I have got to be one of the few people left who had neither read nor watched the movie the Princess Bride before now. I had no idea what it was even about. For the other 5 or so of you on planet earth who have also not encountered this enchanting story, it is basically a classic novel that has all the elements you would expect in a fantasy. A fabled land? Check. A beautiful princess? Check. A swashbuckling hero? Check. An evil Prince? Check. Other assorted villains? Check. True love? Check, check, and check.
The princess in this story is Buttercup who, convinced she has lost her true love Westley, agrees to marry Prince Humperdinck. Things are going swimmingly until a plot to kill Princess Buttercup comes to light and she is kidnapped by a hunchback, a master swordsman, and a giant. But who ordered her kidnapping? And who is that dashing man in black that is risking life and limb to save her? I will not give away any more of the story but for the parts of it I actually read, I could not put this book down. I read it in one day and I actually put off eating dinner til about 9 pm so I could finish it.
What do I mean the parts I read you ask? Well here is the thing about the Princess Bride. The author, William Goldman, says in the beginning he discovered this great book by author S. Morgenstern and it was absolutely wondiferous except there is all this boring history about the country of Florin and other areas of long windedness about inane subjects that bog it down so he, gracious man that he is, has decided to give us an abridged version! Goldman starts the book by giving his entire history with the book and the his fight to bring the Morgenstern estate to bring this magical story to light-30 whole pages of it. He butts in throughout the reading of the story to tell what parts he cut out. Sometimes this goes on for pages. This in itself is annoying. Really annoying. I couldn't help thinking that if he just shut his trap and continued on with the story without giving us all these details about what hit the cutting room floor the book would have been ten times better and the reader would have been none the wiser. Inevitably I ended up thinking "Wow. I just wish I dug up Morgenstern's original and read it so I could avoid all the commentary." I started skipping the parts where Goldman cuts in and eventually curiosity got the better of me so I googled "The Princess Bride by S. Morgenstern".
Now you do it. Go ahead and Google away. I'll wait right here.
..............................................................................................................................................................
.............................................................................................................................................................
.............................................................................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................................................................
*******************************************************************************
That's right gang! THERE IS NO S. MORGENSTERN. Goldman made him up and the whole "I'm making an abridged version because Morgenstern is a windbag" is just some sort of narrative device where Goldman is trying to be clever. When the reader figures it out they'll be like "Oh Mr. Goldman-you got me! HA HA! Except I wasn't going HA HA. Instead I sat here on the bed for at least a good half hour feeling like a total idiot. And I DON'T like reading books that make me feel like an idiot. I liked reading this one though because the full of adventure, magic, derring-do and above all True Love story that was in between all that nonsense made me love it. As you wish Mr. Goldman. You got me-ha ha. I liked it.
I am cracking up laughing right now because my boyfriend did the exact same thing. The movie had been one of his favorites as a kid and so he wanted to read the book. So he picked it up and started reading and had the same reaction as you - why am I not reading the original. So he looked and looked for the book until he realized that he already had the book. He only just started reading the book last night, so your review is quite timely. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI am one of the 5 people who have not read the book or seen the movie. Sounds like it might be worth taking a look at the book.
ReplyDeleteI was exactly like you! Although I had watched the movie, when I was reading the book it kept bugging me that I had never heard of Florin and had to know what the deal was. When I found out the truth I just had to giggle at myself. But I though that it was such a clever idea and so unique that I fell in love with this book because of it. It's brilliant!
ReplyDeleteI did the same exact thing when I read the book as a teenager! And all the pauses in the middle of the story annoyed me so much!!! The same with the movie -- I hated it how the story kept getting broken up with the scenes of the grandfather telling the story to his grandson. The ending paragraph of the book IS a fabulous one though.... :-)
ReplyDelete