Washington Irving was born just as the American Revolution was ending; he died right before the American Civil War began; interesting time for a life-span. He came from a wealthy, influential family.
Over the course of his years, his many published works made him America's most famously published and popular writer before Mark Twain. He was so loved that, even today, if you notice the name "Irving" on any place/location (that may have existed before 1900) it was probably named for Washington Irving. I learned that Irving Park, IL is such a place, for example.
The Sketchbook contains his famous "Rip Van Winkle" and "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" stories. It is different to read the stories as they were originally penned than to see them recreated as movies or cartoons for children.
The book is written as a "travel", based on Geoffrey Crayon's sojourn in England about 1820. He likes the simple, rustic and rural English country life--he glorifies this richly and well.
He wrote about King James I of Scotland, held as a royal hostage in the Tower at Windsor Castle in the early 1500's. As I watched the images of the castle on TV during the funeral for Prince Phillip, I wondered where the young king was held; and I thought of Irving, visiting the castle about 1820; he felt that was "modern times": he looked back at 1500 as if it were deep history; by now, 200 more years have past.
That kind of timelessness flows throughout the book. Such as, an idle hour solitary tour around the inside of Westminster Abbey, with no one to disturb his ramblings. In his day, the place had a boys' school attached (maybe still does?) with the sounds of kids playing just outside.
He held Shakespeare in almost godly reverence and wrote about his visit to Stratford-on-Avon; the town was a tourist trap even then, with fake relics of the Bard on sale around town like pieces of the True Cross.
Irving had a creepy or maudlin streak: I read somewhere he was mourning the death of his 17 year old fiancee from TB. He was about 35 at the time; another case of a man in his 30's engaged to a teenage girl. It gives us the creeps today, but was common in the distant past. He wrote several stories of love gone wrong (and the girl wastes away to death), "the horrors of the tomb", regrets of the living as they mourn the dead, etc.
There's a series of stories about being invited to spend Christmas at an isolated estate of a family that tried to preserve the ancient customs of the land. These essays are said to have influenced Dickens, much later, to write "A Christmas Story".
At first, I was wishy-washy about finishing the book, but I did. I have internalized the material. My understanding of the world has increased by this experience.
Now what shall I read?
