Rip Van Winkle

Credits and rights

Original writer

Washington Irving

Publisher of this edition

BoingyBooks Classics

Original publisher

Project Gutenberg

Adaptation credits

John Shoufler / BoingyBooks Classics — digital edition

Original source / edition

Rip Van Winkle (1819)

License

Public Domain

License link

https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

Rights and adaptation notice

This work is in the public domain. John Shoufler published this digital edition through BoingyBooks Classics. The original work remains public domain and may be copied, adapted, and shared.

Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving (1819)

A lazy but likable Dutch-American farmer wanders into the Catskill Mountains, encounters mysterious men playing ninepins, drinks their liquor, and falls asleep for twenty years — waking to find his wife dead, his friends gone, and America transformed by revolution.

Historical Significance:
Published in 1819, "Rip Van Winkle" was the first great American short story and made Washington Irving the first American writer recognized in Europe. The tale draws on German folklore (the legend of Peter Klaus) but is thoroughly Americanized — Rip sleeps through the entire American Revolution. The phrase "Rip Van Winkle" has entered the English language as a term for anyone hopelessly out of touch with the times. The story captures a fundamental American anxiety: the fear of being left behind by progress.

This public domain classic was originally published in 1819. Free to read and share.