Apart from "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"—the pieces which made both Irving and The Sketch Book famous—other tales range from the maudlin to the picaresque and the comical. The common thread running through The Sketch Book—and a key part of its attraction to readers—is the personality of Irving's pseudonymous narrator, Geoffrey Crayon. Erudite, charming, and never one to make himself more interesting than his tales, Crayon holds The Sketch Book together through the sheer power of his personality—and Irving would, for the rest of his life, seamlessly enmesh Crayon's persona with his own public reputation.