Book Review: The Princess Bride

 Title: The Princess Bride

Author: William Goldman

Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Classics

Publication date: 1973

Page Count: 398 (Paperback)

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Blurb courtesy of Goodreads

What happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be…well…a lot less than the man of her dreams?

As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride. But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad’s recitation, and only the “good parts” reached his ears.

Now Goldman does Dad one better. He’s reconstructed the “Good Parts Version” to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere.

Thoughts:

People who watched the movie adaptation tend to claim that the movie is much better than the book, but I’d say they are both great in equal terms and I will admit that there are certain aspects in the book that I preferred over the movie and vice versa. Regardless, The Princess Bride has become one of my favorite books. The funny thing is the fact that the book actually reads like a movie so in regards to the level of difficulty of reading, there was none. I love fairy tales and this book has everything you could ever possibly want–there is romance, adventure, comedy, princess and princes, pirates, giants, sword fights, revenge. It is inconceivable how good this book really is.

William Goldman writes the book as if it is an abridged novel, the original being by S. Morgenstern. He cuts out all the boring parts leaving only the “good parts” just like when his father read it to him when he was little. But don’t be fooled there really is is no S. Morgenstern nor an original story. As you read through the novel there are “interruptions” by the author. At times they were entertaining; however, found them to be unnecessary so that’s probably one of my least favorite aspects of the book.

I found this book hilarious in a good a way. It’s very rare to find a book that can combine humor with dramatic action and make it work.  I thought I would be rolling my eyes the whole time but this was not the case.  Even the whole idea that our main heroine Buttercup being the most beautiful woman in the world I found to be so hysterical. She is indeed beautiful but the notion made me laugh.  The book quietly mocks itself and it totally works.

What makes the book is probably the characters. They are the type of fictional characters that will be forever embedded in your mind after reading–simply put memorable. Each of them are so unique and very well crafted.  We have Inigo Montoya, a master swordsman whose response to seeing his father murdered by a nobleman is to train around the continent for ten years and rehearse the famous line.

And then when he does catch up to his father’s murderer, the Count runs away squealing like a coward.

And of course the handsome Westley…

How can you not fall in love with him? Even when Buttercup is mean to him and is being childish, he still doesn’t give up on her. Even Buttercup despite her naivety in the beginning, she grew on me.

Honestly I truly enjoyed this book that gifs from the movie would be sufficient enough to describe my feelings toward this book, but of course, it’s a book review so I had to put my feelings into words somehow. Overall, as silly as this book may have been it was such an entertaining read and would recommend it for anyone who just want something light hearted with a mix of action and adventure.