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The Princess Bride by William Goldman
The Princess Bride
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‘Tis a tale of epic love. That of Buttercup and Westley, while the evil Prince Humperdink tries to forever separate them and marry Buttercup (of course, he wants to kill her on their wedding night). Along with a giant (Fezzik) and swordsman (Inigo), Westley must save his true love. Can brave Westley survive pirates, Sicilians, evil princes, a six-fingered man, a zoo of death, the Cliffs of Insanity, and not to mention fire swamps and rodents of unusual size? Read this swash-buckling adventure to find out!
Chances are, you’ve seen the movie. And the book is written by the same guy who wrote the movie script, William Goldman. The book came first, but he had written movies for years before this, and I feel like his screenwriting mind was at work on this novel as well. At the very least, when he wrote the screen adaptation, he didn’t change very much. Personally, I’d see the movie first–that way, you can just picture the movie playing in your head as you read the book. It’s rare, and a lot of fun, to see a book and movie that go so perfectly together.
The book and the movie may have a lot in common, but they do have some differences as well. The book begins with Goldman’s narrative on how his father used to read him The Princess Bride by S. Morgenstern. Then as an adult, he decided to try to buy the book for his own son, but had a very difficult time finding it. When he finally did get a copy, his son found it boring and that was the first time Goldman actually sat down to read it. He found it boring as well, and thus created this abridged copy. If you didn’t know better, you would really believe that Goldman didn’t write this book, with the side narrative that he carries on with the readers. In his narrative, Goldman often explains how he cut a chapter about court etiquette, or how he wished he could have added something to a certain scene. Personally, I felt that it went on a little long in the beginning, with his epic quest to find a copy for his son, but most of the time it was a great edition to the book.
Oh, and the cover can’t be forgotten! At least, that is, the cover of the original 70’s mass market paperback edition. View that cover here (from the 20th Anniversary edition), and you can see the old cover beside it. It’s pretty awful, I mean seriously, a half naked woman with strange magical animals/things coming out of her? Please, if anyone can explain the relevance, enlighten me!
Ratings Reasons:
Action 4 ½ – A swashbuckling good time to be had by all! Rarely a dull moment.
Romance 3 ½ – I know it’s true love and all, but I just don’t believe it that much in the book. On screen, the two actors have chemistry that makes it believable, but in the book, it’s only above average.
Characters 4 – In some ways, they are complex characters, all with back stories. On the other hand, the characters fall into stereotypes, like the kind of characters you expect in an action movie.
Overall 4 ½ – I think it starts out a little bit slow, but I really enjoyed it overall. The pacing is good, and there are plenty of laughs. Lovers of the movie will certainly enjoy the book and vice versa, in my opinion.
Extras:
William Goldman has written some great stuff. Personally, I grew up loving the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as well as The Princess Bride.
If you like reading scripts, I’ve found the script for The Princess Bride online. If you want to be a screenwriter, Goldman is an excellent writer to study and has also written some adult non-fiction books about the business.
A blogger named Mr. Besilly has a great list of the ten things he learned from the movie, as well as a copy of the theme song of the movie A Story Book Love.
Goldman did write a book under the name S. Morgenstern called The Silent Gondoliers.
I also have it on good authority (from Chelsea, the darling editor) that The Last Unicorn is also a great book and movie combo. Now, I’ve only seen the movie, but I liked what I saw there. I’m not sure about The Neverending Story in relation between book and movie, but I know the book has a similar “two narratives at once” element that The Princess Bride carries on (in both books, if you get good editions, these narratives can even be in differnt colors).
Parents:
10+ As long as you disregard the cover to the 70’s edition, there isn’t any questionable content to speak of. There’s some death and some torture, but it’s not particularly graphic. If you don’t mind the movie, you won’t mind the book.
Thanks for the mention. Much appreciated. The Princess Bride is a lifelong favorite of mine. Ray Basile
Glad you found my post already ^_^ I’d been planning to e-mail you and let you know today.
I’ve always loved the movie, and I’m kind of suprised it took me this long to get around to reading the book.