Review: The Princess Bride

No, it's not the movie I'm talking about here (besides, if it was the movie, this post would be on a Monday). I think almost everyone in my generation can recite the majority of The Princess Bride by heart, as I learned in college. We had a movie night on campus showing The Princess Bride, and so many lines were just recited along with the screen! My roommate (who actually hadn't seen it before) was getting frustrated trying to watch with so many fans reciting the movie around her!

So I'm not gonna even worry about chattering about that one. Instead, I'm here to talk about something even better, something that a lot of fans don't even realize exists: the book. The Princess Bride by William Goldman.

OK, now keep in mind that The Princess Bride (movie) is one of my favorites of all time. Got that in mind? Now, I'm going to say something that a lot of people might argue with, so remember where I'm coming from. Now, here goes:

The book is even better.

No, really. If you like the movie to any extent, you'll love the book.

I first read The Princess Bride when I was about 10, I think. We'd gone down to FL for the annual trek to visit family (we lived in VA, so it was about a 13 hr drive - that's why it's a trek) My aunt and uncle recommended the book to me (I don't remember how the topic came up), and let me borrow their copy. I read it the entire way back to VA. I started it when we left FL and had just about finished it when we arrived back home. I was actually so close to finishing, that my folks let me finish the book and then unpack my things from the car! When we travel, my sister and I laugh that we "become feline" - about half the time the car we sleep, a habit we can't break even now that we're adults! So, to have a book so good that I didn't sleep at all... that's a really good book!

Since then, I've considered it one of my missions in life to spread the word to other fans, since so few people know the book's out there.

The plot... well, we all know it. As the tag line says, it's "What happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince in the world—and he turns out to be a perfect son of a bitch?"

In short, whatever you like about the movie, it's there in the book, and to a greater degree.

It's still a story-within-a-story, the sick kid being read to. In the book, it's his father not his grandfather, but minor details. I believed for the longest time that S. Morgenstern really had written this book which Goldman was abridging, and that Floring and Guilder were really places (I think I had them pegged in my head being somewhere around Denmark).

It's still got tons of adventure, but more so. We learn the back-stories to Inigo and Fezzik, and more battles, and more information about the Fire Swamp.

It's still got tons of humor, but more of it, and more satirical. We learn more about the histories of the previous Most Beautiful Women (which are pretty funny, really). And of course, there's Max and Valerie. A lot of the best lines from the movie are in the book (that's what happens when the screenplay writer and book author are the same person), so you won't miss anything you enjoy from the movie; you'll just get more of it in the book. You also get little comments from the 'abridger' about portions that he's cut from the original (which was apparently originally a political commentary on Florin and Guilder). Some readers don't like all Goldman's comments, and recommend skipping over anything in italics. I think that most were pretty funny. The first time I read it (remember, I was 10), I thought the introduction was a little long, but I thought his comments within the story were pretty funny. 4 pages cut about packing hats, 2 pages about unpacking them - I thought it was funny that Morgenstern had written about that! Even rereading it now for the umpteenth time, I still find them funny. Basically, my advice is that if you just want the adventure, read the main story, but the italics are definitely worth a read too.

It's a book that has everything. As Goldman put it, "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."

Overall: 5 of 5. Read it!