Jan 6, 2010

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow | Critical Overview

Most early readers of The Sketch Book praised the volume for its humor and its graceful descriptive writing, but did not single out ‘‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’’ for special attention. Francis Jeffrey, in an 1820 review in Edinburgh Review, did note that the legend, along with ''Rip Van Winkle,’’ was among only five or six pieces in the collection of thirty-five that relates ''to subjects at all connected with America.... The rest relate entirely to England.’’ But other than pointing out its existence, he had nothing to say about the story. Jeffrey was...