# The Princess Bride

Author: William Goldman · 1973

What you may not know is that The Princess Bride was first published not by William Goldman but by S. Morgenstern — a Florinese author writing in the sixteenth century. Goldman has merely abridged it. This is, of course, entirely untrue.

## Review

Goldman's great trick is the frame narrative: he claims to be abridging S. Morgenstern's classic Florinese novel, cutting the boring parts to leave only adventure, true love, and miraculous recoveries. The frame itself is a story: Goldman's father reading the novel to him when he was sick in bed, Goldman's own son refusing to finish it because a character dies.

Inside the frame: Westley and Buttercup, the Dread Pirate Roberts, Inigo Montoya and his quest to avenge his father, the giant Fezzik, the villain Humperdinck. Goldman is one of Hollywood's greatest screenwriters — Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, Marathon Man — and the novel has his screenwriter's economy: every sentence earns its place.

The 1987 film adaptation is a masterpiece. The novel is funnier and more moving. Goldman's frame narrative — his relationship with his son, his bitterness about Hollywood, the emotional truth underneath the genre pastiche — is everything the film had to cut.

## Why read this

If Alice in Wonderland delighted you with its self-aware playfulness about storytelling, The Princess Bride takes that game to its logical extreme. It's a love story that makes fun of love stories, an adventure that knows it's an adventure. Goldman described it as 'a good parts version' — and he was right. Everything here is a good part.

## Themes

- Metafiction
- True love
- Adventure parody
- Frame narrative
- Swashbuckling

## Buy

Kindle (affiliate): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BWJC5F6?tag=cyberlibrar00-20

Source page: https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/lists/classic-fantasy/princess-bride/

## Free public-domain picks on Cyber Library

- [Alice's Adventures in Wonderland](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/alice-in-wonderland/) — Lewis Carroll