Suspended animation in fiction which is indistinguishable from death. In American fiction, the first story to deal with suspended animation is the tale of Rip Van Winkle, a short story by American author Washington Irving published in 1819 as well as the name of the story's fictional protagonist. In the story, a British subject in the American colonies wanders into the Catskill Mountains in the years before the American Revolutionary War, and finds a group of fairies, whose moonshine he drinks. He then falls asleep for 20 years, and returns to his village in what is now the United States, finding his home town
Rip Van Winkle (1910 film) a delight. Surely the Rip Van Winkle, as depicted by the late Joseph Jefferson, will linger long in the memory of those fortunate enough to have seen it. Unquestionably, however, the third in the list of delights is this film from Thanhouser which tells the story over again in much the same way that Jefferson told it. The Rip of Jefferson and the Rip of Irving are two different versions, though both do substantially the same things. ... It is a good piece of work from every standpoint. The actors have entered into the spirit of the story and have