Rip Van Winkle
Author:
Washington Irving
Content:
Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving
Illustrator:
Arthur Rackham
Publication:
1905 by William Heinemann, Ltd.
Genre:
Classic Literature, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Fiction, Short Story
Pages:
64
Current state:
Basic information has been added for this book.
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Book Guide
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Washington Irving
1783 - 1859American
Washington Irving was a writer of short stories, essays, and biographies, best known for his two stories "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Ho... See more
Arthur Rackham
1867 - 1939British
Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) was born in Lewisham, south London, the fourth of twelve children. While an evening student at Lambeth School of Art he h... See more
Content Guide
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Resource Guide
Podcast
Episode 70: Why Read Fairy Tales?
Released in 2020 by The Literary Life
Available formats: Streaming Audio
Length: 1 hr. 29 min.
View on the The Literary Life site
"Angelina Stanford and Cindy Rollins tackle the topic of fairy stories, discussing the what, why and how of reading them. Angelina shares the distinctive characteristics of fairy stories in contrast to other types of stories, such as myths. They deal with the question of whether fairy tales are 'escapist', the influence of the Grimm brothers scholarly work on interpreting fairy stories, and allowing the story to unveil its deeper truths without forcing meaning onto it.
Angelina gives an illustration of how to see the gospel messages in fairy tales by talking us through the story of Sleeping Beauty. She refutes the ideas that fairy tales are about human romance or are misogynistic. She also highlights some of the Enlightenment and Puritan responses to fairy tales that still linger with us today. Cindy and Angelina also discuss some common concerns such as the magical, weird, or scary aspects of fairy tales. Angelina also makes a distinction between folk tales, literary fairy tales, and cautionary tales."
Podcast
Rip Van Winkle
Released in 2018 by Close Reads Podcast
Available formats: Streaming Audio
Length: 1 hr. 15 min.
View on the Close Reads Podcast site
Join David Kern, Heidi White, and very special guest Jonathan Rogers (author of The Wilderking Trilogy and The Terrible Speed of Mercy: A Spiritual Biography of Flannery O'Connor, among other books), for a deep-dive into Washington Irving's famous short story, "Rip Van Winkle." Topics include the place of this story in the American literary tradition, Irving's craftsmanship, the conceit/framing device Irving employs, and a whole lot more.
Reviews
Rip van Winkle
Reviewed by Edward Garboczi
The other story for which Irving is most remembered is Rip van Winkle, reviewed here. It is a short story, set in the days where the Dutch held New York City and the Hudson Valley. Did you know that New York City used to be called New Amsterdam when it was still under the Dutch in the late 1600s? There is a Landmark book on the most famous governor of New Amsterdam, Peter Stuyvesant. Rip van Winkle is a lazy man who falls in with some magical little people and falls asleep for 20 years. He awakes to find everything has changed in his little village and has to deal with those changes. The story is quite humorous and is greatly enlivened by the whimsical illustrations of Arthur Rackham (1867 to 1939), one of the greatest British illustrators. In fact, his color illustrations for Rip van Winkle, published in 1905, are what first made him famous and kicked his career into high gear. Rip van Winkle has some difficult vocabulary and sentence structure, because of when it was written, so I would recommend it for middle school or older readers.
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