Rip Van Winkle
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About this ebook
In the years before the American Revolutionary War, in a village at the foot of New York’s Catskill Mountains, lives a kindhearted Dutchman named Rip Van Winkle. He’s admired by all his fellow villagers except for his wife, who incessantly nags. One day, in order to avoid her, Rip heads off into the mountains. There he discovers a group of mysterious men wearing antiquated clothes and playing ninepins. Soon Rip falls asleep amongst these strangers—only to wake up twenty years later to a vastly changed world.
Originally published in 1819 in Washington Irving’s book, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., “Rip Van Winkle” was one of the first works of American literature to be widely read abroad and helped shape American folklore. Nearly two hundred years later, the story endures, continuing to capture the imaginations of readers young and old.
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Washington Irving
Nueva York, 1783 - Sunnyside, 1859. Escritor norteamericano perteneciente al mundo literario del costumbrismo. Washington Irving es el primer autor americano que utiliza la literatura para hacer reír y caricaturizar la realidad, creando además el estilo coloquial que después utilizarían Mark Twain y Hemingway.
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Reviews for Rip Van Winkle
215 ratings11 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Rip Van Winkle is an entertaining adaptation of a folk tale but unfortunately the other short stories in the book were simply too boring and uninteresting for me....
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If you've never gotten to know lazy old Rip, do so! It's a great little story.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rip Van Winkle is the classic tale by Washington Irving of a rather lazy man living in the Catskill Mountains of New York who fell asleep. On returning to his village, he is surprised to learn that he has been asleep not just overnight as he supposed but for twenty years. It's a classic tale that shows how much can change in a couple of decades. ***SPOILER ALERT*** The American Revolution had taken place. Many of his friends as well as his wife had died; others had aged almost beyond recognition. The village had grown, and many newcomers were there. Business had closed, and others had taken their place. *** END OF SPOILER***
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Rip Van Winkle is a man who lives with his family in the Catskill Mountains before the American Revolutionary War. One day he escapes his nagging wife by going up into the mountains. He shares a few drinks of liquor with a stranger he meets and falls asleep under a tree. He awakes to find that 20 years have past, a revolution has taken place and his wife has died. His grown daughter takes him in. It's a quirky short story, but not one that was terribly impressive. As a side note, I had no idea that Irving was considered the first American short story writer (with this story and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow).
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Last night at supper we were talking about the various kinds of fey characters of human folklore, and the Spouse said Rip had spent his twenty years (relative) among hairy gnomes. I didn't remember that at all, so it seemed I'd have to read the story again. At thirty years remove from the original reading, all I could recall was the simplest plot: that Rip drinks among the fey, comes back to town 20 years later.
I'm glad I re-read it, because there's much more to the Irving telling. Kind of horrifically so, because the whole point of the story is that Van Winkle's wife is horrible. Really horrible. Such a shrew. I had no recollection of the fact that Rip was running away from her. Nor did I recall that the men he went among were so very hairy, nor that they were supposed to be Hendrick Hudson and crew. Nor did I notice the time the story was set: before and after the Revolutionary War, with the heroism of his former friends recounted.
The Spouse complained that Irving took a traditional story and nailed it to a specific time and place and made it such a very Catskill story. That didn't bother me, but oh, that wife! I feel suitably chastened on behalf of all my gender. The nerve of that woman, trying to make her husband provide for the family. She deserves the harshest punishment imaginable and stroking out while yelling at a peddler is pretty harsh. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A delightful tale of magical events, with delightful characters. Didn't particularly like the negative views of wives, but enjoyed the story nonetheless. It seemed to address the sense of detachment people often feel from changes which occur in government.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nice little story, great illustrations and a great book format with lovely thick pages, wide margins.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Most know the story of Rip Van Winkle: a young man falls asleep in the mountains, awakes many decades later as an old man, and returns to his village where no one recognizes him. The story is a pleasure to read again because of the detail that you always forget: Rip's amiable laziness, his wife's frustration at their economic downward spiral, the men that sit outside the tavern smoking and 'discussing' local politics, the outfit of the mountain guy carrying the liquid refreshment.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Based on a German folktale and heavily influenced by the mystery and beauty of the Catskill Mountains, this story is richly detailed with descriptions of the land and mountains, the henpecked protagonist Rip, his tarmagant wife, and the otherwordly group of ninepin players. Irving uses the book as a vehicle to illustrate the incredible amount of change that occured in the space of twenty years, before and after the American Revolution, through the confusion it causes the protaganist. The text is large and has plenty of white space, and the language is not too archaic to be properly understood. It also avoids offensive stereotypes that keep it from being outdated and makes it accessible to a younger audience. Wyeth's paintings are bright and clear, and imbue the story with the fresh influence of the mountains and seasons.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Gotta love classics.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Indeholder "Henrik V. Ringsted: Forord", "Rip van Winkle", "Sagnet om Døsedal"."Henrik V. Ringsted: Forord" handler om forfatteren og hans samtid. Og hvordan Washington Irving betragtes som den amerikanske litteraturs første rigtige forfatter. De to noveller er egentlig ikke noget særligt ud over at amerikanerne betragter dem som netop det."Rip van Winkle" handler om Rip van Winkle der bor i Kaatskill-Bjergene, er ret doven anlagt, men er belemret med en kone med en skarp tunge. En dag tager han op i bjergene for at hvile ørene og her møder han en fremmed som han deler en flaske med. I nærheden ser de nogle lidt uhyggelige folk, som vistnok er genfærdene af Hendrick Hudson og hans folk. Så bliver Rip ganske søvnig og faktisk vågner han først tyve år senere. Han har fået langt hvidt skæg, men hans tøj er åbenbart lavet af godt stof, for det bemærker han ikke noget om. Da han kommer tilbage til sit hus er det forladt og faldefærdigt. I landsbyen hylder kroen ikke længere Kong George, men George Washington. Hans kone er død og de fleste venner og bekendte er enten døde eller rejst bort. Blot er tilbage hans datter Judith, som indbyder ham til at komme og bo i hendes hus.Det hele er ganske vist: "dertil kommer endelig, at jeg har set en officiel Attest om Sagen, der var affattet paa Foranledning af en Fredsdommer, og som var underskrevet med et Kryds i Dommerens egen Haandskrift. Historiens Sandfærdighed er saaledes hævet over enhver Tvivl"."Sagnet om Døsedal" handler om en uhyggelig hovedløs rytter, der hjemsøger Greensburgh eller Nøleby. Lige i nærheden ligger Døsedal eller måske snarere Sleepy Hollow, for historiens originaltitel er "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". En skolelærer kommer til Nøleby. Hans navn er Ichabod Crane og han er overtroisk, lang, ranglet og altid sulten. Han bliver indtaget i den 18-årige Katrina van Tassel og navnlig hendes fars penge. En af hans medbejlere er Abraham eller Brom van Brunt også kaldet Brom Bones fordi han er så stor og stærk. De er begge inviteret med til et bal og her stråler Ichabod i forhold til Brom. På vejen hjem møder han imidlertid noget han tror er et spøgelse, en hovedløs rytter, der forfølger ham og til sidst fælder ham med sit afhuggede hoved, et græskar! Ichabod Crane forsvinder fra egnen og Brom Bones holder bryllup med den smækre Katrina. Det underforståes at Brom i virkeligheden var den hovedløse rytter og derfor faktisk smartere end den degnekloge Ichabod.Historien fortælles af en mand, der til en skeptisk tilhørers tvivlen på historien udbryder: "Ih, bevares, min Herre," "hvad det anbelanger, tror jeg da ikke selv det halve!".Et par morsomme historier, hvor det ikke er historien, men måden den bliver fortalt på, der er det væsentlige.
Book preview
Rip Van Winkle - Washington Irving
A POSTHUMOUS WRITING OF DIEDRICH KNICKERBOCKER
¹
By Woden, God of Saxons,
From whence comes Wensday, that is Wodensday,
Truth is a thing that ever I will keep
Unto thylke day in which I creep into
My seculchre—
CARTWRIGHT
Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill mountains. They are a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family, and are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a noble height, and lording it over the surrounding country. Every change of season, every change of weather, indeed, every hour of the day produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains; and they are regarded by all the good wives, far and near, as perfect barometers. When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; but sometimes, when the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits, which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory.
At the foot of these fairy mountains, the voyager may have descried the light smoke curling up from a Village, whose shingle roofs gleam among the trees, just where the blue tints of the upland melt away into the fresh green of the nearer landscape. It is a little village of great antiquity, having been founded by some of the Dutch colonists, in the early times of the province, just about the beginning of the government of the good Peter Stuyvesant (may he rest in peace!), and there were some of the houses of the original settlers standing within a few years, built of small yellow bricks, brought from Holland, having latticed windows and gable fronts, surmounted with weathercocks.
In that same village, and in one of these very houses (which, to tell the precise truth, was sadly time-worn and weather-beaten), there lived, many years since, while the country was yet a province of Great Britain, a simple, good-natured fellow, of the name of Rip Van Winkle. He was a descendant of the Van Winkles who figured so gallantly in the