Knickerbocker's History of New York: Complete (Digital Original)

By: Washington Irving

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Synopsis: This nineteenth-century novel by the author of Rip Van Winkle offers a satirical history of New York, from the creation of the world to the fall of New Amsterdam.Washington Irving&’s debut novel, Knickerbocker&’s History of New York was an immediate sensation when it was first published in 1809. Posing as the work of a fictional Dutch historian named Dietrich Knickerbocker, it both catapulted Irving&’s literary reputation and established the &“Father Knickerbocker&” character as a popular icon of New York. Knickerbocker discusses the development of New Netherland, the seventeenth-century Dutch colony, with a special focus on New Amsterdam, the settlement located on present-day Manhattan. The thoroughly tongue-in-cheek chronicle contains &“among many surprising and curious matters, the unutterable ponderings of Walter the Doubter, the disastrous projects of William the Testy, and the chivalric achievements of Peter [Stuyvesant] the Headstrong.&”