The Legend of Sleep Hollow by Washington Irving
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
My Review on Goodreads
Reread (Listened on audio): here.
This story seems to stick with me, and I tend to want to reread it this time of year. I was glad to find an audiobook version on Youtube paired with some lovely paintings. It's a nice short listen, but full of atmosphere. Irving describes the scenery so well. It's pretty creepy to put oneself in the shoes of poor Ichabod Crane trying to get home on a dark night, traveling through a dark forest. For a book that is about 200 years old, this reads very smoothly. The language is a little more flowery and formal but it's not archaic and confusing to a contemporary reader, in my opinion.
As far as the characters, my sympathies did lay with Ichabod. I feel like Brom and Katrina deserve each other and Ichabod can do better than her. Yes, he's being materialistic in his pursuit of Katrina in part, which isn't great. However, Brom is a jerk, and Katrina is a very spoiled and immature person. If indeed Brom was playing a joke on Ichabod, it was very mean spirited, even cruel.
I confess I prefer the movie version of Katrina, played by Christina Ricci. (and yes, Ichabod is my favorite character that Johnny Depp has played). Plot-wise and story development wise, I did like how Burton's movie fleshes out the story. He takes some creative liberties, but honestly, I liked most of them.
But I digress. This is a very short read, so even if your schedule is busy, I recommend taking the better part of an hour to read or listen to this story.
This story seems to stick with me, and I tend to want to reread it this time of year. I was glad to find an audiobook version on Youtube paired with some lovely paintings. It's a nice short listen, but full of atmosphere. Irving describes the scenery so well. It's pretty creepy to put oneself in the shoes of poor Ichabod Crane trying to get home on a dark night, traveling through a dark forest. For a book that is about 200 years old, this reads very smoothly. The language is a little more flowery and formal but it's not archaic and confusing to a contemporary reader, in my opinion.
As far as the characters, my sympathies did lay with Ichabod. I feel like Brom and Katrina deserve each other and Ichabod can do better than her. Yes, he's being materialistic in his pursuit of Katrina in part, which isn't great. However, Brom is a jerk, and Katrina is a very spoiled and immature person. If indeed Brom was playing a joke on Ichabod, it was very mean spirited, even cruel.
I confess I prefer the movie version of Katrina, played by Christina Ricci. (and yes, Ichabod is my favorite character that Johnny Depp has played). Plot-wise and story development wise, I did like how Burton's movie fleshes out the story. He takes some creative liberties, but honestly, I liked most of them.
But I digress. This is a very short read, so even if your schedule is busy, I recommend taking the better part of an hour to read or listen to this story.
