"Rip Van Winkle" is set in the years before and after the American Revolutionary War. Rip Van Winkle is a henpecked husband who loathes "profitable labor", and a meek, easygoing, ne'er-do-well resident of the village. One autumn day, to escape his wife's nagging, Van Winkle wanders into the mountains with his dog. After drinking a certain kind of drink, he falls into asleep and wakes up 20 years later.After that,he returns to the villege where he comes from,and finds everything changed.People talk about revolution and election,and he has no idea of what that means.

Washington Irving ( 1783–1859) was an American short story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories “Rip Van Winkle” (1819) and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820), both of which appear in his collection, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.