Audiobook · read by volunteers
Old Christmas
Washington Irving (1783–1859)
Read by Alex Foster, Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023), Kristen McQuillin, Mark Bradford · 5 chapters · 1 h 52
About the book
Washington Irving takes a stagecoach through the English countryside on Christmas Eve, bound for a country house where an old school friend has invited him to stay. What he finds is a world that seems to have stepped out of an earlier age: a squire who clings to ancient customs, a family gathered round a blazing fire, carols, games, feasts and tales. Irving, an American traveller with an affectionate eye for English tradition, looks on with both amusement and nostalgia. Old Christmas is a gentle, humorous portrait of a holiday observed in the old-fashioned way, and a book often credited with shaping how later generations pictured an English Christmas. Five chapters, just under two hours, and four voices. A warm, cosy listen, best enjoyed by the fire, in December or whenever you need a little festive comfort.
Introduction
Washington Irving (1783-1859) was one of the first American writers to win a reputation in Europe. He is best known for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle, both from The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., which he published in instalments in 1819 and 1820. Old Christmas is a short book, divided into five chapters, which include the stage coach ride and the Christmas celebrations themselves, and it is easy to take in over a couple of evenings. The tone is affectionate and teasing, and Irving does not hide his amusement at the squire's enthusiasm for the old ways.
Old Christmas gathers the Christmas sketches from that collection. In these pages the narrator travels to the English countryside and meets an old schoolmate, who invites him home to spend Christmas at the family estate. The squire, who loves old customs, has organised the season with great care, and the visitor is able to observe the traditions as they were once kept: the greeting of the carol singers, the Christmas dinner and the hospitality extended to everyone nearby. The book is a mixture of reportage and affectionate invention, written with gentle humour. Irving's sketches are often credited with helping to shape the way people imagined a traditional English Christmas, more than twenty years before Dickens published A Christmas Carol. Modern readers will notice a certain nostalgia for a way of life that was already fading.
The recording has five chapters and runs just under two hours. Four LibriVox volunteers share the reading.
It is a pleasant, seasonal listen, relaxed in tempo and rich in atmosphere.
Public domain
Washington Irving died in 1859: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text