Washington-Irving

1、WASHINGTONWASHINGTONIRVINGIRVING陈玉玲梁亮曾爽ContentsWashington Irving(1783 1859) American author, essayist, biographer, historian of the early 19th century and the U.S. minister to Spain from 1842 to 1846. He was best known for his short stories The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle”. Irving was

2、 born into a wealthy New York merchant family. From a very early age, he began to read widely and write juvenile poems, essays and plays. At 16, he studied law. His fiancee, Matilda Hoffman, committed suicide in 1809, and then he never marriedHis first book A History of New York, written under the n

3、ame of Diedrich Knickerbocker, was a great success and won him wide popularity. In 1815, he went to England to take care of his family business there, and when it failed, had to write to support himself. With the publication of The Sketch Book, he won a measure of international recognition.Then when

4、 he was fifty, he returned to America and bought “Sunnyside”, his famous home. There he spent the rest of his life, living a life of leisure and comfort, except for a period of four years (1842-1846), when he was Minister to Spain. He died of a heart attack at Sunnyside in New York City at the age o

5、f 76. History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty 纽约外史(1809) The Sketch Book / The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. 见闻札记(18191820) Rip Van Winkle瑞普.凡.温克尔 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow睡谷的传说 The History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus 哥仑布传(182

6、8) The Life of George Washington 华盛顿传(18551859 ) The Sketch Book 见闻札记见闻札记“The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow” 睡谷的传说睡谷的传说“Rip Van Winkle”瑞普瑞普凡凡温克尔温克尔PlotPlot Rip Van Winkle is an ambitionless and lazy farmer. He tired of his wifes non-stop nagging at home. He seeks refuge in the mountains where he meets

7、 several mountain spirits and tastes the liquor left by them out of curiosity. Because of the magic power of the drink, he falls into a twenty-year sleep. When he wakes up, everything has undergone a tremendous change.Theme of Rip Van WinkleIrving seized on the venerable theme of the henpecked husba

8、nd who turns the tables on his tyrannical wife, a feat Rip achieves by simply outlasting her.Irving believe that the revolution upset the natural order and he never accepts the modern democratic America.He contradicted between work and desire for leisure. After he returned, he loss his identityRip m

9、erely desires a leisurely, casual, convivial life, but his wife calls him home from the congenial atmosphere of the inn and lectures him in bed at night. Irving never, however, permits Dame Van Winkles point of view to obtrude; she does not speak in the story, and Irving elicits no sympathy for her.

10、 She is the enemy partly because she embodies a whole culture that is at odds with Rips values: that of the tidy, thrifty, ambitious Dutch.While loving freedom, Rip placidly endured the tyranny of Dame Van Winkle and King George and has escaped playing any role in the forging of American liberty. He

11、 has avoided the tribulations of family life by losing all title as husband and becoming dependent on his daughter, while he has sloughed off his responsibilities as patriot by choosing “overnight”status as a senior citizen.Thirdly, the characters in Irvings works are vivid and true so that they ten

12、d to linger in the mind of the reader; Fourthly, the humor in his works is so effective that the reader cannot help laughing while reading him;Lastly, Irvings language is refined and musical.He is the first belletrist in American literature and the first American literary humorist.He has probably ma

13、de short stories a genre in American literature.He is the first to write history and biography as entertai-nment.He has introduced nonfiction prose as a literary genre.He is the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame. Literary reputation: Absorbing the cream of Eu

14、ropean culture and literature, Irving created his unique style that is fresh, natural, humorous and musical. With his short stories and success in many other fields, Irving has made great contributions to the development of independent American literature. It is Irving who activated the potential of

15、 American literature and laid solid foundations for its future development. As a famed essayist, biographer, historian, writer and politician, Washington Irving is often considered as “The Father of American Literature” or “The Father of American Letters,” as well as one of the inventors of the modern short essay and fiction.On the whole, Irvings works have given great enjoyment to generations of readers. He is most known for t