Initial Thoughts on Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories
Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving is a short story. It's 20 pages long and found in Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories. Published in 1819, Rip Van Winkle is the name of the protagonist in the story, which is set in the Catskill Mountains of New York.
Yesterday I reviewed The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Both stories are mentioned in the Harvard Classics Bookshelf. When I saw Rip Van Winkle among the must-reads, the name felt very familiar to me. But after I read the story, I had no recollection of having read it before.
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What is Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving About?
Rip Van Winkle is a good-natured man. And the people in the village in which he lives love him. He is always willing to lend a helping hand. And he performs tasks that husbands are not willing to perform for their wives. The big problem is that he takes care of everybody's business but his own. He doesn't have a head for business and his farm is in ruins. Whatever he touches never turns to gold.
His wife, Dame Van Winkle, is a nag. And one cannot help but wonder if she is a nag because her husband fails at every business venture. Or if Rip Van Winkle fails because of his wife's constant nagging.
To escape her tongue lashing, he leaves home to participate in spirited conversations with Derrick Van Hummel, the schoolmaster, and Nicholas Vedder, the village patriarch and inn owner. Dame Van Winkle knows her husband's secret. And takes her nagging to wherever her husband is located.
To finally get some peace and quiet from his wife’s verbal assault, and feelings of great despair, along with his dog, Wolf, Rip Van Winkle heads for the woods. On his trek, he climbs the Catskill Mountains without consciously thinking about what he is doing. He travels to the other side of the mountain. Laying there enjoying nature’s beauty. He later realizes that it will be dark long before he returns to the village. And he is terrified of what his wife will say when he returns home.
As he is about to descend the mountain to return to the village, he hears someone calling his name twice. He looks around him, but cannot see anyone in the vicinity, when he hears someone calling his name twice again. He finally notices a strange man struggling to carry a keg.
The man is dressed in outdated clothes from the past. Being the good natured and kind person he is, Rip Van Winkle carries the keg for the man. The two men travel in silence. Although Rip Van Winkle is wondering why someone would be carrying a keg of liquor in the mountains.
They finally get to an area that’s an amphitheater. There are more strange looking people in outdated clothes playing ninepins.
“The whole group reminded Rip of the figures in an old Flemish painting in the parlor of Dominie Van Shaick, the village parson, and which had been brought over from Holland at the time of the settlement.”
The men drink the liquor and Rip decides to have a taste, likes it, and have several more tastes, until he finally falls into a deep slumber.
When he awakes, the first thing that comes to his mind is his wife’s reaction to him staying out all night. Wolf is nowhere around and his gun is rusted. He calls for his dog and there is no response. Rip heads home. But he notices that it is much harder for him to walk.
He walks into the village and doesn’t recognize anyone. And no one recognizes him which is quite odd. Surprisingly, he doesn’t recognize any of the buildings. And when he arrives home, he finds a dilapidated place that hasn’t been lived in for a long time. He finds a half-starved dog who looks like Wolf. But the dog snarls at him.
Later in the day, Rip meets his daughter, who is now a grown woman, married with children. He learns from her that Dame Van Winkle is dead, which he is not sad about. Rip Van Winkle has been sleeping for 20 years. And not for a night as he first thought. He learns from old Peter Vanderdonk, the village historian that the Catskills Mountains has always been haunted by strange beings. And every 20 years, Hendrick Hudson and his crew hold a vigil and are at their game of ninepins.
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Final Thoughts on Rip Van Winkle
For some reason, I enjoyed Rip Van Winkle a lot more than I did The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Both are ghost stories. But the reading experience for each is very different. Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories
by Washington Irving is a quick read.
Washington Irving Books
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories From the Sketch Book (Signet Classics)
The Complete Tales Of Washington IrvingHistory, Tales, and Sketches: The Sketch Book / A History of New York / Salmagundi / Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent.Tales of the AlhambraThe Complete Works of Washington IrvingThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow + Rip Van Winkle + Old Christmas +The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle
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