Study Guide
What is it about "The Devil and Tom Walker" that so fascinates the reader? Is it Old Scratch? Is it that miserly ole Tom Walker? Is it the idea of being tempted with riches? What would you do if you were tempted by the Devil? With these quotes, you'll get an idea of why "The Devil and Tom Walker" is so popular.
- "About the year 1727, just at the time when earthquakes were prevalent in New England, and shook many tall sinners down upon their knees, there lived near this place a meagre miserly fellow of the name of Tom Walker."
- Washington Irving
- "Tom was a hard-minded fellow, not easily daunted, and he had lived so long with a termagant wife, that he did not even fear the devil."
- Washington Irving
- "What was her real fate nobody knows, in consequence of so many pretending to know. It is one of those facts that have become confounded by a variety of historians."
- Washington Irving
- "As Tom waxed old, however, he grew thoughtful. Having secured the good things of this world, he began to feel anxious about those of the next."
- Washington Irving
- "The good people of Boston shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders, but had been so much accustomed to witches and goblins and tricks of the devil in all kinds of shapes from the first settlement of the colony, that they were not so much horror struck as might have been expected."
- Washington Irving
- "The good people of Boston shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders, but had been so much accustomed to witches and goblins and tricks of the devil in all kinds of shapes from the first settlement of the colony, that they were not so much horror struck as might have been expected."
- Washington Irving
