Yesterday I reviewed a “Paranormal Romance” based on Washington Irving’s classic short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” It is only natural, I suppose, that when I finished the unsatisfying reading of yesterday’s “Paranormal Romance” that I would immediately pick up and read Irving’s familiar tale again.

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” was as good as I remembered. Better even.

Ichabod Crane, the superstitious schoolmaster, and the Headless Horseman, supposedly the notorious ghost of a Hessian trooper decapitated by a cannonball during the Revolutionary War is iconic. So familiar in fact that it no longer fully resembles its original in most of our imaginations.

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is good to reread for the same reason that you should reread Dracula. A rereading reminds you of why it is so iconic. And it reminds you of how essential the story is to our modern imaginations.