Rip Van Winkle

Washington Irving

Jan 1897 · R.H. Russell

Ratings and reviews

Rip van winkle is a very interesting book. Rip Van Winkle was a lazy man who loved to help others instead of doing his own work. One day, he wanders off with his dog Wolf into the Catskill mountains to escape work and Dame Winkle‘s nagging. When Rip was tired of hunting squirrels, he fell asleep. When he woke up to go home, he saw a little man walking up the hill. He followed the man, and found a whole group of them. They gave Rip some flagon to drink. When he was drunk, he fell asleep. Upon waking up, he thinks someone has played a prank on him and taken his dog Wolf. Rip Van winkle slowly walked down to the village to discover that he had been asleep for about 20 years. Even though almost all his friends including his wife are not at the village, Rip finds his daughter, her husband Mr. Gardenier. The village accepts him and he lives the rest of his life with his daughter. Rip Van Winkle is a meek, simple easy going person with a good nature. He was a very lazy man, who did whatever it took to avoid doing the house work. Instead, he would wander around the village giving children piggy-back rides, helping neighbors and assisting people on their work. Since he hated doing house work, he would go to the Inn, or go hunting in the Catskill mountains. He was very lazy, but also very kind, humble, helpful and kind hearted. He didn’t like to see others sad. He loved his dog, and was very soft hearted. He was henpecked and amiable who hated labor. He was very idles and careless. He “would rather starve on a penny then work for a pound”. He took the world very lightly, and would go with what was the easiest. I think this teaches many a lesson and helps them see how bad it is to drink and be lazy.