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Indiana University Studies 



most deliciously audacious work of humor in our literature' and 

 Charles Dudley Warner says that ''the book is indeed an original 

 creation and one of the very few masterpieces of humor." As to the 

 Sketch-book — it seems to hold a secure position, both for Irving's 

 French and his Anglo-American critics, at the top of the list of his 

 works, and ''Rip Van Winkle", the same position in the list of his 

 stories. More frequently singled out for praise in America than in 

 France, however, are "The Wife", "The Pride of the Village", "The 

 Broken Heart", "The Stout Gentleman", "Annette Delarbre", 

 "Dolph Heyliger", and especially the "Spectre Bridegroom", and 

 "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". 



Certain effects of Irving's works, observed by American critics, 

 seem to have quite escaped the notice of French writers. It is now 

 recognized, for instance, that Irving "started the vein of burlesque 

 which has run through his country's literature, but under the restraint 

 of temperance and culture that have unfortunately been discarded" 

 also, that "the American nation is indebted to him for investing a crude 

 new land with the enduring charms of romance and tradition"; that 

 the "Knickerbocker Legend and the romance with which Irving has 

 invested the Hudson are a priceless legacy ".^^ 



82 Whipple, American Liter alure and Other Paper), (1876-86), 43. 

 33 Nichol, American Literature, 173. 



C. D. Warner, Atlantic Monthly, XLV (1880), 404. 



