Welcome to the latest edition of Looks from Books, which aims to prove that you can look smart, while still being book-smart, too. Fashion inspiration can be found between the pages of your favorite stories, on well-designed book covers, and in your favorite characters… if you read closely enough.

This week, we’re taking inspiration from an appropriately thrilling tale to herald the arrival of Halloween… and the Headless Horseman! Here’s Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:

Cover via Amazon

Table of Contents

Inside Cover

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is an iconic American short story written by Washington Irving and published in 1820.

The story is set in a Dutch settlement in 1790 New York, in the secluded village of Sleepy Hollow, where schoolmaster Ichabod Crane pines after the lovely Katrina von Tassel.

After a harvest celebration, where scary stories were told, his competition for fair Katrina’s heart, Brom Bones, along with other members of the town, preface the superstitious suitor’s encounter with the local spirit, The Headless Horseman, while riding home.

The ghost of a Hessian soldier separated from his head, The Horseman chases Ichabod through the woods, racing for safe passage over the bridge the legendary phantom is unable to cross. However, the story ends with the townspeople baffled by Ichabod’s unheralded disappearance, with only a smashed pumpkin lying on the road next to his deserted hat, left behind from his flight through the forest.

The story is widely considered as one of the most enduringly popular American short stories ever written. Hundreds of adaptations and allusions made to the classic tale permeate popular culture, as well as the general cultural practice of Halloween itself. The real-life town of Sleepy Hollow, New York celebrates the legacy of the “Legend” with a yearly historic celebration… and its local high school football team name? The Horsemen!