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A review by sarahoretsev
The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent by Washington Irving
4.0
I enjoyed this a lot more than I was expecting to! Irving is an author I’ve been meaning to get to for years (first full time author from America and all that, fairly big author to have never got round to reading...) and this didn’t let me down!
‘The Sketch-Book’ is super easy to read because of how it’s formatted into lots of short stories, so it’s easy to dive in and out of. I chose to read it in chronological order, but I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary to do so - but by reading chronologically you can see some links built between the stories and cross references. Somewhat stereotypically, the stories I enjoyed most were ‘Rip Van Winkle’, ‘The Sceptre Bridegroom’ and ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ (which by the way is rather different to the film, in that Icabod is an utter idiot in the original story); but what I enjoyed so much about them was this distinctly European fairytale feeling that didn’t feel cliche.
A really enjoyable read and entertaining for the way Irving wrote the character of Crayon to be torn between being cynical of England and also deeply loving it.
‘The Sketch-Book’ is super easy to read because of how it’s formatted into lots of short stories, so it’s easy to dive in and out of. I chose to read it in chronological order, but I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary to do so - but by reading chronologically you can see some links built between the stories and cross references. Somewhat stereotypically, the stories I enjoyed most were ‘Rip Van Winkle’, ‘The Sceptre Bridegroom’ and ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ (which by the way is rather different to the film, in that Icabod is an utter idiot in the original story); but what I enjoyed so much about them was this distinctly European fairytale feeling that didn’t feel cliche.
A really enjoyable read and entertaining for the way Irving wrote the character of Crayon to be torn between being cynical of England and also deeply loving it.