[Mrs. Y Reviews] The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

Book cover via Amazon.com

Some legends have lingered from short stories into our central literary culture. Today’s review is about one such legendary short story. This specific story has launched many a movie, several cartoons and haunted many a dream. Get your pumpkins ready, be sure you have some donuts at the Van Tassels and let’s not forget our stockings in the bag. Today I’m reviewing Washington Irving’s immortal “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” 

Opinion
When I fell in love with short stories, it was because of this specific one. This tale is so profound and so well executed, who couldn’t fall in love with it. Not only does it tell a full character arch, but it also fills the mind with wonder and in just fifteen pages.

My initial impressions about this specific copy are that I love it more than the other version of this story. This one was adapted, so some of the “Thee” and “Thou” feel of the old one has been modernized. I like it. It’s akin to polishing a copper penny that has been at the bottom of a bottle, it is shiny and new in appearance, yet the same copper penny that proudly shows it’s from ages long forgotten.

Let’s talk about a critique, and this time it has nothing to do with the story, it has to do with the e-copy. I also have no category for this specific critique so it will be an unscoring nitpick. Moreover, just what could I nitpick about fifteen pages? The back of the book is my issue, not the actual story. I get it, people like to sell books, but nowhere in this copy does it talk about Washington Irving or even why someone wanted to update this copy. Instead, we have another story or a snippet of it, and I’m not sure if it’s something Washington Irving wrote or something the modernizer writer Rafel Colra wrote. That’s frustrating to me.

My only other critique comes from the “Story Structure, Foundation and Presentation” part of my scoring. Precisely this has to do with paragraph issues. On a few odd occasions, it looks like there is indenting into a paragraph for where a paragraph should start, but the paragraph continues. What this does is make a large paragraph even larger. It doesn’t happen often, but given it’s only a short story, it’s enough of an issue to be confusing.

I want to know more about this story. Who took the idea out to make it better? Who was it who polished this penny into a polished publication for the public? My alliteration aside, I think you all understand why I’m asking such things. To me, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a national treasure of a story.

Let’s go into what I loved about this story. If you know anything about the Revolutionary war, and anything at all about the Hessian mercenaries who came in with the British Soldiers in the attempt to quell the rebellion, this story will resonate. The legend of the headless man is terrifying, but to know that they thought he was one of those mercenaries makes the terror the specter is capable of, that much more frightening. Honestly, I recommend this story to any revolutionary war enthusiasts or those who know of the richness of the tale.

Another thing I loved about the story was how Washington Irving was able to layer suspense but also skepticism into things masterfully. There is just as much reason to believe nothing happened in this story, and that everything was logical, as there is to understand this is a story about a monster who hurt someone. I enjoyed that about the story.

Score

Having that this story is well written, great update and I found no errors; the math can only tell us the truth. I give this copy of “Sleepy Hollow” a resounding 95/100. I also am putting this version into my “Mrs. Y Recommends” Pile for a great example of a short story and for a great example of showing two different ways to tell a tale.