The Devil and Tom Walker (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Washington Irving
- First Published: 1824
- Type of Plot: Regional
- Time of Work: The eighteenth century
- Setting: Massachusetts Colony
- Principal Characters: Tom Walker, Tom's Wife, Old Scratch
- Genres: Short fiction, Regional fiction
- Subjects: Superstition, Slavery or slaves, Religion, Poverty or poor people, Greed, Faustian bargains, Devils or demons, Materialism, Satan or Satanism
- Locales: Massachusetts, American colonies
The Story
This tale, which was told to the narrator, Geoffrey Crayon, during a peaceful afternoon of fishing, begins with a local legend concerning treasure buried by the notorious pirate Captain Kidd in a swamp not far from Boston. Near this swamp, in 1727, lives a miserly fellow named Tom Walker and his wife, a woman as miserly as he. These two, so greedy that they even try to cheat each other, are constantly fighting, and Tom's face shows the physical marks of their arguments.
One day, cutting through the swamp, Tom comes across the remains of an old Indian...
[The entire page is 1285 words long]
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