The story in one page
Rip Van Winkle is a simple, good-natured resident of a sleepy Dutch village who possesses an uncanny talent for avoiding all forms of profitable labor. To escape his wife’s constant complaints, he wanders into the Catskill Mountains with his dog, Wolf. He encounters a group of strange, bearded men in antique Dutch dress playing ninepins in a rocky amphitheater. After drinking from their keg, he drifts into a deep sleep, only to wake up twenty years later with a rusted gun and a long, white beard. He descends the mountain to find his home gone, his village filled with strangers, and his country transformed by a successful revolution.
Who's who
- Rip Van Winkle
A man with a talent for avoiding work and marital strife.
- Dame Van Winkle
The wife whose constant nagging drives her husband up the mountain.
- Wolf
Rip's loyal and equally perpetually harassed hunting dog.
- Peter Stuyvesant
A historical governor whose Dutch legacy haunts the village.
What it's really about
- Domesticity
- A source of unending tribulation and forced patience.
- Time
- A commodity Rip loses while sleeping through history.
Why it's memorable
- A dog whining outside a mountain ravine while its master sleeps.
- A bearded man waking to find his musket barrel eaten by rust.
The ending, explained
Spoilers — show the ending
Rip reconciles with his new reality, happily trading mountain labor for a life of story-telling on the tavern porch. He becomes a fixture of village lore, accepted by the new generation as a harmless relic of the past.
For your book club
- The physical comedy of a man missing an entire war.
- How history is a surprise party for the chronically absent.