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1、Washington Irving （1783-1859）,华盛顿 欧文,I. Life and works,the first American belletrist Father of American short stories essayist, poet, travel book writer, biographer, and columnist loved traveling widely (the Hudson River, Europe),Washington Irving,Irvings career as a writer started in journals and n
2、ewspapers A History of New York (1809) 纽约外史 Irvings success in social life and literature was shadowed by a personal tragedy The Sketch Book (1819-20) 见闻札记 The Authors Account of Himself 作者自叙 Rip Van Winkle 瑞普凡温克尔 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 睡谷传奇,Tales of a Traveler (1824) 游客述异 Life of George Washin
3、gton (1855-1859) 华盛顿传,II. Further Reading,1. Rip Van Winkle TB. P.48 a. Background Information b. Story (the Kaatskill Mountains, the Hudson River) c. Theme and structure conservative and endowed with a love for the antique shift of space shift of time,Excerpts of Rip Van winkle,Whoever has made a v
4、oyage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill Mountains. They are a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family, and are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a noble height, and lording it over the surrounding country. Every change of season, every change of weather, indeed, e
5、very hour of the day, produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains, and they are regarded by all the good wives, far and near, as perfect barometers.,When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evenin
6、g sky; but sometimes, when the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits, which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory.,At the foot of these fairy mountains the voyager may have descried the light smoke
7、curling up from a village whose shingle roofs gleam among the trees, just where the blue tints of the upland melt away into the fresh green of the nearer landscape. It is a little village of great antiquity, having been founded by some of the Dutch colonists,In that same village, and in one of these
8、 very houses (which, to tell the precise truth, was sadly time-worn and weather-beaten), there lived many years since, while the country was yet a province of Great Britain, a simple, good-natured fellow, of the name of Rip Van Winkle.,He was a descendant of the Van Winkles who figured so gallantly
9、in the chivalrous days of Peter Stuyvesant, and accompanied him to the siege of Fort Christina. He inherited, however, but little of the martial character of his ancestors. I have observed that he was a simple, good-natured man; he was, moreover, a kind neighbor and an obedient, henpecked husband.,I
10、ndeed, to the latter circumstance might be owing that meekness of spirit which gained him such universal popularity; for those men are most apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad who are under the discipline of shrews at home.,Their tempers, doubtless, are rendered pliant and malleable in the
11、fiery furnace of domestic tribulation, and a curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching the virtues of patience and long-suffering. A termagant wife may, therefore, in some respects, be considered a tolerable blessing; and if so, Rip Van Winkle was thrice blessed.,Certain it
12、is that he was a great favorite among all the good wives of the village, who, as usual with the amiable sex, took his part in all family squabbles, and never failed, whenever they talked those matters over in their evening gossipings, to lay all the blame on Dame Van Winkle. The children of the vill
13、age, too, would shout with joy whenever he approached.,He assisted at their sports, made their playthings, taught them to fly kites and shoot marbles, and told them long stories of ghosts, witches, and Indians. Whenever he went dodging about the village, he was surrounded by a troop of them, hanging
14、 on his skirts, clambering on his back, and playing a thousand tricks on him with impunity; and not a dog would bark at him throughout the neighborhood.,The great error in Rips composition was an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor. It could not be from the want of assiduity or per
15、severance; for he would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and heavy as a Tartars lance, and fish all day without a murmur, even though he should not be encouraged by a single nibble.,He would carry a fowling piece on his shoulder, for hours together, trudging through woods and swamps, and up hil
16、l and down dale, to shoot a few squirrels or wild pigeons. He would never even refuse to assist a neighbor in the roughest toil, and was a foremost man at all country frolics for husking Indian corn, or building stone fences.,The women of the village, too, used to employ him to run their errands, and to do such little odd jobs as their less obliging husbands would not do for them; in a word, Rip was ready to attend to anybodys business but his own; but as
