The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure

The cover is so beautiful

Better than the movie or worse than the movie? For those coming to this book, having seen the wonderful movie of the same name, I’d say that this book is different to the movie. Not that different, mind you. There’s still the The Dread Pirate/ Westley, Buttercup, Fezzik, Innigo and all the rest, there are still all the classic lines, “never get involved in a land war in Asia”, but instead, what you will hold in your hands is a kind of novel with a surrounding fictionalised author’s commentary, as he tells of his attempts to abridge and improve the original story by S. Morgernstern, whilst encountering budding starlets, publishing moguls and even the author Steven King. It is fast, and it is fun and only really flags a little towards the end, with Buttercups Tale, which carries on where the movie ends, and which, as others on here have pointed out, kinda succumbs to sequelitis and the Law of Diminishing Returns. Overall, lots of fun.

Ever since I first saw The Princess Bride film I have loved it – loved it as much as a dear old friend. How come then that I have only just discovered that there is a book of the film (or should that be a film of the book?) to read. The is a modern fairytale. More than a fairytale, it is a pastiche of what fairytales are. The book goes beyond that for it is a satire not just of fairytales, but of how old stories are, are written, and of Hollywood that mines them for its films.In the film, a grandfather reads the book to his grandson, skipping out the boring bits to the tale of high adventure that he thinks the boy will enjoy. In the book, we see this as an autobiography of either (and both) Goldman being read the book by his father and he reading the book to is son.For a while you do actually believe that Morgenstern’s Princess Bride is a real book, and you think about trying to track it down in some secondhand bookshop somewhere. It’s a clever idea that makes you believe its an actual abridgement in which Goldman presents the ‘good parts’ version of an older story through tales of how he adapted it.Where the book follows either the fairytale or the grandfather/grandson scenes of the film the book every bit as good, and the introduction is very entertaining. As the book progresses, I do feel that Golding gets a bit carried away with his notes on the text, none more obviously than in the concluding section that follows the main story where he satarises the Hollywood obsession with sequels. The ‘Buttercup’s Baby section doesn’t really seem to add anything much to an otherwise brilliant book.

I absolutely love the film, and I've read other versions of the book that were at least enjoyable. This was not, it was mind numbingly boring, atrociously written and I only finished it out of sheer bloody minded stubborn-ness. I actually ended up with a headache trying to read this drivel. Do Not Recommed this at all!

The book is quite the same than the movie...I bought the book because my DVD has been kidnapped by a "friend". I even wonder whether he's ever watched the movie. So, for a movie that I watched 7 times in a month (the total number for my living time must be ~30 times), the impossibility to watch the movie when I NEEDED pushed me to buy the book.Nevertheless, and here I discover that I am romantic, I prefer how it ends in the movie than in the book. In the book, I get the impression than W. Goldman laughs at the characters, is not respectful, and the story loses some of its magic.Also, the book is a bit pessimistic, while the movie, in my eyes, is all the opposite (and for pesimistic stories, everybody can read a newspaper).

You get a new appreciation for the Princess Bride film from reading the book. Also you begin to feel sympathy for the author and realise why the film is as it is.There is alos more back information on the characters and you realise why they are acting as they are when from watching the film you just think they are evil and horrible.Fizzik tries his best and Inigo is the supreme swordsman. It's a fabulous fairytale with a happy ending and the storming of the castle of course!The sequel, buttercups baby of which there is a blessedly short chapter doesn't sound so happy and I rather wish I hadn't read that part.