The subject of this article is the identification of the romantic originality of W. Irving’s short stories from the book «The Alhambra» In connection with this, the following characteristic features of the aesthetics of romanticism are clarified: the problem of the romantic hero, his opposition to society, the break of the ideal with reality, the role of folklore, the reception of contrast, etc. In the context of revealing the peculiarity of romanticism W. Irving, the creative evolution of the writer and the artistic structure of his short stories, reminiscent of a fairy tale. The problems and the subject-composition structure of Irving’s
works, based on the motive of adventure, are considered in detail; the uniqueness of the artistic chronotope
with elements of magic, the combination of myth and reality in the depiction of heroes; the plot-forming role
of the reception of contrast, the specificity of cultural, historical and spiritual realities borrowed by the writer
from Arabic and Spanish legends and fairy tales; the importance of fiction and irony as a means of understanding the contemporary writer of reality. All this gives grounds to draw a conclusion about the
romantic context of the works of the writer – the founder of American romanticism
