Washington Irving Books in Order

Nine satirical letters introduce the aging bachelor Jonathan Oldstyle, whose observations mock the fashions and habits of early nineteenth-century New York. Marriage, manners, dress, and theater become subjects for Irving's fictional correspondent and his puzzled response to younger society.

Written collaboratively under comic personae, this collection of satirical sketches, letters, and verse examines New York society. Theater, politics, fashionable behavior, and literary pretensions provide material for the observations and arguments of Launcelot Langstaff and his fellow correspondents.

Writing as the fictional Dutch historian Diedrich Knickerbocker, Irving offers a satirical account of New York's origins and colonial history. The invented narrator's historical authority becomes part of the comedy, blending local traditions with an irreverent account of the past.

Linked by the fictional narrator Geoffrey Crayon, these essays and stories move between American legends and observations of English life. The collection includes Rip Van Winkle and the account of Ichabod Crane's encounter with Sleepy Hollow's feared Headless Horseman.

Greedy Tom Walker learns of a hidden pirate treasure and bargains with the devil to acquire it. His pursuit of wealth turns a tempting opportunity into a supernatural reckoning, exposing the moral cost of the bargain he believes will enrich him.

Irving traces Christopher Columbus's life and voyages in a historical biography shaped by the explorer's ambitions and maritime expeditions. The narrative follows his search for new routes and the discoveries that established his enduring place in accounts of European exploration.

Drawing on his stay at Spain's Alhambra palace, Irving combines descriptions of its architecture and history with local legends and imaginative tales. His encounters with the place and its inhabitants frame stories of the palace's layered cultural past.

Travel sketches bring together a journey across the American prairies and visits to Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey. Encounters with hunters, Indigenous communities, landscapes, and historic houses connect frontier adventure with reflections on literary places and remembered lives.

Using the explorer's journals and notes, Irving recounts Benjamin Bonneville's journeys across the American West toward Oregon. Episodes of travel, trapping, and encounters in unfamiliar country present a portrait of a soldier and adventurer during the frontier era.

Irving presents a biographical account of the English writer Oliver Goldsmith, following a literary life marked by difficulty and limited financial reward. The portrait considers the personal circumstances behind the poet's career and his place in the world of letters.

Irving's biography of the young American poet Margaret Miller Davidson accompanies her surviving poems and prose. The volume combines an account of her brief life with examples of the writing she left behind, preserving both the person and her literary work.

The opening volume of Irving's biography examines George Washington's formative years before the American Revolution. Drawing on letters and historical papers, it develops a portrait of the experiences that shaped the future military commander and first president.

The second volume continues Irving's extended biography of George Washington. Set within the larger account of his passage from military command to national leadership, it forms part of a sustained portrait of the man and his public career.

Stories, legends, and miscellaneous sketches range from the Hudson Valley to Spain, Bermuda, and Paris. Irving mixes historical anecdotes and imagined encounters with supernatural themes, including a spectral funeral, an engulfed convent, and traditions preserved among the Knickerbocker papers.

The third installment continues Irving's five-volume account of George Washington's life and public career. The biography follows the figure who emerged from military command to become the first American president, placing his development within the nation's early history.

This fourth volume continues Irving's extensive portrait of George Washington within a biography spanning military service and national leadership. It belongs to the larger account of the experiences and public responsibilities that shaped America's first president.

The concluding volume completes Irving's extended biography of George Washington. Bringing the five-part portrait to its close, it considers the life and career of the commander who became America's first president and a central figure in the nation's beginnings.

Collected after Irving's death, these historical narratives explore conflicts between Christian and Muslim powers in Spain. Legends and chronicles concerning Pelayo, Fernan Gonzalez, and Ferdinand the Saint combine historical subjects with Irving's characteristic interest in romance and chivalric storytelling.

An American traveler joins an English household for Christmas, observing country customs, festive meals, and family celebrations. These linked sketches follow his journey to the manor and the traditions that bring its inhabitants and their neighbors together during the holiday.

Commissioned by John Jacob Astor, Irving recounts the fur-trading enterprise that established Fort Astoria near the Columbia River's mouth. Expedition records become a history of exploration, commerce, difficult journeys, and the ambitions behind an ultimately unsuccessful Pacific Northwest venture.

The inhabitants and visitors of an English country manor provide the subjects of interconnected character sketches and stories. Through their conversations, customs, and individual adventures, Irving develops a portrait of household life organized around the world of Bracebridge Hall.