1 h 22 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 1 h 22 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
In a valley full of ghost stories, a hungry schoolmaster has plenty to desire—and even more to fear.
Sleepy Hollow lies among old Dutch farms beside the Hudson River, where quiet lanes invite strange stories. Into this dreamy place comes Ichabod Crane, a thin Connecticut schoolmaster with a taste for food, folklore and wealth. Katrina Van Tassel, a prosperous farmer’s daughter, seems to promise everything he wants.
But Ichabod has a rival in Brom Bones, the strong, boisterous village hero who enjoys practical jokes. And the valley has its own terror: the Headless Horseman, said to ride at night seeking his lost head. Washington Irving brings humor and Gothic unease together as Ichabod’s ambition meets his eager belief in ghosts.
What you’ll discover
- A valley steeped in legend Enter a dreamy rural world where local stories give quiet lanes an unsettling life.
- An unlikely romantic hopeful Meet a vain, fearful schoolmaster whose appetite for comfort makes his courtship sharply comic.
- Rivals with different strengths Watch Ichabod and Brom Bones pursue Katrina, with her father’s rich farm adding temptation.
- Fear fed by stories Explore how witches, omens and ghosts fill Ichabod’s mind and shape what he fears.
- Humor beside the shadows Enjoy Irving’s playful portrait of village life alongside the legend of a headless rider.
Who will love it
This is for readers who like a spooky campfire tale told with a smile, who enjoy comic portraits of odd characters, and who love the old Hudson valley with its harvest tables and fireside ghost stories.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Sleepy Hollow is a place where dreaming comes easily
- Ichabod Crane is hungry, gullible, and proud of both
- Ichabod courts Katrina while Brom Bones plays pranks
- The party ends and the dark ride begins
- Belief grows where imagination has room to run
- Appetite, ambition, and vanity are the comic targets
- A smiling storyteller makes the fear and the fun
Who’s who
- Ichabod CraneA tall, thin, hungry schoolmaster from Connecticut who believes in witches and ghosts and hopes to win Katrina and her father's rich farm.
- Katrina Van TasselThe eighteen-year-old daughter of a wealthy Dutch farmer, pretty and flirtatious, and courted by two very different men.
- Brom BonesThe strong, jolly local hero and horseman who leads a rowdy gang and wants to keep Katrina for himself.
- Baltus Van TasselKatrina's easygoing father, a contented farmer who loves his pipe, his daughter, and his full barns, and hosts the harvest party.
- Hans Van RipperA hot-tempered farmer who boards the schoolmaster and lends him the old horse Gunpowder, along with his Sunday saddle.
- The Headless HorsemanThe ghost of a Hessian soldier said to ride at night in search of his lost head, feared across Sleepy Hollow.
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The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
by Washington Irving · 1820
A lanky schoolmaster rides home through the dark, and something huge waits by the brook near Sleepy Hollow.
ChallengingUnder 2 hours to readEnglish
Excellent
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In short
What happens to a man who believes every ghost story he hears, and then must ride home alone at midnight past the very trees where those ghosts are said to walk? That question drives The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a short tale by the American writer Washington Irving.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow at a glance
- Reading time
- About 45 min35 min fast, 55 min slow
- Length
- 11,200 words
- Pages
- 34 pages51 in large print
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1820by Washington Irving
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Sleepy Hollow is a place where dreaming comes easily
Irving opens with a place rather than a person. Near the market town of Tarry Town lies a quiet hollow among high hills. A brook murmurs, a quail whistles, a woodpecker taps, and little else disturbs the calm.
The hollow has a name, Sleepy Hollow, and a reputation. The narrator says a drowsy, dreamy spell hangs over it. Some blame a German doctor who bewitched the place. Others blame an Indian chief who held his powwows there. Whatever the cause, the Dutch families fall into trances, see visions, and hear voices in the air. Even a wide awake stranger soon grows imaginative and begins to see apparitions.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1820
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 50 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Irving, Washington. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-legend-of-sleepy-hollow.
Irving, W. (2026). The legend of Sleepy Hollow. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-legend-of-sleepy-hollow (Original work published 1820)
Irving, Washington. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-legend-of-sleepy-hollow.
@book{irving2026legend,
author = {Irving, Washington},
title = {The Legend of Sleepy Hollow},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-legend-of-sleepy-hollow},
note = {First published 1820}
}
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What is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow about?
It follows Ichabod Crane, a gullible schoolmaster in a Dutch valley on the Hudson. He courts the rich farmer's daughter Katrina Van Tassel, faces the rival Brom Bones, and rides home one night through the haunted roads of a ghost legend.
Who is the Headless Horseman?
He is the ghost of a Hessian soldier, said to have lost his head to a cannonball in the Revolutionary War. Local people say he rides each night from the churchyard in search of it, and he haunts the roads around Sleepy Hollow.
Is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow a true story?
No. Irving wrote it as fiction in the early 1800s and gave it to a made-up narrator, Diedrich Knickerbocker. It draws on Dutch-American folklore and real places along the Hudson, such as Tarry Town and the Tappan Zee.
The author
Washington Irving
1783–1859 · American writer and historian
Washington Irving (1783–1859) was an American writer, historian and diplomat. He was born in New York City and died in Tarrytown, New York. He also lived in Britain and Spain. He published The Sketch Book in 1819–1820 and The Alhambra in 1832. He served as American minister to Spain from 1842 to 1846.
More by Washington Irving
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