Personal Rating: 5 Stars Goodreads Rating: 4.25 Stars As Florin and Guilder teeter on the verge of war, the reluctant Princess Buttercup is devastated by the loss of her true love, kidnapped by a mercenary and his henchmen, rescued by a pirate, forced to marry Prince Humperdinck, and rescued once again by the very crew who absconded with her in the first place. In the course of this dazzling adventure, she'll meet Vizzini - the criminal philosopher who'll do anything for a bag of gold; Fezzik - the gentle giant; Inigo - the Spaniard whose steel thirsts for revenge; and Count Rugen - the evil mastermind behind it all. Foiling all their plans and jumping into their stories is Westley, Princess Buttercup's one true love and a very good friend of a very dangerous pirate. (goodreads.com) Okay, this book probably doesn’t need any introduction. Pretty much every person I’ve ever spoken to has seen the movie The Princess Bride. However, significantly less people have read the book. A lot of people didn’t even know there was a book. Well there is, and I just finished reading it a few days ago. Let me tell you, it was as wonderful as the movie. The plot is basically the same as the movie’s plot, but there is another story in this book that they don’t talk about very much in the movie. What story? Why the tale of that little boy the grandpa is reading this novel to! You remember him, right? Columbo was his grandfather. Anyway, it turns out that the kid is supposed to be the author, William Goldman, as a child. The edition of the book that I read had two or three introductions that were supposedly about Goldman’s real life and how his father read him The Princess Bride when he was a boy and only read “the good parts”, leaving out long chunks of narrative written by the “original author”, S. Morgenstern. I looked into it and it turns out he made all of this stuff up. Goldman was simply writing a story and decided to write an abridged book of a book that never existed. It’s kind of confusing, but not really necessary information. Moving on. I think the reason the movie was such a big hit is because it stuck so closely to the book. I mean, sure there were a few things different, but the changes made the movie flow more smoothly. A lot of the dialogue is word for word from the book and most of the locations are described exactly as the movie portrays them. Good job movie making people! Good job! Somethings I liked about the book were that we got to delve deeper into Inigo’s backstory and we actually got to know about Fezzik’s life before Vizzini. For instance, Domingo Montoya (Inigo's father), actually has a bit of dialogue and we understand the reason why... certain things happen to him. (I know I shouldn't really have to worry about spoilers since everyone knows, but what if someone doesn't know? I'd feel awful!) I love the part about Fezzik's childhood because I think it shows a lot of why Fezzik is so kind. I also adore the fact that when he was in kindergarten he was as tall as an average man. One thing I did not like about the book was that Buttercup was kind of an idiot. In the movie she is portrayed as, not a genius, but certainly able to think. Book Buttercup is not smart, doesn’t understand much, and is rather naïve. She’s tolerable though, and the story is lovely. I’m so glad to have read the book now and I highly recommend it to fans of the movie, fans of fantasy, fans of sword fighting, fans of wrestling, fans of hunting, fans of Fire Swamps, and pretty much everyone else. At the end of the edition I read there is a first chapter to a supposed sequel that I doubt will ever become a real thing. The sequel was called Buttercup’s Baby and sort of ruins the ending of The Princess Bride. It was weird and considering it’s unfinished with a horrible cliffhanger, I don’t suggest reading it. That’s it for this one. Buh-bye, have fun storming the castle! (Also, I am aware that I said I'd only be posting on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and that it is Tuesday, but I've never been very good at sticking to schedules. Once I've gotten going on this blog thing I'll probably only be posting three times a week as I said, but for now it could be pretty willy-nilly.) Image Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/438353.The_Princess_Bride
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