Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good 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. The Princess Bride has it all!Yes, there is a movie of the same name, and yes, it is the same story--the story of Westley, the heroic "Farm Boy" turned pirate, and Buttercup, the dim-witted milkmaid turned princess. Westley and Buttercup fall madly in love. It's funny how it all comes about, really. Buttercup, having spent her entire life either yelling at or completely ignoring Westley, the farm boy who helped with the chores, all of a sudden realizes that she's head over heels for him (it took a beautiful Countess looking at him "that way" for her to even care). So Buttercup finds Westley in his "hovel" and declares her undying love for him. And Westley slams the door in her face. Hilarious. After letting her stew for the day, Westley tells Buttercup that he's leaving to make his fortune in America so that he can provide a good life for her. Buttercup doesn't understand. She asks him if her loves her. And he replies:
Do I love you? My God, if your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches. . . . I have stayed these years in my hovel because of you. I have taught myself languages because of you. I have made my body strong because I thought you might be pleased by a strong body. I have lived my life with only the prayer that some sudden dawn you might glance in my direction. I have not known a moment in years when the sight of you did not send my heart careening against my rib cage. I have not known a night when your visage did not accompany me to sleep. There has not been a morning when you did not flutter behind my waking eyelids. [p.57]
*swoon* I wish someone would talk to me like that!
Thus begin the adventures of Westley, Buttercup, and the rest of the gang: Prince Humperdink of Florin, the man who claims to love Buttercup, but who really wants power, and thus plots to have Buttercup murdered, placing the blame on the neighboring land of Guilder; the Sicilian criminal Vizzini, who will do anything for gold; the gentle giant Fezzik; Inigo Montoya, on the search for the six-fingered noble who killed his father; and the evil Count Rugen.
I'm sure most of you have seen the movie version of The Princess Bride. I saw it a couple of times when I was younger, but didn't much like it. I really don't remember why I didn't like it, but I definitely need to watch it again (I already have it on hold at the library) because I LOVED the book! I absolutely loved it, and didn't want it to end. It was funny and action-packed and wonderful.
What's truly amazing, though, are the layers to this story. William Goldman claims that this is just an abridgement of the "good parts" of The Princess Bride: A Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure, written by S. Morgenstern, which his father read to him as a boy. He told the whole backstory about this Florinese author S. Morgenstern, who wrote The Princess Bride about the history of his country. But none of it is true. Goldman made it all up. He's the actual author of The Princess Bride; there is no S. Morgenstern. I wouldn't have known that had I not read it elsewhere! Goldman is very good at convincing the reader that all he's doing, really, is abridging Morgenstern's original book. It's brilliant.
So, as I said above, I loved The Princess Bride. I think a big part of that has to do with the fact that I could only vaguely remember what happens in the movie; so reading the book was like experiencing everything for the very first time. Some friends have told me that the book is exactly like the movie, and they therefore didn't likethe book as much as they do the movie, so I'm glad that I (kind of) read the book "first"--or at least forgot enough about the movie so that it felt like I read the book first!
5/5
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