The Princess Bride is a favorite movie, I saw it on the big screen in 1987. It took a long time for me to read the book and although I’m glad I did, this is the rare case when I like the movie better than the book.
In the movie, a grandfather is telling his grandson about the story of The Princess Bride. In the original, main book, the author William Goldman tells the story about the story. When he was a child with pneumonia at the age of 10, his father read The Princess Bride which inspired him to be a writer. The book was written by S. Morgenstern. When Goldman had a son, he gave the book to his son but the son didn’t like it. Goldman came to find out that his father had only read the “good parts” of the story, hence Goldman wrote the abridged version of the book which was what was turned into the move. As the book progresses, Goldman notes what was missing from the original e.g. 70 pages of queen training.
Besides the story and 1st level meta story, there is a 25th anniversary edition forward and a 30th anniversary edition forward. These forwards become the 3rd level meta story. This is about the making of the movie, visiting the Morgenstern museum in Florin, meeting with Stephen King about Buttercup’s Baby.
I saw the movie and knew it was fiction, but when I began reading the book with all of its moderately real references and back stories, I was lured into believing it was real. Three-quarters into the book, I had to verify if there really was an original story by Morgenstern and found that there was none. The 2 forwards were fiction as well. None of it was true. I felt betrayed by the author, boy is he good.
And because of my perceived betrayal by the written story, I like the movie better.
Fencing.
Fighting.
Torture.
Poison.
True Love.
Hate.
Revenge.
Giants.
Hunters.
Good men.
Bad men.
Beautifulest ladies.
Snakes.
Spiders.
Beasts of all natures and descriptions.
Pain.
Death.
Brave men.
Coward men.
Strongest men.
Chases.
Escapes.
Lies.
Truths.
Passion.
Miracles.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:
1. Who can know when his world is going to change? Who can tell before it happens, that every prior experience, all the years were a preparation for…nothing.
2. I love you so much more now than twenty minutes ago.
3. Love is the best thing in the world, except for cough drops. Everyone knows that.
4. (When Buttercup put a sword to her heart, Westley’s reply) There are always too few perfect breasts in this world, leave yours alone.
5. I also have to say, for the umpty-umth time, that life isn’t fair. It’s just fairer than death, that’s all.
The book doesn’t really even have the happy ending that the movie has. Ok, obviously this got under my skin, just in a different way than the movie did.
