Product Description

First published in 1973, The Princess Bride is a cult book which later became a cult film. It tells the story of Buttercup, the most beautiful girl in the world. And of fencing, fighting, torture, poison, true love, hate, revenge, giants, hunters, bad men, good men, beautifulest ladies, snakes, spiders, beasts, chases, escapes, lies, truths, passion, and miracles.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #325223 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 429 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
First published well, in 1973 actually, this book spawned the Rob Reiner-directed cult film of the same name. It's a tongue-in-cheek fairytale of love, life, action, death and life again. Featuring the obligatory handsome Prince and supremely beautiful princess, it also boasts a Spanish sword wizard, the Zoo of Death, a chocolate-coated resurrection pill and lots of villains, who span the spectrum from evil, through even more evil to (gasp) most evil. And then there's Fezzik, the gentle giant addicted to rhyming.

William Goldman--who's won two Oscars for his screenwriting (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President's Men), and has endeared himself to dentists and their patients planetwide through his novel Marathon Man--has always claimed he merely abridged this text, extracting the "good parts" from an inventive yet wordy classic by Florinese literary superstar, S Morgenstern.

It has, however, been whispered in certain circles that Morgenstern himself is a figment of Goldman's ultra-fertile imagination. Read Goldman's original and special Anniversary introductions and make up your own mind. Oh--and don't forget his explanation as to why he's only "abridged" the first chapter of the sequel Buttercup's Baby--which appears here for the first time--and why it took him so long to get round to it.

Completely delightful, suitable for cynics and romantics alike. Suspension of disbelief optional. -- Lisa Gee

Observer
'Brilliant and funny.'

The Times
'A wonderful fairytale.'

Customer Reviews

What's all the fuss about?
Maybe I expected too much, but I really can't see what all the fuss is about. Mildly amusing (the occasional smile, no laughs), a fairly clever if not overly original conceit and some gentle sideswipes at the fantasy genre, but that was about it. I have to admit, I got to the end and my sole reaction was "Is that it?". All a bit of a letdown really; loads of froth, but not a lot else. (Felt the same about the film which I rented subsequently - thank goodness I didn't buy it).

An honest, old-fashioned adventure with a metafictional twist
The Princess Bride is an honest and old-fashioned adventure. The bride of the title is Buttercup, the most beautiful girl in the world, soon to be married to Prince Humperdinck - too bad she's in love with Westley, the farm boy. Before you reach the end, you've come to know an evil Sicilian criminal mastermind, a Spanish fencing wizard, a gentle Turkish giant and many other memorable characters.

It's not just a funny adventure, there's an additional metafictional level. As the story goes, William Goldman didn't write the book: it's an abridgement of a book written by S. Morgenstern. Every now and then Goldman pops in the story, interrupts and discusses some details of Morgenstern's work he disagrees with and has cut off. I'm fairly sure some people will dislike that, but to me, it was the thing that made Princess Bride shine.

It was good, but not spectacular - I don't quite get the amazingly good reviews at Amazon, for example. It was funny, definitely, but not hilarious. The book is oozing good one-liners, that I admit. So, if you're looking for adventure, romance and excitement, The Princess Bride is certainly a good choice.

Can you abridge an 'abridgement'?
This would have been a wonderful book if we could cut out the author and his drivel. He's rude about his then wife, his father, his son, Steven King. You have to wade through an ego trip at the beginning and the end and intervals throughout. He even acknowledges that all the parenthesis is annoying and that he was told to edit it out, but he's left it in!!! Every other paragraph, 'this was before blah but after blah'. It is infuriating!!! It is such a shame because there are parts of the story itself that are so beautifully written I could cry. I suppose I shall just have to hold Cary Elwes and Robin Wright close to my heart instead. Skip the book, watch the movie!