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Washington Irving. Washington Irving (1783-1859). “Father of American Imaginative literature” “Father of the American short story”. Ⅰ Life. Irving was 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.
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Washington Irving(1783-1859) “Father of American Imaginative literature” “Father of the American short story”
ⅠLife • Irving was 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. Later, he studied law.
His first book A History of New York, written under the name 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, hehad to write to support himself.
With the publication of The Sketch Book, he won a measure of international recognition. 《见闻札记》
Then when 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. View of Sunnyside
Rip Van Winkle (1819)
Plot summary • A kindhearted farmer Rip Van Winkle who helped a stranger distribute wine on a mountain slope. He drank a little and soon fell asleep. When he woke and went back to the village, it was 20 years later.
Everything had changed. The most important change was the War of Independence had been won and the portrait of King George of Britain was replaced by American President George Washington. Plot summary
The story has become a part of cultural mythology: even for those who have never read the original story, • "Rip Van Winkle" means either a person who sleeps for a long period of time, or one who is inexplicably (perhaps even blissfully) unaware of current events.
Setting • The story of Rip Van Winkle begins about five or six years before the American Revolution when under the Dutch colonization and ends twenty years later. • The action takes place in a village in eastern New York, near the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains.
Rip Van Winkle takes place in British colonial New York, near the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains in pre-revolutionary times.
Characters • Rip Van Winkle - a henpecked husband who loathes 'profitable labor'. • Dame Van Winkle - Rip Van Winkle's cantankerous wife. • Rip - Rip Van Winkle's son. • Judith Gardenier - Rip Van Winkle's daughter. • Derrick Van Bummel - the local schoolmaster and later a member of Congress. • Nicholas Vedder - landlord of the local inn where menfolk congregate. • Mr. Doolittle - a hotel owner. • Wolf- Rip's faithful dog • The Ghosts of Henry Hudson and his crew - Ghosts that share purple magic liquor with van Winkle.
Large, wooded building The village inn The British colonial America The United States of American George Washington George III Great Changes
The new born America: a overgrown child Rip Van Winkle Puritan discipline and the work ethic of Franklin Dame Van Winkle Rip’s hometown America—forever and rapidly changing Symbolism
Rest in peace RIP
The United States was still the land of plenty, a country of endless resources. This was a source of pride for Irving and his American readers, and a subject of fascination（迷恋） and wonder for his British readers. ◎Irving uses lush imagery precisely for its lushness, to demonstrate and celebrate the endless resources of a new, unproven（未开垦的） nation.
