33 pages • 1 hour read
Rip Van Winkle
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Summary: “Rip Van Winkle”
After failing to establish a career as a lawyer, Washington Irving (1783-1859) turned to writing. Distancing himself from British literature, Irving sought to create a wholly American folktale for American readers, sprinkled with American geography, mores, and folklore. His first attempt, “Rip Van Winkle,” is one of the earliest examples of the short story in Western literature. Published in 1819 in Irving’s short story collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (which also features Irving’s other famous story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”), “Rip Van Winkle” found instant success for Irving in America and abroad, raising the respectability of American literature worldwide. “Rip Van Winkle” is in the public domain and is available by open source. This guide refers to the online version offered by Project Gutenberg.
The story opens with an epigraph from Sir Walter Scott’s 1816 novel The Antiquary. Its speaker swears to the Norse king of the gods, Wodin (that is, Odin) to tell only the truth. Geoffrey Crayon—the title character of the short story collection, whose last name is a reference to the “sketches” that he has collected—introduces the story of Rip Van Winkle as a tale found among the papers of the (fictional) late Unlock all 33 pages of this Study Guide Plus, gain access to 8,900+ more expert-written Study Guides. Including features:
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