Via Justine De fant

S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure

By William Goldman

First published September 1, 1973 • 429 pages

5/5 stars

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Pure Story. That’s what this novel is. It’s True Love and High Adventure packaged in a slightly offensive, witty, and just fun story. 

Admittedly, before starting this book, this story was already sentimental to me. For one, I had already seen the movie, which I LOVE, but for another, The Princess Bride  was the bedtime story that my dad would always tell me when I was little. I thought it was this fantastic tale of love and adventure that he had conjured up in his own mind and I begged him every night to retell it. So really… how could I have not come out of this novel loving its characters, its plot and humor, and the nostalgia that takes me back to happy memories of childhood?

Goldman’s narratorial voice takes on the persona of an unfaithful, off-putting, slightly misogynistic, and shallow screenwriter from Hollywood who ogles hot blondes and feigns fatherly adoration for his “fat” son who he obviously despises. (Plot twist: Goldman doesn’t have a son, only daughters). 

He carries on his ruse by claiming that The Princess Bride is an abridgement of the original novel by author, S. Morgenstern who is from the city of Florin where the setting of the novel is based in. Both Florin and Morgenstern are fictional, which becomes clearer and clearer as Goldman interrupts sections in the novel with explanations of Morgenstern’s original intentions of TPB, which are often too ludicrous to be true. 

At the heart of the story (which I argue is different than the heart of the novel) are Westley, a poor farm boy and Buttercup, his one true love. A series of events cause their separation and lead to Buttercup learning of Westley’s death by the Dread Pirate Roberts. Having lost her true love and proclaiming to be dead inside, Buttercup accepts the proposal of Prince Humperdink of Florin— a man she holds no love for. This betrothal opens the door for an assassination attempt on Princess Buttercup by a range of peculiar characters including a vengeful swordsman, Inigo Montoya;  Fezzik, a gentle giant; the Cicilian, the six-fingered Count; an albino; and a mysterious man in black who has his own reasons for pursuing the princess. 

The real heart of the novel is Goldman and this fictional and distasteful persona he created for himself, which ironically makes the actual author more endearing. Structurally, the novel is set up to allow interruptions from Goldman’s editorial commentary as he explains the poor plot choices Morgenstern uses, which he either chose to rewrite or to leave. Really, he’s criticizing himself, which I thought was brilliant and well-executed. These interruptions come at a moment of suspense or lag to carry the plot forward. What you get at the end is the best of both worlds as he lets you decide whether or not you get his happy ending or the tragic conclusion from Morgenstern. 

And regarding all the details in the middle that make TPB a timeless classic, you really just have to read the book or watch the movie to figure that out. While many adaptations are poor in execution, TPB is one of the few exceptions where the book and the movie are pretty evenly matched. I mean… it has Cary Elwes playing a main character. That’s all you really need to make a Blockbuster, right?