Rip Van Winkle and Other Stories

Rip Van Winkle and Other Stories by Washington Irving

What stood out most for me was the brevity. The whole point of Rip Van Winkle is made quickly without much fuss. The headless horseman seems to be an incidental character in Sleepy Hollow. The other stories were not bad, but I do not recall many of the details.

"Rip Van Winkle" (1819 from The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.)

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820 from The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.)

"The Spectre Bridegroom" (1819 from The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.)

"The Adventure of the German Student"  (1824 from Tales of the Traveler)

"The Devil and Tom Walker"  (1824 from Tales of the Traveler)

"The Adventure of the Mason" (1832 from Tales of the Alhambra)

"Legend of the Rose of Alhambra" (1832 from Tales of the Alhambra)

"The Governor and the Notary" (1832 from Tales of the Alhambra)

"Governor Manco and the Soldier" (1832 from Tales of the Alhambra)

Faust Part 2

In Faust Part 1, Goethe stuck pretty closely to the Faust legend. In Part 2, he goes off the deep end.

The story delves heavily into Greek mythology. Faust even gains Helen of Troy. The language (even in translation) shows a great, well thought out complexity. I could see it as an elaborate science fiction movie driven by powerful music and impressive imagery. However, even there, I probably would not have a clue as to what was happening.

The librivox recording has generally well done vocals. However, the "choruses" are horrid. It seems obvious that the different members recorded their lines separately. When combined, the different speeds of speech make it quite difficult to understand the words. However, even when I did understand most of the other words, I had trouble understanding the story. Faust 2 is supposedly a very difficult work in its native German. An English translation does not make it easier.