These are notes to "Rip Van Winkle" that I hope will aid your reading of the story. Think about the passages that are highlighted, and answer the questions that are posed. Do you have your own observations or questions as you read? If so, post them to the "Rip Van Winkle" thread on the class bulletin board.
p. 936 - While "Rip Van Winkle" is sometimes called the United States' first short story, we need to remember that in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century the short story was not yet a completely accepted form. Indeed, narrative fiction in general was still viewed with some suspicion. Irving, therefore, resorts to a very old device (a "frame" story)
of passing the responsibility for his tale on to someone else -- in this case, Diedrich Knickerbocker, who is, of course, entirely fictional himself. In this way, the author Irving is distancing himself from his creation and saying, in effect, "Don't blame me for this. It's just something I found and am relaying to you."
p. 937 - Again, the author Irving is implicitly concurring with his audience's supposed view fiction is a trifling thing.
p. 937 - Read this paragraph carefully, noting how Irving uses words to paint the mountain landscape as it might appear on a canvas. Pay particular attention to the phrase "magical hues and shapes" as it is foreshadowing the content of the story.
p. 937 - The sweeping view of the landscape is now taking a closer view and calling our attention to a particular village. And note again the phrase "fairy mountains" that picks up on the phrase "magical hues and shapes" in the preceding paragraph.
p. 938 - Irving, of course, never saw a movie, but note his virtually cinematographic technique of focusing here -- from the great sweep of the mountains, he has zeroed in on a particular village and then focused on a specific house. Those of you who have seen the opening shots of The Sound of Music should recognize this technique.
p. 938 - Pay careful attention here. This is the essential description of the story's protagonist.
p. 938 - An important paragraph that further develops Rip's character and sets up what is about to happen.
p. 939 - This is a crucial time marker in the story. What does it tell you about the present time of the narrative?
p. 940-941 - Take a close look at the end of this paragraph and the beginning of the next. Do you see a resemblance to the landscape paintings we have looked at in class? How so? (For a quick reference, take a look at the painting on the cover of your anthology.)
p. 941 - Oh-oh -- this is how Rip gets into trouble. How has Irving previously set the situation up so that we will "buy" this?