Irving History, Tales and Sketches: The Sketch Book/A History of New York/Salmagundi/Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent.

by Washington Irving

Book Overview

Washington Irving's career as a writer began obscurely at age seventeen, when his brother's newspaper published his series of comic reports on the theater, theater-goers, fashions, balls, courtships, duels, and marriages of his contemporary New York, called Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent . Written in the persona of an elderly gentleman of the old school, these letters captured his fellow townsmen at play in their most incongruous attitudes of...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0940450143
• ISBN13: 9780940450141
• Release Date: November 1983
• Publisher: Library of America
• Length: 1144 Pages
• Weight: 1.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.3" x 8.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A Must Have For Every...

This book is a "must have" for every Washington Irving fan. There is just an amazing amount of his material in this edition, all of it classic. I've even found material in this edition that I hadn't read anywhere in quite a while. This edition is pretty complete, at least when it comes to short stories, sketches and essays.

At first I found him pompous

with his Jonathan Oldstyle stories. And I skipped most of the Salmagundi stories, they were boring me. But now the history of New York is very funny and very amusing. It's very long and takes most of the book. There is a total change of style from pompous to light which is very refreshing.