Washington Irving

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Washington Irving

• 1783 - 1859

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Washington Irving

• Irving was born on the week that the American War
  of Independence ended.
• He was named after George Washington.

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Short Stories

• The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon 1819
• Included The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van
  Winkle and Little Britain
• Tales of a Traveler 1924
• Included The Devil and Tom Walker

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Colonial Period

• The Colonial period lasted from 1607 - 1783.
• The end of the revolutionary war was the
  beginning of a new independent America.

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Pseudonym

• A pseudonym is a fake name used by an author.
• Washington Irving sometimes used the pseudonym
  Diedrich Knickerbocker.

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Diedrich Knickerbocker

• Irving made up an elaborate story about the
  fictional Mr. Knickerbocker.
• He pretended he was an old Dutch historian who
  had gone missing from his hotel room, without
  paying his bill.

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The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

• Set in Tarry Town in New York around 1790.
• The town is supposed to be haunted by a headless
  horseman
• The story of a teacher named Ichabod Crane who
  wishes to marry a girl named Katrina Von Tassel.

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• Ichabods rival is a man named Abraham Van Brunt,
  whos nickname is Brom Bones.
• One night Ichabod is chased - apparently by the
  horseman and never seen again.
• Brom Bones marries Katrina.

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Rip Van Winkle

• Rip Van Winkle is set in a village in New York at
  the foot of the Catskill mountains
• Rip Van Winkle is a friendly, but lazy man whos
  wife nags him constantly to do some work.

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• One day he goes into the mountains and discovers
  a mysterious group of people playing ninepins and
  drinking a strange drink.
• After tasting their drink, Rip falls asleep for
  20 years and misses the revolution.
• When he returns his wife and many friends are
  dead, but he returns to his old idle life.

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Little Britain

• Little Britain is a very different story to the
  other three.
• It is a nostalgic tale about an area of London
  that is becoming more modern.

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• One family - The Lambs - become rich and start
  to behave differently, soon other people start to
  copy them and the old traditions are lost.

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The Devil and Tom Walker

• The Devil and Tom Walker is set near Boston in
  1727
• The story of a man who makes a deal with the
  devil.
• He becomes a money lender and grows rich.

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• However, he starts to get worried as he gets
  older and becomes - or pretends to become - very
  religious.
• However, he is still carried off by the devil in
  the end

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What do these stories have in common?
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Format

• Introduction of PLACE
• Introduction of CHARACTER
• Story
• Conclusion

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The Past and the Passage of Time

• All of the stories are set in the recent past,
  not the present day.
• Little Britain in particular is about change over
  time, but they all deal with this theme in some
  way.

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Fables and Myths

• Many traditional stories were brought across from
  Europe, Irving uses these stories as inspiration.
• People within the stories enjoy and believe tales
  of ghosts and monsters.
• Real recent historical figures are also used in
  the stories.

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Nationality

• Many Dutch settlers lived in the 13 colonies.
• Originally New York was called New Amsterdam.

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Women and Wives

• What is Washington Irvings attitude to the women
  in the stories?
• Are they written about in the same way as the
  men?
• Does it matter?