Irving blev født på Manhatten samme år som uafhængighedskrigen sluttede og USA for alvor tog fat på tilværelsen som selvstændig stat. Han var en del af handelsborgerskabet, og det var forretninger, der i første omgang førte ham til England, men han var også en ivrig forfatter, der allerede havde udgivet flere værker i New York. Bracebridge Hall, der med meget god vilje er en roman men nok snarere en samling af tekster, udkom i 1822, hvor han allerede var slået igennem med sin Sketch Book, der bl.a. indeholdt fortællingen Sleepy Hollow.

Titlens Bracebridge Hall er et typisk engelsk landsæde. På godset hersker master Simon, og det har hans slægt gjort i umindelige tider. Simon er dybt interesseret i gamle traditioner og ser sig selv som forsvarer af adelens gamle levevis, der nu trues af radikalister, oplysning og moderne transportformer som f.eks. den dilligencerute, som hans entreprenante nabo forsøger at få oprettet. Til gengæld har han en svagt punkt for folkelige traditioner, romantiske forestillinger om vagabonder og en usvigelig tro på tilværelsen på hest som afgørende for unge adelsmænds dannelse.

Fortælleren opholder sig på godset gennem nogle måneder, hvor også den smukke slægtning Julia, Lady Lilycraft, en kaptajn og en general, der ustandseligt fortæller historier fra Indien, opholder sig. Dertil kommer en bred vifte af tjenestefolk, befolkningen i den nærliggende landsby og sigøjnere på gennemrejse.

Det lille samfund bliver den prisme, som fortælleren formidler traditioner igennem. Der er kapitler om alt fra falkejagt over traditionelle maj-fester til folkelig overtro, og de enkelte kapitler er bundet sammen af en løs fortælleramme med forskellige kærlighedshistorier. Der er Julia og kaptajnen, hvis kærlighed bliver styrket, da hun falder af hesten under en jagt, og bogen slutter med deres bryllup. Men der er også generalens forgæves kurtisering af Lady Lilycraft og kammerpigen Phoebe Williams forelskelse i Ready-Money Jacks søn. Undervejs bliver der fortalt historier, og de gengives som tre lidt længere selvstændige fortællinger.

Endelig er der forordet og forfatterens afsked til sidst, hvor han argumenterer for de tætte kulturelle bånd mellem Amerika og England, der efter hans mening også bør resultere i et tæt venskab mellem de to stater og deres folk. En ganske fremsynet tilgang på et tidspunkt hvor det trods alt kun var ti år siden, England havde angrebet Washington. Forordet er ret interessant, for Irving reflekterer over modsætningen mellem den nye og den gamle verden. På den måde italesætter han europæiske forestillinger om Amerika som noget nyt, hvilket både kan forstås som noget primitivt og som noget moderne, og han placerer sig selv om en udefrakommende iagttager.

Irvings portræt af det traditionelle engelske landliv er fint, men det er svært at engagere sig alvorligt i personerne eller den gennemgående historie, der tydeligvis kun er med for at skabe en sammenhæng mellem beskrivelserne. De tre længere fortællinger var ret kedelige og præget alt for mange og alt for lange beskrivelser uden synderlig interesse. Hvis jeg skal være helt ærlig, så var det mest interessante faktisk forord og efterord. ( )

Irving warns us in the first chapter that this is not a novel of great adventure, it’s one of everyday English scenes in the country, and he’s right about that. Character sketches can be interesting but for the most part the ones here seem cliché, and the novel is uninteresting. I give it one star because of the joy I found in picking up the 1887 edition in a Berkeley bookstore, featuring an inlaid cover and gilt pages, and I give it another star for including roughly 150 illustrations from R. Caldecott. This book was previously in the library of one E.T. May (Christmas ’88), then Henry F. May, Jr (March 27, 1947), and now it’s in mine. On whose bookshelf will it reside next?

Quotes:
On scholars and the past:
“…though a jovial song of the present day was but a foolish sound in the ears of wisdom, and beneath the notice of a learned man, yet a trowl written by a tosspot several hundred years since was a matter worthy of the gravest research, and enough to set whole colleges by the ears.”

On transience:
“The fair Julia was leaning on her lover’s arm, listening to his conversation, with her eyes cast down, a soft blush on her cheek, and a quiet smile on her lips, while in the hand that hung negligently by her side was a bunch of flowers. In this way they were sauntering slowly along, and when I considered them, and the scene in which they were moving, I could not but think it a thousand pities that the season should ever change, or that young people should ever grow older, or that blossoms should give way to fruit, or that lovers should ever get married.”

And this, the most scene in the book:
“When I look at these faint records of gallantry and tenderness; when I contemplate the fading portrait of these beautiful girls, and think, too, that they have long since bloomed, reigned, grown old, died, and passed away, and with them all their graces, their triumphs, their rivalries, their admirers; the whole empire of love and pleasure in which they ruled – ‘all dead, all buried, all forgotten,’ I find a cloud of melancholy stealing over the present gaieties around me. I was gazing, in a musing mood, this very morning, at the portrait of the lady whose husband was killed abroad, when the fair Julia entered the gallery, leaning on the arm of the captain. The sun shone through the row of windows on her as she passed along, and she seemed to beam out each time into brightness, and relapse into shade, until the door at the bottom of the gallery closed after her. I felt a sadness of heart at the idea, that this was an emblem of her lot: a few more years of sunshine and shade, and all this life, and loveliness, and enjoyment, will have ceased, and nothing be left to commemorate this beautiful being but one more perishable portrait; to awaken, perhaps, the trite speculations of some future loiterer, like myself, when I and my scribblings shall have lived through our brief existence and been forgotten.” ( )

Includes the "Subjugation of Spain". After the defeat of King Roderick, at the battle of Guadelete, the whole of Southern lay open to the Moors. Initially, the Spanish abandoned all and fled. However, the Arabs "were not guilty of wanton cruelty" [73]. Taric el Tuerto was one of the most civilized conquerors ever to live by the sword. His orders were obeyed through love, rather than fear, and he was revered by his soldiers. He was contemptuous of material gain, but only sought the glory of conquest. Spoils, he shared. His commander, however, still in Africa, was jealous of Taric's victories, and ordered him to pause. Muza ben Nosier sent misleading messages to the Caliph Waled Almanzor. The Jews aided Taric in taking Toledo [88], because the Christians stole everything from them. The Arab chiefs all swore to honour the Jews and preserve their rights, and they did so [91]. Christians betray their cities and mountain fastnesses. The love story of Abdalasis and Exilona in 714 a.d. And as an old man, the Arab conqueror Muza retired to Mount Deran, foreswearing speech, grieving his two sons who had fallen victim to the jealousies of the caliph, his prosperity lost, brokenhearted in death. "Such was the lamentable end of the conqueror of Spain; whose great achievements were not sufficient to atone, in the eye of his sovereign, for a weakness to which all men ambitious of reknown are subject; and whose triumphs eventually brought persecution upon himself, and untimely death upon his children." [127]

washington irving
the henneberry company
chicago & ny