The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon
Encyclopedia
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., commonly referred to as The Sketch Book, is a collection of 34 essays and short stories written by American author Washington Irving
. It was published serially throughout 1819 and 1820. The collection includes two of Irving's best-known stories, attributed to the fictional Dutch historian Diedrich Knickerbocker, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
" and "Rip Van Winkle
." It also marks Irving's first use of the pseudonym
"Geoffrey Crayon," which he would continue to employ throughout his literary career.
The Sketch Book, along with James Fenimore Cooper
's Leatherstocking Tales
, was the first widely read work of American literature in Britain and Europe. It also helped advance the reputation of American writers with an international audience.
" being inspired by a folktale recorded by Karl Musäus
.
Stories range from the maudlin (such as "The Wife" and "The Widow and Her Son") to the picaresque ("Little Britain") and the comical ("The Mutability of Literature"), but the common thread running through The Sketch Book — and a key part of its attraction to readers — is the personality of Irving's pseudonymous narrator, Geoffrey Crayon. Erudite, charming, and never one to make himself more interesting than his tales, Crayon holds The Sketch Book together through the sheer power of his personality — and Irving would, for the rest of his life, seamlessly enmesh Crayon's persona with his own public reputation.
Surprisingly, for a work so associated with American literature, little more than five of the thirty-three chapters deal with American subjects: the essays "English Writers on America", "The Traits of Indian Character", "Philip of Pokanoket: An Indian Memoir", and parts of "The Author's Account of Himself" and "The Angler"; and Knickerbocker's short stories "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". Most of the remainder of the book consists of vignettes
of English life and landscape, written with the author's characteristic charm while he lived in England. Irving wrote in a preface for a later edition:
throughout 1816 and 1817 — a humiliation
that Irving never forgot — Irving was left with no job and few prospects. He tried at first to serve as an intermediary between American and English publishers, scouting for English books to reprint in America and vice versa, with only marginal success. In the autumn of 1818, his oldest brother William, sitting as a Congressman from New York, secured for him a political appointment as chief clerk to the Secretary of the U.S. Navy, and urged Irving to return home. Irving demurred, however, choosing to remain in England and take his chances as a writer. As he told friends and family back in the United States:
Irving spent late 1818 and the early part of 1819 putting the final touches on the short stories and essays that he would eventually publish as The Sketch Book through 1819 and 1820.
. At that time, Irving reordered the essays. Consequently, modern editions — based on Irving's own changes for the Author's Revised Edition — do not reflect the order in which the sketches originally appeared.
Modern editions of The Sketch Book contain all thirty-four stories, in the order directed by Irving in his Author's Revised Edition, as follows:
The first American edition of The Sketch Book initially comprised twenty-nine short stories and essays, published in the United States in seven paperbound installments, appearing intermittently between June 23, 1819, and September 13, 1820. Irving used his brother Ebenezer and friend Henry Brevoort as his stateside emissaries, mailing packets of each installment to them for final editing and publication. Each installment was published simultaneously in New York, Boston, Baltimore, and Philadelphia by New York publisher C.S. Van Winkle, who would send each installment into a second printing through 1819 and 1820. Under Brevoort's influence, the books were formatted as large octavo
editions printed on top-grade paper and utilizing 12-point typefaces instead of the usual 8-point type.
A single-volume hardcover version, reprinting the two English volumes, was published in the United States by Van Winkle in 1824.
Second installment (July 31, 1819)
Third installment (September 13, 1819)
Fourth installment (November 10, 1819)
Fifth installment (January 1, 1820)
Sixth installment (March 15, 1820)
Seventh installment (September 13, 1820)
The first four American installments were collected into a single volume and self-published by Irving in London, under John Miller’s Burlington Arcade imprint, on February 16, 1820. In early April, however, Miller went bankrupt, leaving the bulk of The Sketch Book unsold in his warehouse.
Searching for another publisher, Irving appealed to his friend and mentor, Sir Walter Scott, for assistance. Scott approached his own publisher, London powerhouse John Murray
, and convinced him to purchase the rest of the stock and continue publication. (In gratitude, Irving dedicated the English editions of The Sketch Book to Walter Scott.) Heartened by the enthusiastic response to The Sketch Book, Murray encouraged Irving to publish the remaining three American installments as a second volume as quickly as possible.
In July 1820, Murray published the second volume of The Sketch Book, including all the pieces from the final three American installments, plus three additional essays: the American Indian sketches "Philip of Pokanoket" and "Traits of Indian Character," which Irving had originally written for the Analectic Magazine
in 1814, and a short original piece, "L’Envoy," in which Irving thanked his British readers for their indulgence.
Given the speed with which Murray put the second volume to press, the essays included in the final installment of the American edition were actually published in London first, several months before they made their appearance in the United States.
Given Irving's additions, the English version of The Sketch Book contained thirty-two pieces, while its American counterpart contained only twenty-nine.
, Irving added two new stories to The Sketch Book — "London Antiques" and "A Sunday in London" — as well as a new preface and the postscript to "Rip Van Winkle." Irving also slightly changed the order of the sketches, placing a number of essays from the seventh American installment earlier in the collection, and moving "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" into a place of prominence as the final story in the collection ("L'Envoy" being merely a thank you to readers).
Outside Irving’s immediate circle of friends, however, the reviews were equally as positive. As critic Gulian Verplanck wrote:
Two of the book's early admirers were Sir Walter Scott (who called it "positively beautiful") and Lord Byron (who said of the book, "I know it by heart"). Years later, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
said The Sketch Book was one of the earliest works to excite his interest in literature. As he said, "Every reader has his first book; I mean to say, one book among all others which in early youth first fascinates his imagination, and at once excites and satisfies the desires of his mind... To me, this first book was The Sketch Book of Washington Irving".
Apart from "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," both of which were immediately acknowledged as The Sketch Book’s finest pieces, American and English readers alike responded most strongly to the more sentimental tales, especially "The Broken Heart," — which Byron claimed had made him weep — and "The Widow and Her Son."
In Britain, the book did much to promote Americans as legitimate writers, and their work as legitimate literature — a concept that surprised English critics. "Everywhere I find in it the marks of a mind of the utmost elegance and refinement," wrote the English historian William Godwin
, "a thing as you know that I was not exactly prepared to look for in an American." The English magazine Quarterly Review
agreed. "[Irving] seems to have studied our language where alone it can be studied in all its strength and perfection, and in working these precious mines of literature he has refined for himself the ore which there so richly abounds."
Even Irving admitted that he was pleased to have stunned the skeptical English critics. When one English admirer asked Irving to confirm that he was really an American, Irving responded enthusiastically: "The doubts which her ladyship has heard on the subject seem to have arisen from the old notion that it is impossible for an American to write decent English."
The book is compared favourably with William Pinnock
's English educational texts in George Eliot
's novel The Mill on the Floss
(1860): Maggie, talking about her 'gloomy fancy' to her cousin Lucy says:
"Perhaps it comes from the school diet - watery rice-pudding spiced with Pinnock
. Let us hope it will give way before my mother's custards and this charming Geoffrey Crayon." Maggie took up the Sketch Book, which lay by her on the table. (Book 6, Chapter 2)
The Sketch Book cemented Irving’s reputation, and propelled him to a level of celebrity previously unseen for an American writer. "I am astonished at the success of my writings in England," Irving wrote to his publisher, "and can hardly persuade myself that it is not all a dream. Had any one told me a few years since in America, that any thing I could write would interest such men as . . . Byron, I should have as readily believed a fairy tale."
The Sketch Book introduced three of Irving's most enduring and iconic characters, Rip Van Winkle
, Ichabod Crane
, and the Headless Horseman
.
One of the most significant influences of The Sketch Book came from its cycle of five Christmas
stories, portraying an idealized and old-fashioned Yule celebration at an English country manor. Irving's stories depicted harmonious warm-hearted English Christmas customs he observed while staying in Aston Hall
, Birmingham, England, that had largely been abandoned, and he used the tract Vindication of Christmas (London 1652) of Old English Christmas traditions, that he had transcribed into his journal as a format for his stories. Except Pennsylvania German Settlers, who were enthusiastic celebrators of Christmas, Irving contributed to a revival of customs in America. Charles Dickens
later credited Irving as an influence on his own Christmas writings, including the classic A Christmas Carol
.
Washington Irving
Washington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works...
. It was published serially throughout 1819 and 1820. The collection includes two of Irving's best-known stories, attributed to the fictional Dutch historian Diedrich Knickerbocker, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a short story by Washington Irving contained in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., written while he was living in Birmingham, England, and first published in 1820...
" and "Rip Van Winkle
Rip Van Winkle
"Rip Van Winkle" is a short story by the American author Washington Irving published in 1819, as well as the name of the story's fictional protagonist. Written while Irving was living in Birmingham, England, it was part of a collection entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon...
." It also marks Irving's first use of the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"Geoffrey Crayon," which he would continue to employ throughout his literary career.
The Sketch Book, along with James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo...
's Leatherstocking Tales
Leatherstocking Tales
The Leatherstocking Tales is a series of novels by American writer James Fenimore Cooper, each featuring the main hero Natty Bumppo, known by European settlers as "Leatherstocking," 'The Pathfinder", and "the trapper" and by the Native Americans as "Deerslayer," "La Longue Carabine" and...
, was the first widely read work of American literature in Britain and Europe. It also helped advance the reputation of American writers with an international audience.
Overview
Apart from "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" — the pieces which made both Irving and The Sketch Book famous — other tales include "Roscoe", "The Broken Heart", "The Art of Book-making", "A Royal Poet", "The Spectre Bridegroom", "Westminster Abbey", "Little Britain", and "John Bull", His stories were highly influenced by German folktales, with "The Legend of Sleepy HollowThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a short story by Washington Irving contained in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., written while he was living in Birmingham, England, and first published in 1820...
" being inspired by a folktale recorded by Karl Musäus
Johann Karl August Musaus
Johann Karl August Musäus was a German author from Jena. He studied theology at the university of Jena, and would have become the pastor of a parish but for the resistance of some peasants, who objected that he had been known to dance.From 1760–62 Musäus published in three volumes his first...
.
Stories range from the maudlin (such as "The Wife" and "The Widow and Her Son") to the picaresque ("Little Britain") and the comical ("The Mutability of Literature"), but the common thread running through The Sketch Book — and a key part of its attraction to readers — is the personality of Irving's pseudonymous narrator, Geoffrey Crayon. Erudite, charming, and never one to make himself more interesting than his tales, Crayon holds The Sketch Book together through the sheer power of his personality — and Irving would, for the rest of his life, seamlessly enmesh Crayon's persona with his own public reputation.
Surprisingly, for a work so associated with American literature, little more than five of the thirty-three chapters deal with American subjects: the essays "English Writers on America", "The Traits of Indian Character", "Philip of Pokanoket: An Indian Memoir", and parts of "The Author's Account of Himself" and "The Angler"; and Knickerbocker's short stories "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". Most of the remainder of the book consists of vignettes
Vignette (literature)
In theatrical script writing, sketch stories, and poetry, a vignette is a short impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or gives a trenchant impression about a character, an idea, or a setting and sometimes an object...
of English life and landscape, written with the author's characteristic charm while he lived in England. Irving wrote in a preface for a later edition:
Background
Irving began writing the tales that would appear in The Sketch Book shortly after moving to England for the family business in 1815. When the family business spiraled into bankruptcyBankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
throughout 1816 and 1817 — a humiliation
Humiliation
Humiliation is the abasement of pride, which creates mortification or leads to a state of being humbled or reduced to lowliness or submission. It can be brought about through bullying, intimidation, physical or mental mistreatment or trickery, or by embarrassment if a person is revealed to have...
that Irving never forgot — Irving was left with no job and few prospects. He tried at first to serve as an intermediary between American and English publishers, scouting for English books to reprint in America and vice versa, with only marginal success. In the autumn of 1818, his oldest brother William, sitting as a Congressman from New York, secured for him a political appointment as chief clerk to the Secretary of the U.S. Navy, and urged Irving to return home. Irving demurred, however, choosing to remain in England and take his chances as a writer. As he told friends and family back in the United States:
Irving spent late 1818 and the early part of 1819 putting the final touches on the short stories and essays that he would eventually publish as The Sketch Book through 1819 and 1820.
Contents
The Sketch Book initially existed in two versions, a seven-part serialized American version in paperback, and a two-volume British version in hardback. The British edition contained three essays that were not included in the original American serialized format. Two more essays, "A Sunday in London" and "London Antiques" were added by Irving in 1848 for inclusion in the Author's Revised Edition of The Sketch Book for publisher George PutnamGeorge Palmer Putnam
George Palmer Putnam was an important American book publisher.-Biography:Putnam was born in Brunswick, Maine. On moving to New York City, Putnam was given his first job by Jonathan Leavitt, who subsequently published Putnam's first book...
. At that time, Irving reordered the essays. Consequently, modern editions — based on Irving's own changes for the Author's Revised Edition — do not reflect the order in which the sketches originally appeared.
Modern editions of The Sketch Book contain all thirty-four stories, in the order directed by Irving in his Author's Revised Edition, as follows:
| "The Author's Account of Himself" | June 23, 1819 | First American Installment | Irving introduces his pseudonymous narrator, Geoffrey Crayon. |
| "The Voyage" | June 23, 1819 | First American Installment | Crayon details his ocean voyage from the United States to England. |
| "Roscoe" | June 23, 1819 | First American Installment | Irving’s tribute to the English writer and historian, William Roscoe William Roscoe William Roscoe , was an English historian and miscellaneous writer.-Life:He was born in Liverpool, where his father, a market gardener, kept a public house called the Bowling Green at Mount Pleasant. Roscoe left school at the age of twelve, having learned all that his schoolmaster could teach... , whom Irving had met in Liverpool Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880... . |
| "The Wife" | June 23, 1819 | First American Installment | A sentimental piece in which the new wife of an impoverished gentleman teaches her husband that money can’t buy happiness. |
| "Rip Van Winkle Rip Van Winkle "Rip Van Winkle" is a short story by the American author Washington Irving published in 1819, as well as the name of the story's fictional protagonist. Written while Irving was living in Birmingham, England, it was part of a collection entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon... " |
June 23, 1819 | First American Installment | The tale of a henpecked husband who sleeps away twenty years in the Catskills—a story allegedly found among the papers of Irving’s fictional historian Diedrich Knickerbocker. |
| "English Writers on America" | July 31, 1819 | Second American Installment | Crayon calls for a ceasefire of "the literary animosity daily growing between England and America." |
| "Rural Life in England" | July 31, 1819 | Second American Installment | Crayon fondly describes English character and countrysides. |
| "The Broken Heart" | July 31, 1819 | Second American Installment | Crayon relates the story of a young Irish woman who wasted away "in a slow but hopeless decline" following the death of her true love. |
| "The Art of Bookmaking" | July 31, 1819 | Second American Installment | A humorous piece in which literature is created as easily as a cook might make a stew. |
| "A Royal Poet" | September 13, 1819 | Third American Installment | A romanticized description of the literary King James I of Scotland. |
| "The Country Church" | September 13, 1819 | Third American Installment | Crayon contrasts the quiet integrity of the nobleman with the offensive flashiness of the nouveau riche. |
| "The Widow and Her Son" | September 13, 1819 | Third American Installment | An old Englishwoman tends to her dying son. |
| "A Sunday in London" | 1848 | Author's Revised Edition | Crayon describes a day in London before, during, and after Sunday church services. |
| "The Boar's Head Tavern, East Cheap" | September 13, 1819 | Third American Installment | A detective story of sorts, in which Crayon attempts to locate the real-life tavern of Shakespeare’s Falstaff Falstaff Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare. In the two Henry IV plays, he is a companion to Prince Hal, the future King Henry V. A fat, vain, boastful, and cowardly knight, Falstaff leads the apparently wayward Prince Hal into trouble, and is... . |
| "The Mutability of Literature" | November 10, 1819 | Fourth American Installment | Crayon discusses evolving literary tastes with a talking book. |
| "Rural Funerals" | November 10, 1819 | Fourth American Installment | Crayon discusses English funeral traditions. |
| "The Inn Kitchen" | November 10, 1819 | Fourth American Installment | A description of the kind of hospitality visitors to the Netherlands can expect. |
| "The Spectre Bridegroom" | November 10, 1819 | Fourth American Installment | A ghost story — sort of — with a happy ending. |
| "Westminster Abbey" | September 13, 1820 | Seventh American Installment | A contemplative tour of the famous London building Westminster Abbey The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,... . |
| "Christmas" | January 1, 1820 | Fifth American Installment | Crayon reflects on the meaning of Christmas and its celebration. |
| "The Stage-Coach" | January 1, 1820 | Fifth American Installment | Crayon rides with the Bracebridge children to their country manor, Bracebridge Hall Bracebridge Hall Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists, A Medley was written by Washington Irving in 1821, while he lived in England, and published in 1822. This episodic novel was originally published under his pseudonym Geoffrey Crayon.-Plot introduction:... , and is invited to stay for Christmas. |
| "Christmas Eve" | January 1, 1820 | Fifth American Installment | Crayon celebrates the holiday at the home of Squire Bracebridge. |
| "Christmas Day" | January 1, 1820 | Fifth American Installment | Christmas festivities — allegedly in the old tradition — continue at Bracebridge Hall. |
| "Christmas Dinner" | January 1, 1820 | Fifth American Installment | Crayon enjoys old English hospitality at the Bracebridge Christmas dinner table. |
| "London Antiques" | 1848 | Author's Revised Edition | Prowling London for antiques, Crayon instead stumbles upon the Charter House, home of "superannuated tradesmen and decayed householders." |
| "Little Britain" | September 13, 1820 | Seventh American Installment | Crayon makes a picturesque stroll through the heart of old London. |
| "Stratford-on-Avon" | September 13, 1820 | Seventh American Installment | A tribute to the life and work of William Shakespeare. |
| "Traits of Indian Character" | July 1820 | English Edition, Volume 2 | A sympathetic portrait of the American Indian. |
| "Philip of Pokanoket" | July 1820 | English Edition, Volume 2 | A heroic portrait of the Indian warrior. |
| "John Bull" | March 15, 1820 | Sixth American Installment | A tip of the hat to English character and custom. |
| "The Pride of the Village" | March 15, 1820 | Sixth American Installment | A sentimental piece about true love lost, then found again, too late to save the life of a heartbroken young maiden. |
| "The Angler" | September 13, 1820 | Seventh American Installment | A character sketch of the English naturalist Izaak Walton Izaak Walton Izaak Walton was an English writer. Best known as the author of The Compleat Angler, he also wrote a number of short biographies which have been collected under the title of Walton's Lives.-Biography:... . |
| "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow The Legend of Sleepy Hollow "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a short story by Washington Irving contained in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., written while he was living in Birmingham, England, and first published in 1820... " |
March 15, 1820 | Sixth American Installment | Irving’s tale of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman, again attributed to the fictional historian Diedrich Knickerbocker. |
| "L'Envoy" | July 1820 | English Edition, Volume 2 | Crayon thanks his readers for their indulgence. |
American editions
Octavo (book)
Octavo is a technical term describing the format of a book, which refers to the size of leaves produced from folding a full sheet of paper on which multiple pages of text were printed to form the individual sections of a book...
editions printed on top-grade paper and utilizing 12-point typefaces instead of the usual 8-point type.
A single-volume hardcover version, reprinting the two English volumes, was published in the United States by Van Winkle in 1824.
Contents of the American installments
First installment (June 23, 1819)- "The Author’s Account of Himself"
- "The Voyage"
- "Roscoe"
- "The Wife"
- "Rip Van WinkleRip Van Winkle"Rip Van Winkle" is a short story by the American author Washington Irving published in 1819, as well as the name of the story's fictional protagonist. Written while Irving was living in Birmingham, England, it was part of a collection entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon...
"
Second installment (July 31, 1819)
- "English Writers on America"
- "Rural Life in England"
- "The Broken Heart"
- "The Art of Book Making"
Third installment (September 13, 1819)
- "A Royal Poet"
- "The Country Church"
- "The Boar’s Head Tavern, East Cheap"
- "The Widow and Her Son"
Fourth installment (November 10, 1819)
- "The Mutability of Literature"
- "Rural Funerals"
- "The Inn Kitchen"
- "The Spectre Bridegroom"
Fifth installment (January 1, 1820)
- "Christmas"
- "The Stage Coach"
- "Christmas Eve"
- "Christmas Day"
- "Christmas Dinner"
Sixth installment (March 15, 1820)
- "John Bull"
- "The Pride of the Village"
- "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"
Seventh installment (September 13, 1820)
- "Little Britain"
- "Stratford-On-Avon"
- "Westminster Abbey"
- "The Angler"
English edition
Portions of The Sketch Book were almost immediately reprinted in British literary magazines — and with no real international copyright laws to protect American works from being reprinted in England, poached American writers were entitled neither to the profits for their work, nor to legal recourse. Irving was concerned about such literary piracy — "I am fearful some [British] Bookseller in the American trade may get hold of [The Sketch Book]," he told his brother in law, "and so run out an edition of it without my adapting it for the London public — or participating in the profits." Determined to protect The Sketch Book from further poaching, Irving arranged to secure his British copyright by self-publishing the work in London.Searching for another publisher, Irving appealed to his friend and mentor, Sir Walter Scott, for assistance. Scott approached his own publisher, London powerhouse John Murray
John Murray (1778-1843)
John Murray was a Scottish publisher and member of the famous John Murray publishing house.The publishing house was founded by Murray's father, who died when Murray was only fifteen years old. During his youth, a partner, Samuel Highley, ran the business, but in 1803 the partnership was dissolved...
, and convinced him to purchase the rest of the stock and continue publication. (In gratitude, Irving dedicated the English editions of The Sketch Book to Walter Scott.) Heartened by the enthusiastic response to The Sketch Book, Murray encouraged Irving to publish the remaining three American installments as a second volume as quickly as possible.
In July 1820, Murray published the second volume of The Sketch Book, including all the pieces from the final three American installments, plus three additional essays: the American Indian sketches "Philip of Pokanoket" and "Traits of Indian Character," which Irving had originally written for the Analectic Magazine
Analectic Magazine
The Analectic Magazine was published in Philadelphia by Moses Thomas. Some issues contained reprinted articles from the British press. Washington Irving served as editor 1813-1814. "The first lithograph ever made in America is in this magazine for July 1819. It represents a woodland scene — a...
in 1814, and a short original piece, "L’Envoy," in which Irving thanked his British readers for their indulgence.
Given the speed with which Murray put the second volume to press, the essays included in the final installment of the American edition were actually published in London first, several months before they made their appearance in the United States.
Given Irving's additions, the English version of The Sketch Book contained thirty-two pieces, while its American counterpart contained only twenty-nine.
Author's revised edition
In 1848, as part of the Author's Revised Edition he was completing for publisher George PutnamGeorge Palmer Putnam
George Palmer Putnam was an important American book publisher.-Biography:Putnam was born in Brunswick, Maine. On moving to New York City, Putnam was given his first job by Jonathan Leavitt, who subsequently published Putnam's first book...
, Irving added two new stories to The Sketch Book — "London Antiques" and "A Sunday in London" — as well as a new preface and the postscript to "Rip Van Winkle." Irving also slightly changed the order of the sketches, placing a number of essays from the seventh American installment earlier in the collection, and moving "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" into a place of prominence as the final story in the collection ("L'Envoy" being merely a thank you to readers).
Public and critical response
The first American reviews were the result of well-placed advance publicity, performed on Irving’s behalf by his friend Henry Brevoort. Three days after the book’s release, Brevoort placed an anonymous review in the New-York Evening Post, lauding The Sketch Book and making it clear to readers that it was Irving’s work:Outside Irving’s immediate circle of friends, however, the reviews were equally as positive. As critic Gulian Verplanck wrote:
Two of the book's early admirers were Sir Walter Scott (who called it "positively beautiful") and Lord Byron (who said of the book, "I know it by heart"). Years later, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
said The Sketch Book was one of the earliest works to excite his interest in literature. As he said, "Every reader has his first book; I mean to say, one book among all others which in early youth first fascinates his imagination, and at once excites and satisfies the desires of his mind... To me, this first book was The Sketch Book of Washington Irving".
Apart from "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," both of which were immediately acknowledged as The Sketch Book’s finest pieces, American and English readers alike responded most strongly to the more sentimental tales, especially "The Broken Heart," — which Byron claimed had made him weep — and "The Widow and Her Son."
In Britain, the book did much to promote Americans as legitimate writers, and their work as legitimate literature — a concept that surprised English critics. "Everywhere I find in it the marks of a mind of the utmost elegance and refinement," wrote the English historian William Godwin
William Godwin
William Godwin was an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism, and the first modern proponent of anarchism...
, "a thing as you know that I was not exactly prepared to look for in an American." The English magazine Quarterly Review
Quarterly Review
The Quarterly Review was a literary and political periodical founded in March 1809 by the well known London publishing house John Murray. It ceased publication in 1967.-Early years:...
agreed. "[Irving] seems to have studied our language where alone it can be studied in all its strength and perfection, and in working these precious mines of literature he has refined for himself the ore which there so richly abounds."
Even Irving admitted that he was pleased to have stunned the skeptical English critics. When one English admirer asked Irving to confirm that he was really an American, Irving responded enthusiastically: "The doubts which her ladyship has heard on the subject seem to have arisen from the old notion that it is impossible for an American to write decent English."
The book is compared favourably with William Pinnock
William Pinnock
William Pinnock was a British publisher and educational writer.He was at first a schoolmaster, then a bookseller. In 1817 he went to London and, in partnership with Samuel Maunder, began to publish cheap educational works...
's English educational texts in George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
's novel The Mill on the Floss
The Mill on the Floss
The Mill on the Floss is a novel by George Eliot , first published in three volumes in 1860 by William Blackwood. The first American edition was by Thomas Y...
(1860): Maggie, talking about her 'gloomy fancy' to her cousin Lucy says:
"Perhaps it comes from the school diet - watery rice-pudding spiced with Pinnock
William Pinnock
William Pinnock was a British publisher and educational writer.He was at first a schoolmaster, then a bookseller. In 1817 he went to London and, in partnership with Samuel Maunder, began to publish cheap educational works...
. Let us hope it will give way before my mother's custards and this charming Geoffrey Crayon." Maggie took up the Sketch Book, which lay by her on the table. (Book 6, Chapter 2)
The Sketch Book cemented Irving’s reputation, and propelled him to a level of celebrity previously unseen for an American writer. "I am astonished at the success of my writings in England," Irving wrote to his publisher, "and can hardly persuade myself that it is not all a dream. Had any one told me a few years since in America, that any thing I could write would interest such men as . . . Byron, I should have as readily believed a fairy tale."
Influence on American culture
Rip Van Winkle
"Rip Van Winkle" is a short story by the American author Washington Irving published in 1819, as well as the name of the story's fictional protagonist. Written while Irving was living in Birmingham, England, it was part of a collection entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon...
, Ichabod Crane
Ichabod Crane
Ichabod Crane is a fictional character in Washington Irving's short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, first published in 1820.-Origin:...
, and the Headless Horseman
Headless Horseman
The headless horseman has been a motif of European folklore since at least the Middle ages.The Headless Horseman is a fictional character who appears in a short story called “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” which is in a collection of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon written by Washington Irving...
.
One of the most significant influences of The Sketch Book came from its cycle of five Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
stories, portraying an idealized and old-fashioned Yule celebration at an English country manor. Irving's stories depicted harmonious warm-hearted English Christmas customs he observed while staying in Aston Hall
Aston Hall
Aston Hall is a municipally owned Jacobean-style mansion in Aston, Birmingham, England. Washington Irving used it as the model for Bracebridge Hall in his stories in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon.-History:...
, Birmingham, England, that had largely been abandoned, and he used the tract Vindication of Christmas (London 1652) of Old English Christmas traditions, that he had transcribed into his journal as a format for his stories. Except Pennsylvania German Settlers, who were enthusiastic celebrators of Christmas, Irving contributed to a revival of customs in America. Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
later credited Irving as an influence on his own Christmas writings, including the classic A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...
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External links
- The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, available at Project Gutenburg.
- The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, available at Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
- Publishing history of The Sketch Book.
- MSN Encarta Children's Literature.