The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Author: Washington Irving

I love this story! It is such a lovely mix of legendary ghost tale, village life and humorous suitor rivalries. 

Washington Irving first published this short story in 1819, but the tale has been re-published, re-told and re-imagined so many times since then! I imagine if the author knew his story has become a beloved classic he would be incredibly proud that the tale has stood the test of time. 

I read a old copy of the book online thanks to Openlibrary.org, and also listened to an audiobook version using Hoopla (Findaway Voices, 2024). I love having spooky stories read aloud to me and always love reading and listening to Classics. 

The audiobook has some issues. About 1/3 of the way through the story, the narrator changes. The audio starts off read by a person with a difficult to understand accent who mispronounces words (Ichabod was pronounced Itch-a-bod. Tarrytown was changed to Tar-ry-town. Katrina was changed to Patrina.) I was having a very very hard time listening to the book with all of the errors. Then the narrator switched to a man with a nice, easily understandable English accent. There were no more mispronunciations. However, parts of some sentences were left out and a couple times the narrator made mistakes while reading paused for a quick second and re-read a portion of a sentence. The errors were not edited out. I can handle those sorts of errors....the mispronunciations, however, made the first part of the book almost unbearable. Not sure if Jorge Hartman was the first narrator or the savior of the audiobook who stepped in partway through, but really they should have given a credit to both narrators. 

The old version of the book I read online was published by Putnam in 1864. The illustrations were

wonderful! I love old books, so I was very happy to get to enjoy this one, even if it was just a digital copy. 

I love this story. Although it has been turned into a horror tale in the modern era, it is more the story of a girl's successful attempts to make a man jealous enough to marry her, and the thwarting of another man's dreams of marrying a wealthy man's daughter. Such a fun, entertaining and cute story! With just that right amount of spooky to make it the perfect story to kick off Spooky Season reading. 

I just love all the mental imagery I get from this tale. Ichabod Crane being prone to imagination and belief in the supernatural and satan getting filled with all sorts of ghostly legends at a country dance.....then riding home alone in the dark. Only to be beset upon by the local legendary headless spirit.....   Yikes!! 

When I was in middle school and first read this story, I did not understand the real nuances. But listening to this tale as an adult makes me smile and laugh. Katrina's plan worked! She got her man.....