Rip Van Winkle

By: Washington Irving

Narrated by: Christian Rummel

Length: 39 mins

Publisher's summary

Rip Van Winkle lives in a nice village at the foot of New York's Catskill Mountains. One autumn day he escapes his nagging wife by wandering up the mountains. After encountering strangely dressed men, rumored to be the ghosts of Henry Hudson's crew, who are playing nine-pins, and after drinking some of their liquor, he settles down under a shady tree and falls asleep. He wakes up 20 years later and returns to his village.

Public Domain (P)2008 Audible, Inc.

Don’t wait till you’re 65 to read it

Listened to this 39 minute book after my high school age daughter came home, telling me about it from her English class’ section on poetry. Sure I had heard stories as a kid that when it was thundering it was Rip van Winkle bowling, but I never had any idea about the whole story. Washington Irving doing a brilliant job of storytelling in a non-long-winded fashion. too bad modern writers, struggle with this simple format and template. I lived for a little while as a youth in northern New Jersey and worked one summer with my father in Yonkers, New York. Every morning all that summer we crossed the Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River on the way to work and then again on the way home. I had no idea that Washington Irving resided within nearly a stones throw of that structure nor that at least two of his most famous stories would occur in that region, Rip van Winkle, and the ‘legend of sleepy hollow’. Bravo, Audible for bringing this wonderfully simple tale to your listening audience.

Joe Lilley

Excellent Story! Listen with your Children!

My six year old son and I listened to this story on our way to Family Camp and thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course how could you beat any story written by Washington Irving. As well as, Christian Rummel's excellent narration. Thanks for making this wonderful classic available.

Nice Reread

I read this years ago....ole Ripp slept for 20 years and woke up away from his wife who he would allege, hound him, and went from a citizen of England to a United States Citizen while asleep!

Fascinating

A clever and silly story. I knew that it was about a man who fell asleep for 20 years but not that the revolution taking places while he slept. Over all I enjoyed the read.

vibrant

very visual language. i wonderful quality quick read for anyone trying to get there badges.

Wonderful Story

Loved this classic tale. It was wonderful to listen to. I had forgotten how good it was.

Great narration

I always enjoyed reading this story. It was nice listening to it. The narration really captures the story.

A Classic Invitation

I knew this story from long ago, but its memory was vague. It's wonderful to read a great piece of literature and be reminded: classics are rarely formidable; they are simply wonderful stories, told wonderfully well. (It's nice if they're read wonderfully, too, and this one is.)

3.5 stars

I decided that “Rip Van Winkle” would be my introduction to Washington Irving in a pretty random way. I saw a little clip of the classic children series “Wishbone” on YouTube that was covering this short story. From there I got curious to see if that adaptation was close to the original short story. Once I saw that Audible had a version available to listen to it was a no brainer to give it a listen.

I wasn’t as wowed by this short story as I thought I would be but I think it’s because of the hype that follows this story. Whenever someone brings up Washington Irving they mention either “Rip Van Winkle” or “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” as his most well-known and best works. This was a fine story but I can’t say that it would be super memorable to me if it wasn’t considered Classic Literature.

Great fairy tail

It must be bad to be 67 years old. Never listen to the audible, Rick van winkle. I have to admit I enjoyed it.