The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Paperback – October 23, 2015

I found the writing skills better than reportedly. Word choices & descriptions of high end quality - very refreshing! The introduction was a description of the land & culture of time past; to which, you might get an understanding at a living museum, but not by a mere gossip session. The body of works provides the reader with character substance, motivations, developing intrigue and conflicts. A set up for later. The conclusion, a well written build up of illusions, superstitions, & spectral anticipations that pull the reader deeper into Ichabod Crane's tensions that turn into desperation and despair! The epilogue, returns the reader to an "... all is right with the world, ..." kind of day. A relief to the story's tensions and mayhem. The original book is better than the movies! I am glad I took the time to read the original version! Enjoy!

This truly has the feel of a folk tale given about an area that has nothing more than entertainment value. Not that that is a bad thing, but it is interesting that the end talks about possible educational values of the story and then promptly dismisses them all. This is one of those classics that everyone should read at least once, but not necessarily more unless they feel some urge to.

After hearing a discussion of Washington Irving's classic on the Diane Rehm Show earlier this week, I decided to re-read it in honor of Halloween. After all, it is relatively short and wouldn't require a commitment of an excessive amount of time, so it was something I could easily accomplish before the spooks and goblins descended on Halloween night.It had been many long years since I first became acquainted with the story of Ichabod Crane and his encounter with the Headless Horseman. It was in elementary school, which, I suppose, is where many people meet him. (I don't know - do they still teach Irving in elementary school? For that matter, do they still teach literature in elementary school?) I remember being fascinated by the story then, especially by the wonderful language of Irving. On re-reading it, I found that it holds up quite well. It is still a great tale.The story itself has now been retold so often and in so many ways - through movies, television, plays, music, even opera - that it is thoroughly ingrained in the cultural memory. Even those who have never read the story know it.Irving wrote of Ichabod Crane, the lanky and lean and excessively superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut who had come to the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town in New York to teach. Specifically, he lived and taught in the secluded glen which had earned the name Sleepy Hollow because of the "listless repose of the place, and the peculiar character of its inhabitants...A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere."Dreamy the place may have been but it was also renowned for its ghosts and the many superstitions of hauntings that pervaded the imagination of the residents. And it was to this hotbed of belief in supernatural beings and events that the very jittery Ichabod had come.Ichabod became obsessed with the idea of wooing and winning the hand of Katrina, the 18-year-old daughter of a local wealthy farmer. But he had a rival for Katrina's affections in Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, a local hero and merry prankster.One night Ichabod attends a party at Katrina's family's home and, as he leaves, he engages Katrina in conversation but she rejects him. Morose and dejected, he sets out on the trail to the home where he is presently being quartered, but, on the way, he encounters many terrors and, finally, the ultimate terror - the Headless Horseman himself.Ichabod presses the broken down plow horse on which he is riding into a reckless ride for his life but the Headless Horseman keeps pace with him until they finally come to a bridge next to the Old Dutch Burying Ground where the Horseman supposedly would vanish according to the tales that were told. But to Ichabod's horror, the ghostly apparition clambers up the bridge and rears his horse and hurls his severed head at the terrified pedagogue.The next morning, Ichabod has disappeared. His horse is found near his owner's gate. The saddle is found trampled. And near the bridge where Ichabod and the ghost were last seen lies a shattered pumpkin.Brom Bones, who "looks exceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was related," later married Katrina and, in a post note, we learn that Ichabod has turned up in another community where he studed law and become a lawyer.The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was one of the earliest American tales to gain enduring popularity. It follows a tradition of folk tales involving supernatural wild chases, a tradition which includes such well-known classics as Robert Burns' Tam o' Shanter. Irving's tale is a worthy member of that club.

I knew I wouldn't be terrified by this story. I read it for nostalgia because the various television interpretations of this story was one of my favorite Halloween stories as a child.The story itself was mostly a slog until the end. Really shows the changing standards in writing. The majority of the story was all verbose descriptions of the town, its people, and ichabod's contested pursuit of a woman—partially for her father's fortune.The end was no more or less than expected. Ichabod meets the horseman, it chases him and looks scary, and its head is on the pommel of the saddle. The ending was a little too ambiguous for my taste, but that's not uncommon for classic stories of the supernatural. It wasn't bad, but I probably won't read it again.

I ordered this Legend of Sleepy Hollow book as a gift for a friend of my daughter's. She loves this book and was extremely happy with the gift. The book was in great shape, new as it was described. I didn't notice any spelling errors on the pages and there were no creases or signs of use. The book itself is kind of a classic and this deserves the 5 stars

I wanted a Halloween season gift for an elderly lady I know, so I chose an edition of this story with eerie, mysterious cover art as well as a slightly larger format. I thought the latter would mean the text would be enlarged. I was mistaken. Nothing can take away from Washington Irving's wonderful tale, and the quality of the book itself (heft of the cover and pages, clarity of printing, etc.) is an A+. (Note my "all the stars" rating.) I only leave this review to make clear that the larger pages have very wide margins, so the text is the same size as that of a much smaller book. Not a big deal. Certainly doesn't take away from the joy of the story. It's just a little more difficult for an older person to read than I had hoped.

it wasn't the book I thought it was but it was still an interesting read.

This was a nice short read. I had never actually read it but am quite familiar with the tale like most of us are. I wanted to see if there was anything more to the tale than I was aware of and it seems to be that there were some details that I may have missed in the screen adaptations versus the book. Overall it was pretty close story telling between both screen and page.

El libro vale la pena, ya que la impresión es adecuada y por lo mismo es fácil de leer para los niños

Classic box and dvd

Mi è piaciuta molto la Dark Story e l’ambientazione. Lo consiglio a chi è appassionato della letteratura gotica.

Many people seem to complain that the novel is not similar to the movie, which is a rather "creative" adaption of the story. The original tale of sleepy hollow however is a fascinating little ghost story set in the Hudson river area in the New York state and in my opinion much more interesting than the movie with Johnny Depp. The book itself is well made and I like the print.

Love the story ,I like it was old story about old England,they shot like used to,nice seat down on quite Sunday read