic to visit the island-home of his ancestors; yet the former expressed himself in Greek and the latter in English,and how can either be neglected in any comprehensive survey of the literature of his own tongue?...

Washington Irving (1783-1859), considerado"patriarca de la literatura americana"y"el mejor escritor de habla inglesa de su tiempo", narra en libro las fascinantes leyendas populares relacionadas con la Alhambra, recogidas en su visita a España en 1829.Con 32 paginas de laminas a todo color de la Alhambra y grabados de la epoca.

The success of "Old Christmas" has suggested the re-publication of its sequel "Bracebridge Hall," illustrated by the same able pencil, but condensed so as to bring it within reasonable size and price.

It is not possible to forget Washington Irving in the Alhambra. With a single volume, the simple, gentle, kindly American man of letters became no less a figure in the Moors Red Palace than Boabdil and Lindaraxa of whom he wrote. And yet, never perhaps did a book make so unconscious a bid for popularity. Irving visited Granada in 1828. He returned the following year, when the Governors apartments in the Alhambra were lent to him as lodgings. There he spent several weeks, his love for the place growing with every day and hour. It was this affection, and no more complex motive, that prompted him to describe its courts and gardens and to record its legends. The work was the amusement of his leisure moments, filling the interval between the completion of one serious, and now all but unknown, history and the beginning of the next.