Washington Irving

Washington Irving

(1783-1859)

“

Father of American Imaginative literature

” “

Father of the American short story

”

Ⅰ

Life



Irving was born into a wealthy New York merchant family. From a very early age, he began to read widely and write juvenile poems, essays and plays.

Later, he studied law.

His first book A History of New York, written under the name of Diedrich Knickerbocker , was a great success and won him wide popularity.

In 1815, he went to England to take care of his family business there, and when it failed, he had to write to support himself.

 With the publication of

The Sketch Book

, he won a measure of international recognition.

《见 闻札 记》



Then when he was fifty, he returned to America and bought

“

Sunnyside

”

, his famous home. There he spent the rest of his life, living a life of leisure and comfort, except for a period of four years (1842--1846), when he was Minister to Spain.

View of Sunnyside

Ⅱ

Achievement

• A kindhearted farmer Rip Van Winkle who helped a stranger distribute wine on a mountain slope. He drank a little and soon fell asleep. When he woke and went back to the village, it was 20 years later.

• Everything had changed. The most important change was the War of Independence had been won and the portrait of King George of Britain was replaced by American President George Washington.

• • The story has become a part of cultural mythology: even for those who have never read the original story, "Rip Van Winkle" means either a person who sleeps for a long period of time, or one who is inexplicably (perhaps even blissfully) unaware of current events.

Setting

• The story of Rip Van Winkle begins about five or six years before the American Revolution when under the Dutch colonization and ends twenty years later. • The action takes place in a village in eastern New York, near the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains.

Rip Van Winkle

takes place in British colonial New York, near the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains in pre-revolutionary times.

Characters

• • • • • • • • •

Rip Van Winkle

'profitable labor'. - a henpecked husband who loathes

Dame Van Winkle Rip Judith Gardenier

- Rip Van Winkle's cantankerous wife. - Rip Van Winkle's son. - Rip Van Winkle's daughter.

Derrick Van Bummel

member of Congress. - the local schoolmaster and later a

Nicholas Vedder

congregate. - landlord of the local inn where menfolk

Mr. Doolittle

- a hotel owner.

Wolf

- Rip's faithful dog

The Ghosts of Henry Hudson and his crew

share purple magic liquor with van Winkle. - Ghosts that

Great Changes

The village inn Large, wooded building The British colonial America George III The United States of American George Washington

Rip Van Winkle Dame Van Winkle Rip ’ s hometown The new born America: a overgrown child Puritan discipline and the work ethic of Franklin America—forever and rapidly changing

R est i n p eace

The United States was still the land of plenty, a country of endless resources . This was a source of pride for Irving and his American readers, and a subject of fascination （迷恋） and wonder for his British readers. ◎

Irving uses lush imagery precisely for its lushness, to demonstrate and celebrate the endless resources of a new, unproven

（未开垦的）

nation.