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美国作家华盛顿·欧文《瑞普·凡·温克尔》的英文简介和简要评论。 Rip Van Winkle is a short story by Washington Irving published in 1819, as well as the name of the story's fictional protagonist. It was part of a collection of stories entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon. The story has become a part of cultural mythology: even for those who have never read the original story, "Rip Van Winkle" means either a person who sleeps for a long period of time, or one who is inexplicably (perhaps even blissfully) unaware of current events. Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. The story, written while Irving was staying with his sister Sarah and her husband Henry van Wart in Birmingham, England, is set in the years before and after the American Revolutionary War. A villager of Dutch descent escapes his nagging wife by wandering up Kaaterskill Clove near his home town of Palenville, New York in the Catskill Mountains. After various adventures (in one version of the tale, he encounters the spirits of Henry Hudson and his crew playing ninepins at the top of Kaaterskill Falls), he settles down under a shady tree and falls asleep. He wakes up 20 years later and returns to his village. He finds out that his wife is dead and his close friends have died in a war or gone somewhere else. He immediately gets into trouble when he hails himself a loyal subject of George III, not knowing that in the meantime the American Revolution has taken place and he is not supposed to be a loyal subject of any Hanoverian any longer. Spoilers end here. The story is a close adaptation of "Peter Klaus the Goatherd" by J.C.C. Nachtigal, which is a shorter story set in a German village. It is also close to Karl Katz, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. This story is almost identical. One difference is when he sees dwarfs playing a game of ninepins in a mountain meadow, he joins the game. The dwarfs give him a magic drink that makes him fall asleep for twenty years. It is implied that the dwarfs are teaching him a lesson about laziness. The story is also remarkably similar to the ancient Jewish story about Honi the Circle-Maker who falls asleep after berating a very old man for planting a fig tree (which traditionally takes 70 years to mature). He sleeps under the tree, covered by the brush and out of sight for 70 years. When he awakens, he finds a fully mature tree and that he has a grandson. When nobody believes that he is Honi, he wishes death upon himself. The choice of "Van Winkle" for the character's name may have been influenced by the fact that Irving's New York publisher was C. S. Van Winkle. The story is also remarkably similar to a 3rd century AD Chinese tale of Ranka, as retold in Lionel Giles in A Gallery of Chinese Immortals. As an essayist Irving was not interested in the meaning of nature like Emerson or self-inspection like Montaigne. He observered the vanishing pasts of old Europe, the riverside Creole villages of Louisiana, the old Pawnee hunting grounds of Oklahoma, and how ladies fashion moves from one extreme to the other. 'Geoffrey Crayon' was his most prolific fictional mask. Irving once wrote: "There rise authors now and then, who seem proof against the mutability of language, because they have rooted themselves in the unchanging principles of human nature." He was the earliest literary figure of the American abroad, who appeared in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., in which also Irving's best-known story 'Rip Van Winkle' was included. It was based on a German folktale, set in the Dutch culture of Pre-Revolutionary War in New York State. 如果你是研究他的话，就看看这段,有关于他作为个essayist的风格,也提到了rip van winkle小说《瑞普·凡·温克》（Rip van Winkle）是美国小说家及历史家华盛顿·欧文（Washington Irving, 1783-1859）的名篇。故事大意为：有一天瑞普·凡·温克在山中遇到背着酒桶的形状古怪的老头子。他带瑞普穿过极深的山峡，来到了一个半圆形的山洼，看到一群奇形怪状的人，不声不响地在玩着九桂球。这些人看到老头子与李白，即停止游戏。痛饮他们带来的酒之后，再开始游戏。瑞普禁不住趁这些人没看见时偷偷地尝了一口酒，觉得酒香四溢，因而再偷喝几口。最后竟至头昏脑胀，两眼发眩，不知不觉之中睡着了。一睡就是二十年。醒后回到自己的村子里，发现村子里没有一个熟人，连他所惧怕的太太也已离开人间。这故事与我国《黄梁梦》（元代马致远所撰，系取自枕中记的故事）内容虽异，但意境相似。感叹人世虚幻，富贵荣华之短促。小说《瑞普·凡·温克》(Rip van Winkle)是美国小说家及历史家华盛顿·欧文(Washington Irving, 1783-1859)的名篇。以下内容可以参考：）~~RIP VAN WINKLE is a famous tale written by Washington Erving,telling about a story in which an old man named Rip drank some beverage and fell into asleep for 20 years.After that,he returned to the villege where he came from,and found everything changed.People talked about revolution and election,and he has no idea of what that meaned.There have been many comments on this tale saying that it shows Erving'sattitude againstthe American revolution,and his approving of the past.On reading it the second time,it occured to me that Erving only showed his bewilderment:comming out of the oppressed life,people were at a loss about what they should do.Erving was not cherishing the past and opposing the present.First,Rip was not happy long before revolution,and he hated to do labour work on his own bussiness,and that was constantly under the criticism of Dame Van Winkle.Surely Dame was superior to Rip in his family,so the life of Rip could not at all be labelled as happy.secondly,Erving showed no opposition against the new America.After he had settled down in the villege,he even made friends with the rising generation,enjoying the idle life he had long been dreamed of.There is strong resemblence between Rip Van Winkle and the American people,Dame Van Winkle and the English government.Before revolution,Rip was a meek man who"would rather die on a penney than work for a pound",who had good relationships with the villegers.He lived a peaceful life except for the existence of Dame Van Winkle,his termagant wife who would taught him lessons in every possible way.The American people was also trying to live a peaceful life and the rule of the British government made it impossible.The Americans suffered the oppression for a long time. The war was over and Rip returned to his villege only to find the great change in the small villege,which is the sample of the change in America.No one in the villege recognised him.People talked about hot issues he has no interested in.Dame Van Winkle was gone and he was free now.However,he had no idea what he should do.The past had passed for ever,despotism was gone.No one was going to tell Rip what he should do.No one was going to force him to do anything.The American people is free to choose now,but they have no idea of what to choose.They were led into a new kind of life to which they were strangers.They were groping in the dark for the way ahead.By holding Rip Van Winkle as an symbol for the American people and all these analysis ,I reached the idea that Whshington Erving showed no radical attitude against the revolution but his bewilderment after the revolution.