Washington Irving

A superstitious schoolmaster, in love with a wealthy farmer's daughter, has a terrifying encounter with a headless horseman.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

The legend of Sleepy Hollow

Colton Ray

Absolutely phenomenal tale written with brilliant prose that I could get lost in. This is a reread from 2 years ago, and I like it even more this time around, enough to put it on my all time favorites shelf. All I have to say is... read it! It's even better on Halloween.

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is set circa 1790 in the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town, New York, in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow. It tells the story of Ichabod Crane, a lean, lanky, and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut, who competes with Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, the town rowdy, for the hand of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and sole child of a wealthy farmer. As Crane leaves a party, he is pursued by the Headless Horseman, who is supposedly the ghost of a Hessian trooper who had his head shot off by a stray cannonball during "some nameless battle" of the American Revolutionary War, and who "rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head."

Laura Mauler

Best enjoyed by candlelight, with a mug of cocoa and a swaddling of blankets, on an October night.

C. J. Daley 

This is one that I have had on my radar for a long time, but simply never picked up. Recently I saw it was included with Audible, so I gave it a go. 

If you’ve read any of my reviews, I’m not much for classic ‘horror’. And this is a classic that mostly suffers from being written when it was. The horseman was not featured in 70% of the story itself, and even then it doesn’t really add much for me. I will say this one did at least have a one-scene climax! I feel like some of the ones I’ve read before are just kind of literally nothing the entire time. That was not this one! Ichabod has his own run in with the headless horseman!

Terrible time period descriptors of people’s color did not add an ounce to the enjoyment.

Colleen

3 Stars

I first read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in eighth grade. I remember thinking it was alright but not having particularly strong emotions about it. 

My bookclub selected The Legend of Sleepy Hollow for our November read, and I was interested to revisit it. My thoughts the second time around where pretty much the same as the first time. They were also similar to my reactions to reading Frankenstein recently. I can see why this story has sparked imagination, but I was not in love with the writing.

Set in Tarrytown, New York (also called Sleepy Hollow), The Legend of Sleepy Hollow focuses on the ambitious Ichabod Crane and his encounter with the Headless Horseman. Although the cover description for the edition I read mentioned multiple lore about Headless Horseman, that really did not tie into this particular story. Yes, there was a horseman, but the story did not mention anything other than the local legend. And at times the horseman seemed tertiary to Ichabod's love triangle. The writing was grandiloquent and flowery with many drawn out descriptions of inconsequential things.

  “All these, however, were mere terrors of the night, phantoms of the mind that walk in darkness; and though he had seen many spectres in his time, and been more than once beset by Satan in divers shapes, in his lonely perambulations, yet daylight put an end to all these evils; and he would have passed a pleasant life of it, in despite of the Devil and all his works, if his path had not been crossed by a being that causes more perplexity to mortal man than ghosts, goblins, and the whole race of witches put together, and that was—a woman.”
 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was definitely influenced by Gothic Horror, but it was not scary. Really, my dad has a scarier headless horseman story from a ill-fated camping trip under a full moon in the Rhine Valley. But that's a story for another day... For all the flowery descriptions, I did not have a detailed picture of Sleepy Hollow in my head. Perhaps because the details tended to be about flowers and food and other random things that did little to either explain or engage. There were some pretty passages and a few humorous moments. But I yearned for it to be more atmospheric. This story does not capture that haunted feeling. It was interesting that the ending was left open to interpretation though. 

This is just a short novella and easy to read. A good choice for anyone who wants a light classic or Gothic story.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 3 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 4 Stars
Level of Captivation: 3 Stars
Originality: 3 Stars

Celeste Richardson

I read this story when I was in high school, and didn't really care for it. I enjoyed this audio version so much more. First of all, Tom Mison has a wonderful reading voice, and it was entertaining to hear Ichabod Crane reading about Ichabod Crane. (For those who don't know, Tom Mison played Ichabod Crane on the Fox television series 'Sleepy Hollow.') As I listened, I couldn't help but remember the Disney cartoon of this story, and I saw the entire cartoon play out in my mind as I read. Which was wonderful, because that cartoon was one of my Halloween favorites as a child. My qualm with the story is this: the action in the story was incredibly brief compared to the details building up to the action. But, all in all, I enjoyed listening to this!

Shafel McDowall

Racist and boring. 

A man proposes to a woman who rejects him. He gets hit in the head with a pumpkin and decides to become a lawyer. I just saved you one afternoon of your life.

Maxie Froelicher

So I'd never read this book before now, which I feel like is kind of surprising. I'm glad I got through it before Halloween! I guess I really didn't know the original story, as before this I'd only seen the Disney animated one YEARS ago, and more recently the 1999 Sleepy Hallow, which I knew didn't have much to do with the original story except for character names and the concept of a headless horseman. 

It was a bit more vague and open ended, and much less spooky than I thought it was going to be, but it was a fun little novella to read, and perfect to get one into the spooky mood.

Read for POPSUGAR challenge prompt 39: Read a Banned Book during banned book week

Washington Irvings The Legend of Sleepy Hollow first appeared in 1819. In the generations that have followed, this tall tale of Ichabod Crane's terrifying yet hilarious encounter with the Headless Horseman has become so popular that it has passed into American folklore. In 1928, a new edition of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was issued, featuring enchanting paintings and drawings by world-renowned illustrator Arthur Rackharn. To this day, many consider Rackham's the definitive illustrations for Irving's highspirited tale. Now a new generation of readers and listeners can fall under the spell of Irvings story and Rackham's pictures. This edition of the complete, unedited text faithfully reproduces all eight of Rackham's colorful paintings, twenty-four of his penand-ink drawings, and his colorful endpapers. Here you will meet the tall, gangly Ichabod Crane, the schoolmaster who is as much in love with Katrina Van Tassel's fortune as he is with the beautiful Katrina herself. You will also meet Ichabod's rival, the hotblooded brawler and prankster Brom Bones. And you can decide for yourself if Ichabod Crane really met the Headless Horseman on that dark, lonely road late one night. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a fine blend of comedy and the supernatural for the whole family.

Amy Maddess

Much shorter than I expected...I feel like this could have been a prologue to the actual book. The build up and set up for a story was good but then it kind of just tapered off from there. I feel like this would be fun to expand on in a more modern way. This kind of just left me wanting more of something similar, so I like that it put me in the mood for a classic ghost story but it didn't really satisfy that desire for me. Hopefully I'll pick up something similar soon.

Karla 

reseña en el canal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukPkd...

Gayatri Rao 

I did not expect it to be so descriptive. Granted that the description of the countryside and all the idyllic scenes were beautiful, I felt like the book was just too descriptive to actually come across as a horror story. That does not mean that the ambience of spookiness was not there. 

The characters were not particularly endearing, not in the way all the on-screen adaptations had shown. Especially Ichabod; he was just... not likeable. 

I had some knowledge about the Headless Horseman, having watched the movie and the TV adaptation, but I was unaware of the nuances of the time period. Personally, I feel that the political scene, and the situation, in general, has a huge bearing on the way the reader perceives the book. 

Despite a few negatives, it is a good read for the Halloween season and coupled with a movie marathon, it is worth the time.

Ruth Parker 

Well, Washington Irving is a man of many words. His story is wordy wordy wordy. It was interesting but I found the Johnny Depp much more compelling and much more fun. I’m glad I read the book but I doubt I’ll reread it.

sara louise

(listened to the audiobook via my library)

1.5* this story is 70% description, 20% ichabod trying to get a lady, and perhaps 10% action feat the headless horseman that I came for. (at one point there was also an incessant use of a variation of the n word which I feel should perhaps be edited out for a modern audiobook, as it doesn’t add anything to the story to use that exact term.)

Kimberly

Every year around Halloween, I always read this story. It's one of my favorites.

Malin Alexander

Audiobook review - Mostly listings of various foods and cakes with the last 20 min finally bringing in the action... Washington Irving was one very hungry man.

Salam Kabbani

Rating 2.5/5 

Okay so we've all read/listened to this one before, but I was really wanting to get into spooky season when I listened to this one, and y'all there is SO much racism and sexism in here, it's quite unbelievable that something like this was okay back in the day.

Ilse

The writing of this story was so lyrical and purple that I had trouble following what was going on. I didn’t know what would happen in this story when I picked it up, and now after reading it I still wouldn’t be able to tell you. It’s a shame, but just not a story for me

Found Among the Papers of the Late Diedrich Knickerbocker

Kimi 

The writing wasn’t as good or descriptive as I would have liked. The adaptation for this was better than the book. I’m disappointed

Jana Pashovska

I quite enjoyed finally reading this classic gothic story, just in time to prepare for the official start of the "spooky season". I found Irving's use of language and heavy descriptions rather charming to be honest, and was rather surprised at learning that the Ichabod Crane I so dearly love in the movie adaption by Tim Burton was actually not that good of a person! Nevertheless, this was short and sweet and kind of humorous, the perfect read for relaxing on a chilly autumn day.

Stefie 

I don’t know 🙈
I was kind of bored in the middle of the story, perhaps because it’s hard to understand because it’s too descriptive. Also, I was hoping for a very creepy one, but not so much happening here. 
However, I love the descriptive writing in some parts.

Washington Irving's classic tale about the superstitious schoolmaster, in love with a wealthy farmer's daughter, who has a terrifying encounter with a headless horseman.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

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