The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a classic short story by Washington Irving, first published in 1820. It tells the story of Ichabod Crane, a superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut, who moves to the small Dutch settlement of Sleepy Hollow in New York. Ichabod quickly becomes the object of affection of the town's young women, but he is also the target of the town's local ghost, the Headless Horseman. The Horseman is said to be the ghost of a Hessian soldier who was decapitated by a cannonball during the Revolutionary War. Ichabod is terrified of the Horseman and his nightly rides, but he is determined to win the heart of the beautiful Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter of a wealthy farmer. He soon finds himself in a competition with the town's local hero, Brom Bones, for Katrina's affections. One night, Ichabod is chased by the Headless Horseman and is never seen again. The townspeople believe that the Horseman has taken him away, never to be seen again. The story ends with the mystery of Ichabod's disappearance unsolved.
By Washington Irving · First published 1820 · Genre: Romanticism, Gothic Fiction, Fantasy · 2 chapters