Audio By Vocalize
Bookshops should think more about lifestyle, communities and curation. [iStockphoto]
One of the most captivating short stories ever written in the American literary tradition is Rip Van Winkle, written by Washington Irving under the pseudonym Geoffrey Crayon.
It is the story of a quiet, lazy villager who escapes one day into the woods with his dog, named Wolf, before the American Revolution. Deep in the mountains, he encounters a group of bearded men who offer him a mysterious drink and he slips into a deep slumber.
By the time Rip Van Winkle stirs awake, his dog is gone and his gun has hopelessly rusted. On getting home, he finds that his wife is long dead, his children are all grown and where people once hung the portrait of King George III now rests the picture of George Washington, the first President of the United States. It turns out that the drink Rip Van Winkle had been offered by the bearded strangers after he helped them carry a keg had caused him to sleep for twenty years. Yes, twenty years!
