 Joseph Jefferson as Rip van Winkle, 1869 Rip van Winkle is a short story by Washington Irving, as well as the name of the story's fictional protagonist. The story, written while Irving was staying with his sister in Birmingham, England, is set in the days before and after the American Revolutionary War. A villager of Dutch descent escapes his nagging wife by wandering into the forest. After various adventures, he settles down under a shady tree and falls asleep. He wakes up years later and returns to his village. He immediately gets into trouble when he hails George III, not knowing that in the meantime the American Revolution has taken place and he is not supposed to be a loyal subject of the Hanoverian any longer.
After this story, "Rip van Winkle" can be a reference to a person who sleeps a long time, or to a person who is inexplicably unaware of current events.
The story has been adapted for other media for the last two centuries, from stage plays to cartoons to films. Actor Joseph Jefferson was most associated with the character on the 19th century stage and made a series of films starring the character starting in 1896, the earliest of which is in the US National Film Registry. Jefferson's son Thomas followed in his father's footsteps and also played the character in a number of early 20th century films.
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