A History of New York (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Washington Irving
- First Published: 1809
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Satire
- Principal Characters: Hendrick Hudson, Wouter van Twiller, Wilhelmus Kieft, Peter Stuyvesant, General von Poffenburgh, Jan Risingh
- Genres: Long fiction, Fable, Historical fiction, Satire, Parody
- Subjects: New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, New York City, New England, Legends, Netherlands or Dutch people
The fun of reading a parody is heightened by acquaintance with the material being burlesqued. Although Washington Irving confessed, in the “Author’s Apology” added to the edition of 1848, that his idea had been to parody Samuel L. Mitchell’s A Picture of New York (1807), a knowledge of Mitchell’s book is not necessary to the enjoyment of Irving’s work. The parody is only part of the humor of A History of New York, By Diedrich Knickerbocker, which was originally begun as a collaboration between Washington Irving and his older brother Peter and had the original...
[The entire page is 1508 words long]
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