Chapter Washington Irving of Index by Simonds History of American Literature

and the legend-haunted shores of the Hudson. The sketch entitled The Author, at the opening of the volume, and The Author's Farewell, at its close, should be included for the insight they afford into the personality of Irving himself. The Tales of a Traveller exhibit the writer in his most vivacious mood. Charmingly reminiscent of his visit with Scott, is Irving's delightful sketch of Abbotsford. The Alhambra contains some of Irving's most attractive work. The imaginative and poetical qualities of his prose are found preëminently in this volume. The wonderful charm of his style in both narrative and descriptive writing is nowhere more in evidence than here. His descriptions of the historic structure, its gardens, its spacious courtyards, the orange and lemon trees silvery in the radiance of moonlight, its pavilions and arcades, the notes of guitar and lovers' serenades, the lulling patter of its fountains -- these descriptions are more than sketches; they are word-paintings which glow with color and fitly interpret the spirit of romance which abides in the locality and the theme.

As examples of Irving's more serious historical writing, the account of the discovery of land, Book III, chapter iv, in the Life of Columbus, and of the landing of the discoverer, Book IV, chapter i, are especially suggested.

For illustrations of this author's humor in its most rollicking vein, the student is referred to the Knickerbocker History, Book III, chapter i, which contains the description of Wouter Van Twiller, and Book V, chapters i and viii, wherein the character of Peter the Headstrong is introduced and the account given of the famous battle between the Dutch and the Swedes at the taking of Fort Christina.

In reading Irving, the student may feel assured that he is giving his time to a writer who is not only a prince among entertainers, but one who may well serve as a model of prose style. As a master of English, Irving is well-nigh incomparable among American authors; certainly, for ease, fluency, vivacity, grace, and elegance he is yet unsurpassed.

Biographical and Critical Authorities.

The authoritative biography of Washington Irving is the Life, by Pierre M. Irving. In the American Men of Letters Series the volume on Irving is by Charles Dudley Warner. A briefer life of the author is that by H.W. Boynton in the Riverside Biographical Series. A delightfully written sketch of Irving by George William Curtis may be found among the Easy Chair articles in Harper's Magazine (June, 1881), vol. 63, p. 145, and another in the same magazine (April, 1883), vol. 66, p. 790. An elaboration of this same material is included in Curtis's Literary and Social Essays (Harper's), p. 239. An interesting English estimate is given in Thackeray's Nil Nisi Bonum (Roundabout Papers, or Harper's Monthly, March, 1860). The Critic, March 31, 1883, was published as an Irving Centenary number.