- Title: Princess Bride
- Author: William Goldman
- Publisher: Bloomsbury
- Pub. date: 20th October 1999
- Series: none
- Pages: 399
- Genre: fantasy, classic, romance, humour, metafiction
- Links:
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 Humberdinck who wants a wife and will go to any lengths to have Buttercup. So starts a fairy tale 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, passions and miracles.
I watched The Princess Bride movie in 2019 when I had no idea what it was about other than the fact that it was so very popular. I wasn’t the greatest fan of the movie, but I really wanted the book because let’s be real: you need to read the book if you watch the movie!
In all honesty, The Princess Bride is the hardest book I’ve ever had to summarise! There’s so much that happens in it! So, I’m gonna use exactly what Goldman himself used to describe his own story:
“This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it.”
I’m kidding! That’s not it; this is:
Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True Love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest Ladies. Snakes. Spiders… Pain. Death. Brave men. Cowardly men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passion. Miracles.
I feel like this book had a whole lot of people in it! There were bad guys, there were good guys, and there were people who were just… people! I decided on not going through all the characters individually because that just takes the magic out of all the people who will read this book in the future (based on how much I loved this book, people will always be reading this!).
Goldman has this huge cast of characters, which scared me at first because this usually leads to really generic and boring characters coming in. But I was pleasantly surprised at how each character was so interesting! Everyone had their own individual personalities and it was just all so fun! And this is The Princess Bride so everyone had their fair share of silliness too! My personal favourite is Westley. The whole “knight in shining armour” trope aside, he was just so silly and endearing at the same time, and I believe that is a hard combo to pull off.
The plot delivered on everything it promised, from adventures to true love to murder. I am amazed at how Goldman just tied everything together with a neat little bow and made it all into a single book!
Initially, when the story started out with the narrator’s backstory and how he came across The Princess Bride in his childhood, I was worried that this was going to be the boring bit. But then Goldman did it! He got me interested in both the narrator himself (who is an everyday, mediocre person) and the story itself (which is the book The Princess Bride)!
I think the best way to describe the plot is that it is an amazing original story with overused tropes and themes.
I’m in love with William Goldman’s style… which is not creepy at all because we all fall in love with the craziest things (like puppies who pee everywhere and characters that shred our hearts).
This is my first and only Goldman novel so I have no idea if he normally writes like this, but oh my God he owned it! So perfectly executed and such a fun read! There were so many silly bits that could have easily derailed the story’s great tangent, but Goldman used the narrator’s perspective to agree with us on how silly it is, and it worked!
And oh please! I can’t be the only person who thought S. Morgenstern’s The Princess Bride was a real book!
The Princess Bride has so many themes packed into it, so I’m gonna just build on the ones that made the biggest impressions on me. Keeping with what The Princess Bride originally was (a fictional bedtime story read to young Goldman by his father when he was lying sick in bed), the main theme I believe is ‘storytelling‘.
Everything from how the book is written to Goldman using himself as a physical narrator and his commentaries, all make it seem like I am being read a great bedtime story. Also, I’m definitely reading this to my future kids if I ever have any!
When I was researching a bit about this book after I read it, I came across an interesting review that pointed out this story falls under ‘metafiction‘, so I looked up this new genre I came across. According to Wikipedia, it is “a form of fiction that emphasizes its own constructedness in a way that continually reminds the reader to be aware that they are reading or viewing a fictional work.” How cool is that?
A few other themes jumped out at me a lot: ‘true love‘, ‘friendship‘ and ‘politics‘. I love how ‘true love’ did not overshadow everything else as the main theme here. The story is basically publicised as a love story, but I felt that the story was a lot more than just that! There’s this whole ‘found family’ trope that takes over the story and I loved it! Prince Humperdinck is pretty much the theme ‘politics’ rolled into one rotund character, but I was still thoroughly entertained.
I would say it is pretty obvious that I’m in love with this book. I am so caught up in the magic of this book that I’m gonna give the movie another try! Funny thing is I didn’t like the movie the first time but I’m so excited to rewatch it now!
The Princess Bride is a book for everyone, but not just because the story is a fun, amazing journey. I believe that everyone needs to read and appreciate the writing in this book because that is the real star! I could totally re-read this book right now, but I’ve got a TBR pile tilting dangerously over me.
