or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
16 used & new from £4.48
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (Oxford World's Classics)
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book

The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

by Washington Irving (Author), Susan Manning (Editor) "To an American visiting Europe, the long voyage he has to make is an excellent preparative ..." (more)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
RRP: £8.99
Price: £6.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £2.00 (22%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Temporarily out of stock.
Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon as we have more information. Your account will only be charged when we ship the item.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

8 new from £6.74 8 used from £4.48
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover Order it used
Paperback (Reissue) £4.99 £4.99 28 used & new from £1.52
Mass Market Paperback 3 used & new from £1.00
Leather Bound (A limited ed) Order it used
Unbound Order it used
Unknown Binding (Éd. de luxe) Order it used

Special Offers and Product Promotions

Frequently Bought Together

The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (Oxford World's Classics) + Hester (Oxford World's Classics) + Castle Rackrent (Oxford World's Classics)
Price For All Three: £15.41

Some of these items ship sooner than the others. Show details

  • This item: The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (Oxford World's Classics) by Washington Irving

    Temporarily out of stock.
    Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon as we have more information. Your account will only be charged when we ship the item.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • Hester (Oxford World's Classics) by Margaret Oliphant

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • Castle Rackrent (Oxford World's Classics) by Maria Edgeworth

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Hester (Oxford World's Classics)

Hester (Oxford World's Classics)

by Margaret Oliphant
3.5 out of 5 stars (4)  £4.94
Castle Rackrent (Oxford World's Classics)

Castle Rackrent (Oxford World's Classics)

by Maria Edgeworth
3.6 out of 5 stars (5)  £3.48
A Sentimental Journey (Penguin Classics)

A Sentimental Journey (Penguin Classics)

by Laurence Sterne
3.7 out of 5 stars (3)  £3.69
Wieland; or The Transformation, and Memoirs of Carwin, The Biloquist (Oxford World's Classics)

Wieland; or The Transformation, and Memoirs of Carwin, The Biloquist (Oxford World's Classics)

by Charles Brockden Brown
£4.79
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (English Library)

The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (English Library)

by Tobias Smollett
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £8.09
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 392 pages
  • Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks; New edition edition (21 May 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0192838873
  • ISBN-13: 978-0192838872
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 413,027 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #10 in  Books > Fiction > The Classics > Irving, Washington
    #52 in  Books > Reference > Atlases & Maps > Countries A-Z > United Kingdom > Cities & Towns > Oxford

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Product Description

With these words, Washington Irving expresses the dilemma of every American artist in the nineteenth century. The Sketch-Book (1820-1) looks simultaneously towards audiences on both sides of the Atlantic, as Irving explores the uneasy relationship of an American writer to English literary traditions. He sketches a series of encounters with the cultural shrines of the parent nation, and in two brilliant experiments with tales transplanted from Europe creates the first classic American short stories, 'Rip Van Winkle' and 'The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow'. The result was not only a hugely successful travel book; it exerted a strong formative influence on American writers from Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe to Henry James, and is well worth rediscovery in its own right today. Based on Irving's final revision of his most popular work, this new edition includes comprehensive explanatory notes of The Sketch-Book's sources for the modern reader. In her introduction, Susan Manning suggests that the author forged a new idiom, the 'Literary Picturesque', to accommodate and turn to advantage his dilemma of dual literary allegiances.


About the Author

Susan Manning is a University Lecturer in English at Cambridge, and a Fellow of Newnham college. She has published widely on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American and Scottish writing, including the critical study, The Puritan-Provincial Vision (1990). She has edited Walter Scott's Quentin Durward in World's Classics
Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
To an American visiting Europe, the long voyage he has to make is an excellent preparative. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
wishlist - classics
washington irving
fiction
classics

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (Oxford World's Classics)
73% buy the item featured on this page:
The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (Oxford World's Classics) 4.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£6.99
The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (Oxford World's Classics)
10% buy
The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (Oxford World's Classics)
£8.09
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories (Penguin Classics)
8% buy
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories (Penguin Classics) 4.0 out of 5 stars (4)
£4.94
Castle Rackrent (Oxford World's Classics)
6% buy
Castle Rackrent (Oxford World's Classics) 3.6 out of 5 stars (5)
£3.48
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

1 Review
5 star:    (0)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The beginnings of 'real' homegrown American literature, 11 Mar 2003
I don't think many people will want to read this book for fun, although, as something to dip into - perhaps in the spirit of its original publication, as a periodical in monthly chunks - it could be just about amusing. Some readers may be interested in Irving as a forerunner of other American writers, or perhaps in what this book has to say about the relationship between English and American literature in the early nineteenth century.

If so, you will find that this edition (Oxford World Classics) is admirably edited, with detailed and interesting notes and an illuminating introduction by Susan Manning. I would definitely recommend it to anyone studying the book as part of a literature course.

The Sketch Book is an account of an apparently light tourist exploration of some aspects of Europe and America as Irving saw them. Not a travelogue in any generally accepted sense, it is, as its name suggests, more like a series of sketches.

Like many Americans before and since, Irving had an ambivalent relationship with Europe and this is what makes his stories of it interesting. However, his descriptions of English customs, places and people will probably seem quaint (at best) to most readers today. In my opinion he is more interesting when he is creating some myths about his own country. This is probably why he is best known for two memorable, and very American, tales - Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, both of which appeared first in The Sketch Book so you can read them here. These are both truly valuable pieces of writing and well worth study.

If you want a rather more fun and up to date take on the subject of an American in England, why not compare this book with Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island? A bit of a jump, I know, but give it a go, it made me think.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject























i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.