He had now entered the skirts of the village. A troop of strange children ran at his heels, hooting after him and pointing at his gray beard. The dogs, too, not one of which he recognized for an old acquaintance, barked at him as he passed. The very village was altered; it was larger and more populous.There were rows of houses which he had never seen before,and those which had been his familiar haunts had disappeared.Strange names were over the doorsustrange faces at the windows----everything was strange....

Rip's just a good natured loser, trying to be happy despite a bad marriage and major poverty...until the day he helps a stranger in need, winds up at a weird picnic in the woods, parties too hardy,falls asleep-Because when Rip wakes up, the Earth has-changed.Everyone and everything he knows has-vanished.Wife, family, dog, home, even his country-gone.Rip's terrified, trapped in a new world,pulled out of place, torn out of time...But what seems to be the gods' cruelest joke-might be their greatest gift...

Rip Van Winkle

The Author's Account of Himself

The Specter Bridegroom

The Wife

The Voyage

The Devil and Tom Walker

The Adventure of the Mason

The Governor and the Notary

The Grand Prairio--a Buffalo Hunt

Rural Life in England

The Art of Bookmaking

The Widow and Her Son

The Mutability of Literature

Rural Funerals

Westminster Abbey

Stratford on Avon

Traits of Indian Character

English and French Character

The Tuileries and Windsor Castle

The Guests from Gibbet Island

The Legend of Don Munio Sancha de Hinojosa