Book Review: The Princess Bride, William Goldman

The Princess Bride, William Goldman 

Rating: 5 /5 stars

Read: 14 - 28/12/2022

Book of 2022: 16

Beautiful, flaxen-haired Buttercup has fallen for Westley, the farm boy, and when he departs to make his fortune she vows never to love another. 

When she hears that his ship has been captured by the Dread Pirate Roberts - who never leaves survivors - her heart is broken. But her charms draw the attention of the relentless Prince Humperdinck who wants a wife and will go to any lengths to have Buttercup. 

So starts a fairytale like no other, 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.  

The Princess Bride film is the most perfect masterpiece I have ever watched. I love it. It brings me so much joy. 

This was my final read of 2022 - I started it on the plan to Edinburgh for the work christmas party to subdue the intense flying anxiety. The words I know so well from the screenplay jumped out & hugged me as I tried to ignore the ridiculousness of being inside a metal bird. 

Goldman structures this book using an interesting framing device. Just as the film is structured around a Grandpa reading to his sick grandson, Goldman pretends the story of The Princess Bride be written by an S Morgenstern, which was read to Goldman by his own father. Goldman one day seeks out a copy in order to read it, only to find his father had cut out all the extra stuff revealing the history of Florin, its setting. 

Little old me ran with this for a while, & I guess I’m just so in love with the story that I was really willing to suspend my belief that far. 

The way Goldman writes the central story is sooo up my alley. The dialogue is witty & clever, the asides in parentheses make you feel like you’re in on the joke - both setting you up for a fabulous trip to Florin & the world of our heroes & anti-heroes. Even Humperdinck & Regan are distastefully funny. You don’t back them, but they are excellent to despise. 

The magic of this story never fails to amaze me. The fact that this man committed this heavily to “abridging” an existing book by a fake man is genuinely impressive, if not slightly disruptive to the pacing. 

I basically underlined the whole book so I’m not going to include a list of all my favourite quotes because frankly, I may as well just re-read the whole thing. 

I loved it. I need to rewatch the film. A perfect ending to 2022.