The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.

Summary

The Sketch Book is a miscellany of essays, travel sketches and tales presented as the notebook of Geoffrey Crayon, a genial American bachelor who crosses the Atlantic to look at the England he has known from books. Crayon opens by explaining that he wanders to see the shifting scenes of life, then describes the voyage itself, a visit to the Liverpool historian William Roscoe, and a portrait of a wife who sustains her ruined husband. Two tales set in the Dutch villages of the Hudson valley, both credited to the late historian Diedrich Knickerbocker, became the most famous pieces in the book. In Rip Van Winkle, a kindly, idle villager in the Catskills escapes his scolding wife by wandering into the mountains with his dog Wolf, meets a silent crew of old-fashioned Dutchmen playing at ninepins, drinks from their flagon, and falls asleep. He wakes with a long beard and a rusted gun, walks home to find the King George sign replaced by one of General Washington, his wife dead, his friends gone, and the village arguing about elections; after a moment of terror in which he cannot say who he is, his grown daughter Judith takes him in, and he lives out his days telling his story at the inn door. In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the lanky Connecticut schoolmaster Ichabod Crane, a lover of good food and ghost stories, courts Katrina Van Tassel, the plump heiress of a rich farm, against the rough prankster Brom Bones. After a harvest party where the guests trade tales of the Headless Horseman, a Hessian trooper said to ride in search of his head, Ichabod rides home on a borrowed plough-horse, is chased to the church bridge by a headless rider, and is struck down by a flung head. Next morning only his hat and a smashed pumpkin are found; Brom marries Katrina and laughs knowingly whenever the pumpkin is mentioned. Between the American tales Crayon visits English places and customs: a village church and a grieving widow, rural funerals, Westminster Abbey, the Boar's Head Tavern in Eastcheap, Shakespeare's Stratford, a German ghost story called The Spectre Bridegroom, and five linked sketches of an old-fashioned Christmas at Bracebridge Hall, with its squire, Master Simon, carols, wassail and yule log. Two essays on the Indians of New England, including a sympathetic portrait of King Philip, and a humorous sketch of John Bull complete the range. Irving issued the book in seven paperbound numbers in New York between 1819 and 1820, and it appeared in two volumes in London in 1820; the library text is the revised edition with Irving's later preface.

Plot or Argument

• Crayon sets out: the voyage and first portraits

  The Author's Account of Himself, The Voyage, Roscoe and The Wife introduce the narrator, the Atlantic crossing, a Liverpool scholar ruined in business, and a devoted wife.

• Rip Van Winkle

  A henpecked Catskill villager sleeps twenty years after drinking with Hendrick Hudson's ghostly crew and wakes into the new republic; a note and postscript from Knickerbocker vouch for the tale.

• England observed

  English Writers on America, Rural Life in England, The Broken Heart, The Art of Book-making, A Royal Poet, The Country Church and The Widow and Her Son mix argument, description and pathos.

• Old London and the Spectre Bridegroom

  The Boar's Head Tavern, The Mutability of Literature, Rural Funerals, The Inn Kitchen, The Spectre Bridegroom and Westminster Abbey turn to Falstaff's tavern, forgotten books, mourning customs, a comic German ghost tale and the tombs of kings.

• Christmas at Bracebridge Hall

  Christmas, The Stage-Coach, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and The Christmas Dinner follow Crayon to a Yorkshire squire's house where ancient holiday customs are kept.

• Antiquities, Stratford and the Indians of New England

  London Antiques, Little Britain, Stratford-on-Avon, Traits of Indian Character, Philip of Pokanoket, John Bull, The Pride of the Village and The Angler range from city curiosities to American history and a dying village girl.

• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

  Ichabod Crane courts Katrina Van Tassel, rivals Brom Bones, hears ghost stories at the Van Tassel party, and disappears after the Headless Horseman's chase; Knickerbocker's postscript records a listener's doubts.

Characters

• Geoffrey Crayon, narrator

  Irving's genial, sentimental persona, an American gentleman sketching England and its customs.

• Diedrich Knickerbocker, fictional historian

  The late Dutch-New York antiquarian among whose papers the two Hudson valley tales were supposedly found.

• Rip Van Winkle, hero of the first American tale

  A good-natured, idle villager, loved by children and dogs, who sleeps away twenty years.

• Dame Van Winkle, Rip's wife

  A sharp-tongued housewife exasperated by her husband's neglect of his farm.

• Wolf, Rip's dog

  Rip's fellow sufferer in domestic persecution and companion on the mountain.

• Ichabod Crane, schoolmaster of Sleepy Hollow

  A lanky, credulous, hungry Connecticut pedagogue and singing master who hopes to marry wealth.

• Katrina Van Tassel, heiress

  The rosy daughter of a prosperous Dutch farmer, courted by Ichabod and Brom.

• Brom Bones, Ichabod's rival

  Abraham Van Brunt, a burly horseman and practical joker who wins Katrina.

• The Headless Horseman, local spectre

  The ghost of a Hessian trooper said to ride nightly in search of his head.

• Squire Bracebridge, host of the Christmas sketches

  An old English country gentleman devoted to reviving ancient holiday customs.

• Master Simon, the squire's companion

  A brisk old bachelor kinsman who leads the Christmas games and songs.

Lessons

• Waking into a changed world

  Rip sleeps through the American Revolution and wakes to find that the tavern sign has changed from King George to General Washington, though the faces under it are much the same. Irving uses a folk tale to ask what really changes when a nation changes and what a person keeps when everything familiar is gone.

  • What signs tell Rip that time has passed, and which does he notice first?
  • Why can Rip not say who he is when the villagers question him?
  • Is Rip's life better or worse after his long sleep?

• Credulity and the prank

  Ichabod Crane believes every ghost story he reads in Cotton Mather and hears from the Dutch wives, and his fear makes him easy prey for a rival. The legend never tells us plainly what happened at the bridge, but the pumpkin and Brom's laughter let the reader judge. Irving teaches by comedy that fear and greed cloud the eyes.

  • What does Ichabod want from Katrina, and how do we know?
  • What clues suggest who the Headless Horseman really was?

• Keeping old customs

  The Christmas sketches show Squire Bracebridge reviving carols, the yule log, wassail and plain hospitality for his tenants. Crayon admires these customs because they bind rich and poor and the present to the past. The book treats tradition as something that must be loved to be kept.

  • What customs does the squire keep, and why does he think they matter?
  • How does Crayon describe the spirit of Christmas in the opening sketch?

• Grief honored, not hurried

  Several of the English sketches, among them The Widow and Her Son, Rural Funerals and The Broken Heart, dwell on mourning. Irving argues that sorrow for the dead is a sorrow people rightly refuse to forget, and that tender remembrance can make the living gentler.

  • What does the widow's grief at the village church show Crayon?
  • Why does Irving say we keep the wound of grief open?

Context

Irving wrote the sketches in England in the years after the War of 1812, when British reviewers often mocked American letters and American readers felt both kinship with and rivalry toward the old country. His Hudson valley tales look back to the Dutch settlements of New York and to the Revolutionary era, while his English pieces record customs and places that were already passing.

Composition

After the bankruptcy of his family's firm in 1818, Irving began sending manuscript sketches to New York, where they were issued by C. S. Van Winkle in seven paperbound numbers from June 1819 to 1820, under the pseudonym Geoffrey Crayon; Rip Van Winkle appeared in the first number and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in the sixth. A London edition followed in 1820, published in the end by John Murray. Irving revised the text for the collected edition of his works in 1848, adding a new preface; the library text includes that preface.

Reception

The Sketch Book was a success on both sides of the Atlantic and made Irving the first American man of letters with an international reputation. Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow became founding stories of American literature, often adapted for stage and screen, and the Bracebridge Christmas sketches helped renew affection for old English holiday customs before Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol.

Comparisons

• a-christmas-carol

  Irving's Christmas Day and Christmas Dinner sketches celebrate holiday hospitality from the outside as a traveler's observation; Dickens turns the same warmth into a conversion story about a miser.

• henry-iv-part-1

  Crayon's pilgrimage to the Boar's Head Tavern in Eastcheap goes looking for the scene of Falstaff's revels with Prince Hal and finds only relics and a sexton's gossip.

• the-scarlet-letter

  Hawthorne's Custom-House preface, like Knickerbocker's papers, frames a tale of the American past with a found document; both writers gave their regions a usable legendary history.

• the-last-of-the-mohicans

  Cooper's frontier romance and Irving's Traits of Indian Character and Philip of Pokanoket both portray the Indian nations of the Northeast with sympathy and with a sense of loss.

• the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer

  Brom Bones's prank on Ichabod and Tom's tricks in St. Petersburg belong to the same tradition of American village comedy built on boasting, superstition and practical jokes.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The tavern sign in Rip Van Winkle, and how it changes while Rip sleeps.
• The clues at the end of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: the hat, the pumpkin, and Brom Bones's laughter.
• How Geoffrey Crayon introduces himself in The Author's Account of Himself and why he says he travels.
• The customs Squire Bracebridge keeps in the Christmas sketches, from the yule log to the boar's head.
• The notes and postscripts signed by Knickerbocker that claim the tales are true.

Key terms and names

Geoffrey Crayon

Irving's pen name and narrator; a crayon was a drawing pencil, so the book is a set of quick pencil sketches in words.

Diedrich Knickerbocker

The invented Dutch-New York historian credited with the two American tales; Irving had used him earlier for a comic history of New York.

Ninepins

A bowling game; the thunder in the Catskills is said to be Hendrick Hudson's crew playing it.

Hessian

A German soldier hired by Britain during the American Revolution; the Headless Horseman is said to be one who lost his head to a cannon-ball.

Sketch

A short, informal prose piece describing a scene, person or custom, as many of Crayon's English pieces do.

Wassail

Spiced ale or wine passed round in a bowl at old English Christmas feasts, served at Bracebridge Hall.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What happens to Rip in the mountains, and what does he find when he comes home?
2. Comprehension Why does Ichabod Crane want to marry Katrina Van Tassel, and who is his rival?
3. Comprehension What old customs does Crayon see at Bracebridge Hall at Christmas?
4. Interpretation Irving never tells us directly who the Headless Horseman was. Why might he leave the ending open?
5. Interpretation Rip sleeps through the Revolution. What does the story suggest changed in the village, and what stayed the same?
6. Interpretation Why might an American writer fill half his book with English churches, tombs and holidays?
7. Big Question Is it wise to hold on to old customs and old stories when the world around us changes?

Faith Connections

• Proverbs 6:9-11 (Scripture)

  The sluggard is asked how long he will sleep, and poverty comes upon him. Rip, who would rather do anything than his own work, sleeps away twenty years of his life.

• Romans 12:15 (Scripture)

  Paul tells believers to weep with those who weep. Crayon's sketch of the widow at the country church shows a stranger moved to share a poor mother's grief.

• Luke 2:10-14 (Scripture)

  The angels' good tidings of great joy stand behind the carols sung at Bracebridge Hall, and Crayon calls Christmas the season for kindling charity in the heart.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: The customs, legends and memories of a place give its people a shared life. England keeps these in its churches, inns and holidays, while the young American republic has fewer of them. Therefore Irving gathers old English customs with affection and invents Dutch legends for the Hudson, so that his country, too, can have stories that bind it to its past.

Rhetorical device: mock-authentication. The note after Rip Van Winkle quotes Knickerbocker swearing he has talked with Rip himself and seen a certificate signed before a country justice, a solemn claim that makes the tall tale funnier.

Debate: Resolved: that Brom Bones, not a ghost, drove Ichabod Crane out of Sleepy Hollow.

Memory Work

a tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.

It is, indeed, the season of regenerated feeling--the season for kindling not merely the fire of hospitality in the hall, but the genial flame of charity in the heart.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Compare Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Crane as outsiders in their villages. Using both tales, argue which man the village treats more justly.

Comparison with A Christmas Carol: Compare the Christmas at Bracebridge Hall with the Cratchits' and Fezziwig's Christmases in Dickens. What does each writer think keeps Christmas alive?

Medical Lens

The Sketch Book is a useful source for the sentimental medicine of grief around 1820. In The Broken Heart and The Pride of the Village Irving takes seriously the period belief that disappointed love could bring on a fatal decline, describing young women who waste away in silent melancholy; these are literary portraits in the tradition of lovesickness, not case histories, and any modern reading of them as depression or consumption is speculative. The Widow and Her Son and Rural Funerals treat mourning customs and the duty of remembrance with real psychological attention. Rip Van Winkle offers the comic counterpart: a long sleep after a flagon of spirits, a wakened man who cannot fix his identity, and Dame Van Winkle's death from a broken blood-vessel in a fit of passion, a common period explanation for sudden death in anger. Sleepy Hollow's atmosphere of trances, visions and the nightmare shows how a whole community could be described as prone to waking dreams.

• Rip Van Winkle

  Rip drinks repeatedly from the ninepin players' flagon, sleeps twenty years, and on waking at first blames the flagon; later he cannot say who he is before the village crowd.

  Alcohol Sleep Insomnia Dementia Memory
• Rip Van Winkle

  Judith reports that her mother died after breaking a blood-vessel in a fit of passion at a New England peddler.

  Death Dying
• The Broken Heart

  Crayon argues that women can die of disappointed love and tells of a betrothed girl who wastes away in melancholy after her lover's execution.

  Melancholia Depression Grief Death Dying
• The Widow and Her Son; Rural Funerals

  A poor widow mourns her only son, a sailor who comes home to die; Crayon describes English burial flowers and reflects on the sorrow for the dead.

  Grief Death Dying
• The Pride of the Village

  A village girl deserted by an officer declines through the spring and dies, the parish mourning at her funeral.

  Melancholia Depression Death Dying
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, opening

  The inhabitants are said to live in a continual reverie, subject to trances and visions, and haunted by the nightmare.

  Altered States Dreams Nightmares

Creative Prompts

• Fiction

  Write Rip's first evening at his daughter Judith's house, when he tries to understand what happened in the twenty years he slept.

• Classroom

  Hold a village inquest into Ichabod Crane's disappearance: assign students to be Brom Bones, Katrina, Hans Van Ripper and the old Dutch wives, and decide what the evidence of the hat and pumpkin proves.

• Essay

  Geoffrey Crayon is a gentle observer who rarely judges. Choose two English sketches and show how his manner of seeing shapes what the reader feels.

• Adaptation

  Turn the Christmas Dinner at Bracebridge Hall into a short play for the class, with the squire, Master Simon, the boar's head carol and the wassail bowl.

Further Reading

• A History of New York (Knickerbocker's History), Washington Irving

  The comic history that created Diedrich Knickerbocker.

• Bracebridge Hall, Washington Irving

  Irving's 1822 sequel returning to the squire's household.

• Washington Irving: An American Original, Brian Jay Jones

• The Life of Washington Irving, Stanley T. Williams