The Princess Bride — (1973) Young adult. Publisher: What happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be... well... a lot less than the man of her dreams?
As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the "S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride". But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad's recitation, and only the "good parts" reached his ears.
Now Goldman does Dad one better. He's reconstructed the "Good Parts Version" to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere.
What's it about? Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Sex.
In short, it's about everything.
Eventually to be adapted for the silver screen, THE PRINCESS BRIDE was originally a beautifully simple, insightfully comic  story of what happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince in the world — and he turns out to be a son of a bitch. Guaranteed to entertain both young and old alike by combining scenes of rowsing fantasy with hilarious reality, THE PRINCESS BRIDE secures Goldman's place as a master storyteller.
 The Princess Bride
William Goldman is better known for his screenplays than his novels. The two-time Oscar award winning author wrote the screenplays for The Stepford Wives, All the President's Men, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He is probably most recognized among current audiences for writing the screenplay for The Princess Bride, but most people who love that cult classic may not also know that the movie was originally a novel.
Unlike most books that are turned into movies, The Princess Bride stays remarkably true to the source material, with most of the dialog making the transition unaltered to the big screen. The Princess Bride contains all the elements of a great fairy tale and action adventure — fights, a beautiful princess, giants, pirates, torture, Rodents of Unusual Size, escapes, miracles, albinos, villains and “twue wuv.” When the Princess Buttercup is kidnapped before she can marry Prince Humperdinck, she needs someone to come to her rescue. But when that rescuer is actually the Dread Pirate Roberts, what does that mean for her future?
The Princess Bride is subtitled as an abridgment of the classic novel by S. Morgenstern. The book opens with a fictional autobiographical note from the author explaining how when he was a young child he fell very ill, and his father read him The Princess Bride multiple times while he recuperated. The book started his love affair with action books, and ultimately is responsible for him becoming a writer. When his own son turned ten years of age, he bought the same book for him and couldn’t figure out why his son hated it, until Goldman tried to read it himself. It turns out that his dad had read him “the good parts,” skipping all the political satire and history of the Florinese crown. So Goldman says he decided to create an abridged version, with just the good parts. (It isn’t really an abridgment, there is no original book; the abridgment idea is just a narrative device. I say that because the first time I read this book I really thought it was an abridgement of an early novel.)
Anyone familiar with the movie knows how the action is periodically interrupted by the grandfather commenting on the action. “She does not get eaten by the eels at this time.” Those interactions are modeled after Goldman breaking into the book to talk about what got cut and why, pontificating on the theme of the book, “Life isn’t fair,” and reminiscing about his reactions when he heard the book the first time. The authorial notes make the book worth reading, even if you have already seen the movie. They are humorous, at times sarcastic, and deeply emotional at other times. They transform the book into something a bit darker and more adult than the movie, and make The Princess Bride a book any reader can enjoy. —Ruth Arnell
The Princess Bride
Like many people, I was familiar with the 1987 film The Princess Bride long before I read (or even knew about) William Goldman's original novel, the extensively titled The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure. Like the film, the novel has a framing narrative that introduces the tale itself; unlike the film it is not of a young boy being read the story by his grandfather, but Goldman's own experiences with the book both as a child and an adult.
Working with the conceit that it is a "real" novel written by the (entirely fictional) S. Morgenstern, Goldman discusses how he was introduced to the novel as a boy and then undertook the task of abridging the text in order to make it palatable to modern readers. The "original" text, as it turns out, was a long-winded satire on the culture and society of the novel's imaginary setting — something that Goldman cuts out in favor of the adventure and romance. Throughout the course of the novel he interjects the narrative with his own running commentary on the editing process, the book's inaccuracies and other anecdotes.
The set up is a little complex, and glancing over the Amazon reviews it would seem that a couple of readers are a little confused about this being the "abridged" version. Rest assured this is the one and only version of the book. Goldman's claim of abridgement is a fictionalized background in order to better compare the difference between the jaded, cynical real world and the fairytale idealism of the novel. It is like a show-within-a-show (for example, Goldman's wife and son as described in the foreword are nothing like his real family). Of course, for many this is as obvious as leaves on trees, but I've been surprised in discussions of this book at just how many people are under the impression that it's all "for real."
Furthermore, there is a strange anachronistic humor at work here. Though the setting is roughly Renaissance Europe (Guilder and Florin are named after European coins), the narrator tells us at various points that the story is set after stew, taxes and blue jeans, but before glamour and Europe. Just go with it and you'll find that the droll humor is all part-and-parcel of the parody that Goldman has created.
Buttercup is fast on her way to becoming the world's most beautiful woman (if only she were to gain some depth and understanding of personal hygiene), but she's more interested in riding her horse about the farm and bossing around the farmhand. The handsome youth called Westley responds to her constant demands with the simple response: "as you wish." But as she grows toward adulthood two things become clear: that her beauty is gaining her a reputation in the bordering countries of Florin and Guilder, and that she is desperately in love with Westley. Once their love is declared Westley decides to go in search of his fortune so that he may be worthy of her hand in marriage, only to fall prey to the Dread Pirate Roberts.
On hearing of his death, Buttercup goes into deep morning, and emerges from her bedroom as the most beautiful woman of the world, with hair the color of autumn, skin like wintry cream, and all the sadness of the world in her eyes. Drawing the attention of Prince Humperdinck, who needs to wed if he wants to inherit the kingdom of Florin, Buttercup is forced against her will into an engagement. Meanwhile, Florin and Guilder teeter on the edge of war, not at all helped by the war-mongering prince who is eager to invade his neighbors. The situation seems ready to erupt when Buttercup is kidnapped by three mercenaries who have been paid to place the blame for her murder on Guilder.
Pursued by a mysterious man in black, and by Prince Humperdinck and the cruel Count Rugen, Buttercup is helpless to do anything but watch as her captor, the hunchbacked Vizzini, sends his men out to kill her would-be rescuer. The man in black easily bests Inigo the Spaniard who is out to revenge his father's death at the hands of a six-fingered man, and Fezzik the gentle giant who loves nothing more than to rhyme words, until it comes down to a battle of intellect between himself and the master-criminal. And that's only the first few chapters.
The blurb describes the novel as "a tale of true love and high adventure, pirates, princesses, giants, miracles, fencing, and a frightening assortment of wild beasts," which still only encompasses a portion of the book in its entirety. It's also touching, thoughtful and hilarious, and certainly well-deserving of its "classic" status. Something that is also lost on several readers, even those familiar with the film, is that the book is largely a satire of the usual fairytale conventions. Yes, Buttercup is a rather terrible role model, but that's because she's a parody of the helpless damsel in distress. Miracle Max is a complete dues ex machina, but then, that's the whole point. Westley and Buttercup's relationship has only marginally more depth than your standard high school teenager and her morose vampire lover, but what can't be denied is the strength of the feelings between the two. Sentiments like "my arms love you, my ears adore you, my knees shake with blind affection," are as sincere as they are ridiculous.
As such the book is filled with two competing viewpoints on how to see the world: with rose-colored glasses, or with the glass half-empty. Goldman's framing narrative is filled with disappointment and disillusionment, the book that he so adored as a child is filled with hope and miracles and good triumphing over evil. More than anything, this is a book about the inherent unfairness of life, and our attempts to assuage that by writing stories. As such, it's a little tear-jerking when the beautiful but none-too-bright Buttercup stands up to her evil fiancé and declares: "there is a God, I know that. And there is love, I know that too; so Westley will save me." If only it were that simple...
For those who have watched the film, it's interesting to see just how well it intersects with the original novel. William Goldman wrote the screenplay, and The Princess Bride stands as one of those rare movie adaptations that not only does complete justice to the source material, but which over time becomes almost inseparable from it. Watching it again after reading the book, it's apparent just how perfect the casting was for each character and how well the text and film compliment each other. I'd go so far to say that if you have one but not the other, you're missing out on the full picture. In fact, the latest cover art portrays Westley and Buttercup as bearing a definite resemblance to actors Cary Elwes and Robin Wright.
There are some scenes from the book that didn't make it into the film, such as background on Fezzik and Inigo's pasts, but also some scenes in the film that did not appear in the book, most notably Inigo's "guide my sword" moment as he tries to locate Westley. Some lines are directly quoted from page to film, though other bits and pieces have been changed around a little, for instance, I was amused that Westley's famous line: "life is pain, anyone who says otherwise is selling something" originally belonged to (of all people) Fezzik's mother.
The story is not necessarily for children — after the Fire Swamp the pacing slows considerably, and they certainly won't find much interest in Goldman's various asides and amendments. Likewise, discerning parents may be a little put off by the rather graphic descriptions of violence, torture and nightmares. The latest edition of the book contains a plethora of extra material, including not one but two introductions by Goldman (from the 25th and 30th anniversary of publication), a reading group guide, a map of Florin and Guilder, and the short-story sequel "Buttercup's Baby," which sheds extra light on our heroes whilst raising new questions in the process.
Essentially, The Princess Bride is a very simple story, told in a very simple way, but which is still revelatory. Ranging from touching to humorous, adventurous to romantic, tragic to nobly idealistic, it — like the film — is one of those stories that gets under your skin and stays a part of you, no matter how old or young you are when first experiencing it. —Rebecca Fisher |
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