''Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists, A Medley'' was written by
Washington Irving
Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...
in 1821, while he lived in England, and published in 1822. This episodic novel was originally published under his pseudonym Geoffrey Crayon.
Plot introduction
As this is a location-based series of character sketches, there are a number of individual plots. The tales centre on the occupants of an English manor (based on
Aston Hall, near
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
, England, which was occupied by members of the Bracebridge family and which Irving visited).
Plot summary
As this is a series of character sketches, the most effective way currently to describe this book is to list the contents.
Volume I
# The Author
# The Hall
# The Busy Man
# Family Servants
# The Widow
# The Lovers
# Family Reliques
# An Old Soldier
# The Widow's Retinue
# Ready Money Jack
# Bachelors
# Wives
# Story Telling
# The Stout Gentleman
# Forest Trees
# A Literary Antiquary
# The Farm-House
# Horsemanship
# Love-Symptoms
# Falconry
# Hawking
# St. Mark's Eve
# Gentility
# Fortune Telling
# Love-Charms
# The Library
# The Student of Salamanca
Volume II
# English Country Gentleman
# A Bachelor's Confessions
# English Gravity
# Gipsies
# May-Day Customs
# Village Worthies
# The Schoolmaster
# The School
# A Village Politician
# The Rookery
# May-Day
# The Manuscript
# Annette Delarbre
# Travelling
# Popular Superstitions
# The Culprit
# Family Misfortunes
# Lovers' Troubles
# The Historian
# The Haunted House
# Dolph Heyliger
# The Storm-Ship
# The Wedding
# The Author's Farewell
Release details
All are
hardcover
A hardcover, hard cover, or hardback (also known as hardbound, and sometimes as case-bound) book is one bound with rigid protective covers (typically of binder's board or heavy paperboard covered with buckram or other cloth, heavy paper, or occa ...
editions except the 1823 and 1991 (binding unknown).
* 1822, USA, C.S. Van Winkle, 2 volumes (May 21, 1822) – published by M&S Thomas, Philadelphia
[While American copies have the name C.S. Van Winkle on the title page, the original bindings bear the inscription "Published by M&S Thomas, Philadelphia" on the spine. See ''Works'', 9:xxivn28.]
* 1822, UK, John Murray (May 23, 1822)
* 1823, Berlin, German translation
* 1836, USA, Carey, Lea and Blanchard, 2 volumes
* 1865, USA, G.P. Putnam's Sons, complete in one volume, by Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
* 1869, USA, G.P. Putnam and Son
* 1876 (dated 1877), London, Macmillan & Co., one volume edition, illustrated by Randolph Caldecott
* 1890, London, Edinburgh & New York, T. Nelson and Sons
* 1978, USA, Sleepy Hollow Restorations (October 1, 1978),
* 1990, USA, Ams Pr (June 1, 1990),
* 1991, USA, Library of America: ''Bracebridge Hall, Tales of a Traveller, The Alhambra'' (March 1, 1991),
References
External links
*
*
Bracebridge Hall' (Caldecott illustrated edition) at
Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
.
*
{{Authority control
1822 short story collections
Short story collections by Washington Irving
Works published under a pseudonym