My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die.

books:


	• The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure William Goldman Harcourt, 2007 - 464 pages average customer review:based on 669 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die.

On of my favorite movies to sit down and watch or come into the middle of and pick it up at that point is The Princess Bride. Ahhhh, such a tale that everyone loves. Who doesn't have a favorite character (or two). However, this review deals with the book that the movie was developed from.

The book of The Princess Bride is self described as the abridged telling of S. Morgenstern's classic tale of true love and high adventure. However, rather than being an abridged story, this is the full story (sorry if you're looking for Morgenstern's tale, a little lie). That said, the tale is told as a writer who's abridging a classic tale from his youth that his dad read to him when he was sick. In `abridging' Morgenstern's work, Mr. Goldman inserts his own comments, whether it's his memory of when his dad read the story to him or when he explains why he removed part of Morgentstern's work.

The Good
The book follows the movie (or is it the movie follows the book, a little hard to say) very well. All of the scenes you love in the movie are in the book. Additional data is provided usually, but it doesn't hurt what we saw in the movie in the least. In addition, we're given additional back ground data on Princess Buttercup, Wesley, and all of the major characters. I was particularly happy with the additional information on Inigo and Fezzik. While I enjoyed them in the movie, the book brings them forward! Especially when you learn what Fezzik went thru.

The Bad
Sometimes Mr. Goldman is a little long winded. I know he was trying to capture a writing style, but I think he took it a little to far. Particularly when describing the Prince and his Zoo of Death. As a matter of fact, this caused me to put the book down for a little while.

The Rating
Boy, on the front half I was only thinking 3 stars. I mean it was a little slow, Mr. Goldman spent a fair amount of time coming up with the idea of abridging the book, acquiring the book, and writing the abridged work. However, once Princess Buttercup is kidnapped the story picks up and the story steps up to 4.5 stars. Given this, I'll call this one a 4 star book. The strength of the book is what we've seen in the movie, quick action with an excellent story that everyone loves.

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Ok Fairy Tale Book of True Love

I had a hard time emotionally engaging in this book. It is mainly a frenetic joke that speeds rapidly by. I love Rob Reiner as a director and William Goldman is one of my favorite screenwriters. I just didn't love this book. I have always liked the movie, not loved it but thought the book would be better. It just isn't for me.

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THE PRINCESS BRIDE by William Goldman

The Princess Bride is William Goldman's adventure novel, even though the subtitle is "S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure." Goldman is better known for writing the screenplays for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President's Men. He also wrote the novel Marathon Man, which did for dentists what Psycho did for showers.

Goldman frames the novel as though he discovered and abridged the fictional Morgenstern's work to make it accessible to a modern audience. This is well and good, except that Goldman's periodic interjections typically drag the novel to a halt. And his fictional, thirty page introduction to how he came across the story is downright stifling. If the reader is aware that the context for the novel is entirely fabricated, Goldman comes across as self-aggrandizing (although he addresses this in a roundabout way by accusing Morgenstern of being self-aggrandizing).

Like Goldman says, nowadays, if you're reading the book, odds are you saw the movie first. Many of the clever lines from the film were lifted word for word from the book. The modern day frame of the story works much better in the film.

For the record, this is not, particularly, a book for small children - it has torture, drunkenness, suicide attempts, occasional profanity, and Goldman's fictional discussion of the collapse of his fictional marriage, among other things.

Some versions have the first chapter of the purported sequel, Buttercup's Baby, which comes with a tiresome 20+ page introduction of its own. The chapter itself isn't particularly good either.

The Princess Bride is a very clever, very entertaining book, but Goldman, with his framing, ultimately gets in his own way.

RECOMMENDED

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This is...

THE BEST BOOK IN THE WORLD! It's even better than the movie, and that's saying a lot... because I really like the movie. It's one of the few books that have made me laugh out loud numerous time. The characters and settings are great.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

W illiam Goldman?s beloved novel has sold over one million copies. A movie, released twenty years ago, perfectly captured the spirit of the book and has introduced new fans to its pages ever since. In 1941 a young boy lies bedridden from pneumonia. His perpetually disheveled and unattractive father, an immigrant from Florin with terribly broken English, shuffles into his bedroom carrying a book. The boy wants to know if it has any sports. His father says, "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. Passions. Miracles." And the little boy, though he doesn?t know it, is about to change forever. As Goldman says, "What happened was just this. I got hooked on the story." And coming generations of readers will, too.

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