Before there was a movie, there was William Goldman

I must start my review by making it quite clear that the Princess Bride was a book LONG before it was a movie, and it was by a man named William Goldman, not (as Goldman claims in the opening of the book) S. Morgenstern. Goldman made up Morgenstern, as he made up Florin, Guilder, and everything else in the book. The fact that he based his book on the premise that all these things DID, in fact, exist adds to the book's unique charm.

The "hot fairy tale" that is The Princess Bride is quite different from the movie. The basic plot is still the same. Beautiful Buttercup falls in love with Westley, the farm boy. Westley goes away on a ship which is then attacked by the Dread Pirate Roberts, who never leaves survivors. After swearing to never love again, Buttercup is claimed by the snobbish Prince Humperdinck as his bride. This isn't so much out of love as out of his desire to have a trophy bride...and to start a war. Humperdinck hires the unlikely trio of the giant Fezzik, the swordsman Inigo, and the "genius" Vizzini to kidnap Buttercup and help him start the war. However, through a serious of humorous and exciting events, the three villains become good guys and Westley (who is NOT dead) saves Buttercup.

However, though the plot may be essentially the same, the way it develops is what makes the book shine over the movie. Buttercup is a somewhat ditzy but very emotional teenager, as opposed to the stone-faced ice princess she is in the movie. Inigo and Fezzik are much more thoroughly examined as characters. Prince Humperdinck is portrayed as an arrogant, spoiled child-man and his evil sidekick Count Rugen is more loathsome. And Westley, while endearing and heroic in the movie, is even more so in the book. It also includes several large segments that I am very sad were left out of the movie, such as the Zoo of Death. Never fear, all the lovable parts of the movie are safe and secure in the book; they are just accompanied by many other interesting tidbits that Goldman threw in to enchant us.

I would read this book not only for the wonderful story contained within, but also for the imaginative way in which it was written. Goldman's unique spin on "history" is often just as funny as the story itself. He often interjects his storytelling with his own commentary on what was happening in the world at the time:

"...although Florin considered itself vastly more civilized than Guilder, Guilder was, in fact, the far more sophisticated country, as indicated by the superiority in number and quality of the ladies' clothes."

Or sometimes he simply voices his thoughts:

"I think it was unfair not to show the reunion. So I wrote one of my own, what I felt Buttercup and Westley might have said, but Hiram, my editor, felt that made me just as unfair as Morgenstern here."

While not necessarily relevant parts of the story, I find these little evidences of Goldman's personality to be one of the main selling points of the book. I always think that most forms of entertainment, are improved if you know a bit about the entertainer, and while I doubt Goldman's narratives are based at all in reality, I don't doubt that they illustrate his character.

Overall, I would say that The Princess Bride is a masterpiece that has long been overlooked, ironically, because of what it produced (the movie). However, most people will admit that movies are never quite as good as the books that inspired them, and The Princess Bride is no exception.