[IRVING, Washington; BOUGHTON, George H. (Illus.)]. Rip Van Winkle and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. London: Published by Macmillan & Co Ltd., 1893.
FIRST EDITION THUS. Cloth-bound, hardcover, octavo (18.5cm x 12.5cm x 2.5cm), pp. xi, 218. English text with illustrations by George H. Boughton. Bound in publisher's original elaborately gilt decorated cloth, all page edges gilt, coated endpapers, half-title, fifty-three illustration throughout. Printed by Richard Clay and Sons, Limited. Condition: NEAR FINE. Very slight bumping to spine ends and trivial spotting to endpapers, else fine.
Notes: A wonderfully illustrated copy of two of Washington Irving's most celebrated stories, in the publisher's original decorative binding. Washington Irving (1783-1859) was an American author and historian, primarily remembered for his short stories, with the two contained in this volume, 'Rip Van Winkle' and 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow', being his most widely known. He also wrote biographies on figures such as Oliver Goldsmith, George Washington and Muhammed. 'Rip Van Winkle' tells the tale of a Dutch-American man in colonial America who consumes the liquor of Dutchmen and falls asleep twenty years later, having slept through the American Revolution. 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' is a gothic story set in the countryside around a Dutch settlement in a glen nicknamed Sleepy Hollow, renowned for its ghosts and eerie atmosphere. It follows protagonist Ichabod Crane, a superstitious schoolmaster during his stay at Sleepy Hollow. This work is illustrated profusely with full-page plates and vignettes by George Henry Boughton (1833-1905), an American illustrator and painter. In a beautiful decorative binding, with gilt flowers on the spine and front cover.
