Best Washington Irving Audiobooks
Washington Irving invented the American ghost story before anyone knew that was a thing worth inventing. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle aren't just enduring tales — they're the originals, the templates that generations of horror and folklore writers have been quietly borrowing from ever since. Irving's prose has a lush, almost theatrical quality: fog-draped landscapes, characters caught between the waking world and something stranger, a tone that plays wry comedy and genuine dread against each other until you're not sure which wins. The Devil and Tom Walker shows the same gift — a Faustian bargain told with the dry moral satisfaction of a man who knows exactly what he's doing. Readers who love folk horror, early American atmosphere, and stories that feel like they were passed down rather than written will find Irving essential.
Where to Start with Washington Irving
- Best entry point → The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
- Best standalone → Ghost Stories: Stephen Fry's Definitive Collection
- What fans keep coming back to → Rip Van Winkle
- Highest rated by listeners → The Devil and Tom Walker
Best Washington Irving Audiobooks
- 1
Ghost Stories: Stephen Fry's Definitive Collection
by Stephen Fry, Washington Irving, M.R. James, Amelia B. Edwards, Robert Louis Stevenson, Algernon Blackwood, Edgar Allan Poe, Charlotte Riddell, Bram Stoker
Narrated by Stephen Fry
★ 4.11 ABR Score (2.4K ratings)★ 3.97 Goodreads (1.4K) ★ 4.51 Audible (988)More about this pick
Fry's theatrical background shines as he inhabits each classic tale, from Irving's Headless Horseman to M.R. James's scholarly terrors.
- 2
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Narrated by Tom Mison
★ 4.10 ABR Score (163.0K ratings)★ 3.77 Goodreads (156.0K) ★ 4.27 Audible (7.0K)More about this pick
Robertson Dean's dramatic reading captures every terrified moment as schoolteacher Ichabod Crane faces the ghostly Headless Horseman in Sleepy Hollow.
- 3
The Devil and Tom Walker
Narrated by B.J. Harrison
★ 3.72 ABR Score (3.3K ratings)★ 3.56 Goodreads (3.0K) ★ 4.25 Audible (271)More about this pick
Washington Irving's classic tale of a man who makes a bargain with the devil gets B.J. Harrison's atmospheric treatment. At just over an hour, this American Faust story packs moral consequences into a perfectly sized listening experience.
- 4
Rip Van Winkle
Narrated by Christian Rummel
★ 3.69 ABR Score (19.9K ratings)★ 3.6 Goodreads (19.0K) ★ 4.06 Audible (859)More about this pick
Irving's tale of a man who naps for twenty years and awakens to find the American Revolution has changed everything he once knew.
- 5
H. P. Lovecraft's Book of the Supernatural
by Stephen Jones, Henry James, Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Rudyard Kipling, Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson, Guy de Maupassant, Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Conan Doyle, Davina Porter, Steven Crossley, Bronson Pinchot
Narrated by Davina Porter, Steven Crossley, Bronson Pinchot
★ 3.60 ABR Score (477 ratings)★ 3.68 Goodreads (339) ★ 3.99 Audible (138)More about this pick
Three skilled narrators present Lovecraft's influential 1927 horror essay alongside the classic stories he championed. The collection traces supernatural literature's evolution from Gothic novels through contemporary masters.