the legend of sleepy hollow and other tales

It took me too long to read this (a few days less than it took to read Les Mis and about 900 pages shorter? Yeah..) I have an idea as to why. I've always had trouble staying interested in a collection of short stories, I think because I feel like I can put the book down and walk away from it for awhile because there's no overarching plot line that I'm invested in. That being said, let me make it clear my disinterest in finishing this in a timely manner (my original goal was a week, which I feel like would have been easily done) wasn't due to the content, it was just my difficulty with short stories.

I don't have much to say about this (again, because of the short story format). I enjoyed it.. Irving was really great at capturing humans in a really eloquent way. All of his characters were very much their own person, in that they all undeniably human. He painted these people that were extremely quirky, but human. Each had their own personalities. The interesting thing is that he never really spent much time describing the lesser characters. The only story I can think of (off the top of my head) that he really described more than two characters in depth was Sleepy Hollow (there I can think of four). The others, there was one (or two) main characters he focused on, and let all of the others gray in the background. Which is fine, it made the main characters all that more vibrant.

He also had a way with describing scenery, which was really great. Again, with his scenery he threw in details that were minor, and some might question the necessity for it, but it was those details that made the scenery that much more believable.

I found it really interesting that this collection of stories is what opened up American literature as a respectable work in the English's eyes. I never thought about it, but when America was first standing on its feet as its own country, there would be a lot of work in finding a distinct culture from their parent country and breaking out of that mold. Before Irving, the British looked down upon American literature as silly and flippant. There was a LOT of pressure as an American writer because much of what was popular in America was laughed at in Britain. As a newly formed country trying to find its place in the world to show England it can be just as good as them.. I can see how that would create fear in American writing.

My favorite stories from this collection are the ones that either deal with love or the supernatural.. Irving was very good at describing those two things.
- Rip Van Winkle
- The Broken Heart
- The Widow and Her Son
- The Spectre Bridegroom
- The Pride of the Village
- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Now, onward to Joyce's Dubliners.. after a quick break to read the next two Percy Jackson books :)