西部文学介绍

Washington Irving

(April 3, 1783

–

November 28, 1859) was an American author, essayist,

biographer,

historian,

and

diplomat

of

the

early

19th

century.

He

is

best

known

for

his

short

stories

in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.

人所知的作品包括《李伯大梦》

、

《沉睡谷传奇》等。

1907

年林纾翻译的《拊掌录》系美国作家华盛顿?欧文的短篇小说集，书名今译为《见闻杂

记》

，

]The story of Rip Van Winkle is set in the years before and after the American Revolutionary War.

In a pleasant village, at the foot of New York's Catskill Mountains, lives kindly Rip Van Winkle, a

colonial British-American villager of Dutch ancestry

. Van Winkle enjoys solitary activities in the

wilderness, but he is also loved by all in town

—

especially the children to whom he tells stories

and gives toys. However, he tends to

shirk

???k

;

??

k

/

v

[I, Tn, Tg] (

derog

贬

) avoid doing (work,

one's duty, etc) through laziness, cowardice, etc

（因偷懒﹑

胆怯等）逃避（工作﹑

责任

等）

hard work, to his nagging wife's dismay, which has caused his home and farm to fall into

disarray.

One autumn day, to escape his wife's nagging, Van Winkle

wanders up the mountains

with his

dog, Wolf. Hearing his name called out, Rip sees a man wearing antiquated Dutch clothing; he is

carrying a keg up the mountain and requires help. Together, they proceed to a hollow in which

Rip discovers the source of thunderous noises: a group of ornately dressed, silent, bearded men

who are playing nine-pins. Rip does not ask who they are or how they know his name. Instead, he

begins to drink some of their moonshine and soon falls asleep.

He awakes to discover shocking changes

. His musket is rotting and rusty, his beard is a foot long,

and his dog is nowhere to be found. Van Winkle returns to his village where he recognizes no one.

He discovers that his wife has died and that his close friends have fallen in a war or moved away.

He gets into trouble when he proclaims himself a loyal subject of King George III, not aware that

the

American

Revolution

has

taken

place.

King

George's

portrait

in

the

inn

has

been

replaced

with one of George Washington. Rip Van Winkle is also disturbed to find another man called Rip

Van Winkle. It is his son, now grown up.

Dutch people playing nine pins (kegelen). Painted 1650-1660 by Jan Van Winkle learns

the men he met in the mountains are rumored to be the ghosts of Hendrick (Henry) Hudson's

crew, which had vanished long ago.

Rip learns he has been away from the village for at least

twenty years. However, an old resident recognizes him and Rip's grown daughter takes him in.

He

resumes

his

usual

idleness,

and

his

strange

tale

is

solemnly

taken

to

heart

by

the

Dutch

settlers.

Other

hen-pecked men wish

they could

have shared

in Rip's

good luck

and

had

the

luxury of sleeping through the hardships of American Revolution.

James Fenimore Cooper1823-41