Martin,+Laura

BLOG 5: Here it is! The final blog.... wasn't it a great journey? Two of Irving's most famous tales are //Rip Van Winkle// and //The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.// So.... here's the blog! September 28, 2011 __Characters:__ RVW: Rip Van Winkle (duh) is the main character in this piece. He is a kind fellow- and is always doing favors for other people around the village. He is lazy, however, around his own home. Rather than do the chores that are required around the house, he goes hunting or fishing. He loves his dog Wolf, and he loves nature. Rip is a very laid back man- and lets the days go by without making attempts to improve his property or himself.

Dame Van Winkle, Rip's wife, reminds me a little bit of my grandmother (though my grandmother is a much nicer person). :) She is always trying to boss Rip around, and it is her constant goal to get him to achieve something around the house. She upsets him very much, because she is always yelling, and she doesn't like his dog. Her anger drives him out of the house, and she always gets angry when he leaves, so it is just an un-ending circle of conflict.

TLOSH: Ichabod Crane, the village school teacher, is a somewhat reserved man who is very strict with his students. In the classroom, he is quick to punish and maintains order, but after school hours he is a playmate with the children. He spends time with them and sometimes walks several of them home. He even instructs them in singing. His way of living is moving from house to house in the community, staying with a family for a week or two and then moving on to the next household. He has fallen in love with a girl who is admired all over the town for her beauty- Katrina Van Tassel.

Brom (Abraham) Van Brunt- this character reminds me of Gusteau from Beauty and the Beast. He is a handsome fellow who is know as the hero of the town. Although he is strong and gifted with knowledge and horsemanship, he shows equally his arrogance. He plays pranks around the town and has a few others that follow him around, idolizing him. His nickname is Brom Bones, and he is Ichabod's competition for Katrina.

__Summary:__ RVW: This story is set in the years before and after the Revolutionary war, I assume, because it talks about the king and George Washington defeating him. The village is at the base of the Kaatskill Mountains, where Rip enjoys hunting and walking. One day, Rip decides to go for a long walk with his dog and his gun, to escape his nagging wife. When he gets to a resting spot, he notices that a storm is coming in and decides that he cannot make it back home before the storm hits and night falls. He hears his name being shouted, and he sees a man dressed in old Dutch clothing, carrying a keg up the mountain. He asks for Rip's help and they carry the keg together without talking. The reach a group of men, dressed also in old Dutch clothing, playing a game. Rip doesn't find out who they are, but he drinks some of their liquor and falls into a deep sleep. He wakes up the next day and wanders down the mountain to step into a world that is about twenty years later! I won't spoil the ending though... :)

TLOSH: The story is set in the Dutch settlement of //Tarry Town// in a little place called Sleepy Hollow. It tells of the life of Ichabod Crane, a skinny and lanky schoolteacher, who competes with Brom Bones, for the attention of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, the beautiful daughter of the town's most wealthy farmer, Baltus Van Tassel. As Ichabod leaves a party he attended at the Van Tassel home on an autumn night, he is pursued by the Headless Horseman, who the townspeople say is the ghost of a Hessian soldier who had his head shot off by a stray cannonball and who is seen riding to the place of battle where he was killed, to retrieve his head. Ichabod mysteriously disappears from town, leaving Katrina to marry Brom Bones. I won't spoil the ending, but just think... what if the Headless Horseman was Brom Bones...?

__Rating:__ RVW: 3.5 I loved the writing style and the descriptions, but the story seemed a little bit pointless to me... it would have been a better story told as a book, with more interesting plot twists.

TLOSH: 50000000000000!! Loved it, loved it, loved it!! I don't know what else I can say... Irving's writing is beautiful and this was a great plot and just a good story overall!

__Wiki Reflections:__ I don't mind this way of discussion, but I think that a better idea would be to do it in person. It would be easier to have discussions and really find out more about other people's books- because we wouldn't have to post a question, and wait for a reply, and post another question etc. We could do something like what we do with our learning communities and get together once a week or so and share about our book.

BLOG 4: September 17, 2011 I haven't read much of my book this time, I'm only on page 33. I'm not sure if my predictions about the valley being haunted are right yet, but there have definitely been more hints that my predictions may be correct. The first character of the book is Ichabod Crane, and he seems to be very much in charge of the children's activities and disciplines them. I am still very happy with my choice of book- I LOVE IRVING. I can't say enough how much I love his writing.

BLOG 3: September 9, 2011 I have finished //Rip Van Winkle// (30 pages) and have moved on to //The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (TLOSH).// I have only just begun //TLOSH// so I am on the second page, but its not hard to state my favorite line/quote.

"In the bosom of one of those spacious coves which indent the eastern shore of the Hudson, at that broad expansion of the river denominated by the ancient Dutch navigators the Tappan Zee, and where they always prudently shortened sail and implored the protection of St. Nicholas when they crossed, there lies a small market town or rural port, which by some is called Greensburgh, but which is more generally and properly known by the name of Tarry Town."

This quote happens to be the very first line of //TLOSH//. Elegant, isn't it? This is the narrator speaking- setting the scene for the story. I love this style of writing- i makes me think of C.S. Lewis a little bit- but more sophisticated. If you read it and really pay attention to what its saying, a picture is painted beautifully in your mind. This line is significant to me because as soon as I read it, I thought: "I'm going to like this story!". Washington Irving has turned out to be one of my favorite writers so far- he writes in an almost story book-like way, but he's still so descriptive and exciting. I definitely recommend him!!

BLOG 2: September 2, 2011 The first short story that I plan to read is //Rip Van Winkle//- the first piece in my collection. I've read 20 pages. The first person that is introduced in this story is not necessarily a character- but the "author" of the tale. Not Washington Irving, but the "author" that Irving writes to be the teller of //Rip Van Winkle.// Make sense? I hope so. His name is Diedrich Knickerbocker, and he is an old gentleman from New York. He seems to be a very curious man- he jumps on every opportunity to research his favorite topic: Dutch history. In fact, Irving suggests that he spends a little too much time on this research- that he doesn't really have much of a life outside the study of Dutch ancestry. I predict that he will find a story that will help him come out of his shell. I am excited to find out what this has to do with the rest of the story- and with Rip Van Winkle!

BLOG 1: I'm reading a collections of short storied by Washington Irving. The collection includes: //Rip Van Winkle, The Spectre Bridegroom, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and The Devil and Tom Walker.//