Washington Irving.doc

Washington Irving (1783-1859)Washington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. Lifel Irving was born in a wealthy New York merchant family.l He studied law but he loved writing more.l In mid 1815, Irving left for England to attempt to salvage the family trading company. He remained in Europe for the next seventeen years. With no job prospects, he had to write to support himself.l In the summer of 1817, he visited Walter Scott and began a lifelong personal and professional friendship.l In 1819, Irving published a set of short prose pieces named The Sketch Book which was later proved to be an enormous success. l The following two years after the publication of The Sketch Books, Irving still lived in Paris and Britain, where he was often feted as an anomaly of literature, an upstart American who dared to write English well.l In 1826, as an American diplomatic attache, Irving was sent to Spain, where he gathered materials for his The History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (in the form of romantic history)which was popular in the United States and in Europe. This book was published firstly with Irvings own name instead of a pseudonym on the title page. He also received the unfettered access to a Dukes library containing many medieval manuscripts. Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada was published a year later.l Before Irving could continue to gather more materials from Spain, in 1829, he was notified of his appointment as Secretary to the American Legation in London. So, he left Spain for England. He kept this mission for three years. In 1832, he resigned his post to concentrate on writing, completing Tales of the Alhambra.l Washington Irving returned to America in 1832 after seventeen years abroad. Later, he purchased a neglected cottage in Tarrytown, New York and named it Sunnyside. (But this cottage needed constant repairing over the next twenty years which cost Irving a lot. With costs of Sunnyside increasing, Irving reluctantly agreed to become a regular contributor to The Knickerbocker magazine.)l Irving spent the rest of his life living in Sunnyside, except for a period of four years life in Spain as American minister. (1842-1846)l During his leisure and comfortable life at Sunnyside, Irving completed his biographical series, such as Life of Goldsmith and a five-volume Life of Washington. However, only after 8 months after his completing the final volume of his Washington biography, Washington Irving died of a heart attack. He was unmarried during his lifetime.Careerl 1809-1832 The first phase spans from his first book up to 1832 when he returned home. The first period was predominantly “English”, in which he was greatly obsessed with the ruins and relics of Europe and writing about subjects either English or European.l The second phase stretches over the remaining years of his life. Back in America, Irving found a whole new spirit of nationalism in American feeling and art and letters. The country was eager for an indigenous culture and literature at that time. In the last years of his life, Irving wrote a few books about the American west to awoke to the fact that there was beauty in America, too. But these “American” books are of only secondary importance among his works. Worksl A History of New York (his first success under the pseudonym of Diedrich Knickerbocker) The anecdotes of his cheating the readers about the crusty Dutch historian, Diedrich Knickerbocker, prior to his publication After the success of A History of New York, Irving searched for a job and eventually became an editor of a magazine.l The Sketch Books The Sketch Book is a collection of essays, sketches, and tales, of which the most famous and frequently anthologized are “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. The book touched the American imagination and foreshadowed the coming of Hawthorne, Melville, and Poe, in whose hands the short story attained a degree of perfection as a literary tradition. The Sketch Book also marked the beginning of American Romanticism. The Gothic, the supernatural, and the longing for the good old days which are exhibited in it are Romantic enough in subject.l The History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbusl Chronicle of the Conquest of Granadal Tales of the Alhambral Life of Goldsmithl Life of WashingtonContribution Irvings contribution to American literature is unique in more ways than one.l Irving was the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame. When he returned home in 1832, he was acclaimed as an American that European people knew about, and this was considered as a sign by Americans that American literature was emerging as an independent entity.l Irving was considered as father of American literature. The short story as a genre in American literature probably began with Irvings The Sketch Book. a collection of essays, sketches, and tales, of which the most famous and frequently anthologized are “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.Writing Featuresl Irvings style is beautiful, imitative and true. He never shocks the readers but seems a bit sentimental at times. His manner seems more important than his matter.l In his writings, Irving avoids moralizing but tends to amuse and entertain, which is quite different from his Puritan forefathers.l Irving is good at enveloping his stories in an atmosphere. His characters are rich and true so that they tend to linger in the mind of the reader. The tone is usually so humorous that it is difficult not to smile even chuckle for a reader.l Irvings finished and musical language as well as his patent workmanship have been the focus of literary critics for a long time. He modeled himself on Goldsmith and was known as “the American Goldsmith” at that time. Rip Van Winkle “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” are the most famous stories in The Sketch Book. They are so famous and enduring in the history of American literature that they have become part of the American cultural tradition.l Rip Van Winkle took suggestions from a German source. He changed the settings and make it American.l The main plot The characters:Rip Van Winkle: He is a simple, good-natured, and hen-pecked man. He is very kindhearted and is always willing to help others except his wife and his own folks. He is welcome everywhere except at home. His would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound. Actually, his name has some connotative meaning. Rip may be the abbreviation for “Rest in Peace”. The shifting point:Couldnt bearing his wifes consistent dinning in his ears about his idleness, carelessness, he finds his refuge in the mountains with his gun and dog as his companions. One afternoon he stays out late near the top of a mountain where he meets a group of odd-looking people playing at nine-pins. Out of curiosity and thirsty, he take several sips of the wine and falls asleep. When he wakes up and returns to his village, he is shocked by the tremendous change in his village. The tremendous changes1) Old houses have vanished, and so have some of his old friends.2) The former little inn is replaced by a large “Union Hotel” with a flag of stars and stripes fluttering in front of it.3) The dispassionate idle talk about events and occurences were replaced by a passionate factional squabble.4) His wife died, he son has become a farm hand, and his daughter has become a happy mother. He realized that what he thinks just one night actually is twenty years. He has slept for twenty years. The importance of nature1) Under Irvings pen, nature has become the refuge to get far away from the world crowd.2) Nature has also become the reflection for the shifts and changes of life because of its enduring characteristic. It also beco