The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

In this age of post 'Pirates of the Caribbean' Johnny Depp fans, very few people are unaware of Washington Irving's tale of fear and terror, 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'. However, to those who have not watched Tim Burton's 'Sleepy Hollow', here is a simple but honest review of the famous short story that has now inspired a cult following.

The story centers on Sleepy Hollow, an aptly named small, drowsy village situated near the Hudson River. Here, nothing ever happens except for old wives and farmers sitting around fireplaces and discussing ghost stories. In fact, the whole village is one collective group of very lazy people, which Washington Irving very beautifully attributes to '…the listless repose of the place'. In truth, they are just plain lazy and the writer of this review is very jealous of these fictitious people. Moving on. The favorite tale of horror of these slothful people is that of the Headless Horseman, a legendary soldier whose head was decapitated during the Revolutionary War. Henceforth, his restless spirit rides around the dark moors and overgrown bridges of Sleepy Hollow on his wild black horse, forever in search of his lost head. Among the carefree inhabitants is the local schoolteacher - Ichabod Crane, a lover of food, the finer, delicate things in life for which he does not have to do much manual work and a firm believer in the story of the Headless Horseman. In due time, he falls in love with the coveted dame of the village, Katrina Van Tassel. However, he has to contend with other rivals for her hand, amongst whom the most tenacious is the strong-armed Brom Bones. Things take an eerie turn when one night, as Ichabod Crane returns home from a ball in the Van Tassel's house, he perceives the misshapen shadow of a headless horseman steadily following him in the quiet, steady darkness of the rural village.

First published as a short story in 1820, 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' is one of the earliest examples of a bestseller. In the honest, unflinching opinion of this humble but secretly pretentious reviewer, it was a beautifully written story but perhaps not the scariest. Narrated as if by a storyteller retelling an old fable to his/her grandchildren, the descriptions were beautiful and the story comes alive when one is reading it. Whether we are reading the e-book or a hard copy, beautifully strung sentences such as, "….the place still continues under the sway of some witching power, that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, causing them to walk in a continual reverie…" bring out the sparkling magical element of the story, that spins around the reader and tingles through his/her very fingers. It truly felt as if the story was written by a bewitching hand and the scenes of horror and terror, even after so many versions and re-versions of the story, was still fearful as ever. My only complaint is that the writer did not focus more on the headless horseman himself, the mysterious protagonist of the story. The hype and the fear that was built up in the very beginning seemed to dissipate itself later on. After a while, it seemed less of a ghost story and more of a simple tale of life and love in 18th century rural U.S.A. It is a good read nonetheless but if only Mr. Irving realized how much we modern readers are like the lazy, fictional inhabitants of 'Sleepy Hollow' and that we too relish in a good gory ghost story every once in a while. Perhaps then, he would have added more ghoulish horrors to the story.

The reviewer is a young professional.