Bracebridge Hall / Tales of a Traveller / The Alhambra

This second Library of America volume of Washington Irving brings together for the first time three collections of his stories and sketches. With The Sketch Book, Irving became a world-famous writer, lionized in French and English society and admired by Scott and Byron. His success and his fascination with folklore traditions prompted him to travel in Europe in search of material for further tales. He went on to transform what he found into an array of short pieces that sparkle with humor, adventure, mystery, and romance. Written at the peak of his popularity, these three works reveal Irving’s remarkable diversity, his skill at adapting European legends to his own style, and the talent for entertainment that made him America’s first literary celebrity.

Bracebridge Hall (1822) was published, like The Sketch Book, under the pseudonym Geoffrey Crayon, and centers on an English manor, its inhabitants, and the tales they tell. Interspersed with witty, evocative sketches of country life among the English nobility is the well-known tale “The Stout Gentleman” and stories based on English, French, and Spanish folklore, vividly recounted with Irving’s inimitable blend of elegance and colloquial dash. They include “Dolph Heyliger,” the story of a New Yorker who encounters a haunted house, ghosts, and a buried treasure, and its famous sequel, “The Storm Ship,” an American version of the legend of the Flying Dutchman.

Tales of a Traveller (1824), written after a year-long stay in Germany, is a pivotal work in Irving’s career, marking his last experiment with fiction before he turned to the writing of history, biography, and adaptation of folktales. Irving felt his new stories to be “some of the best things I have ever written. They may not be as highly finished as some of my former writings, but they are touched off with a freer spirit, and are more true to life.” Arranged in four sections, the miscellany of short fiction reveals elements of comedy and melodrama new to Irving’s work. The first three groups of stories have a European background, while the final five stories, supposedly “found among the papers of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker,” are set in New York and feature pirates and buried treasure.

The Alhambra (1832) was inspired by Irving’s stay during the spring and summer of 1829 at the ancient Moorish palace in Granada, which he called “one of the most remarkable, romantic, and delicious spots in the world.” This rich compendium of tales, deftly interwoven with historical accounts and picturesque sketches, was assembled from Spanish and Moorish folklore, history, guidebooks, and anecdotes of Irving’s experiences among the local residents. The forty-nine pieces range from stories based on Granada’s colorful history to graceful vignettes of its contemporary scene, from romantic descriptions of the local architecture and terrain to medieval tales of the supernatural.