The Princess Bride

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This article is about the novel. For other uses, see The Princess Bride (disambiguation).
The Princess Bride

This is the slipcase cover of the deluxe first edition of The Princess Bride. The regular hardcover version had the same image and colors, except for the brown border which is the fabric that surrounds the cardboard of the case. The first edition features red text for the abridgement notes, as does the first mass-market paperback edition (Ballantine, 1974); later paperbacks used italics instead, with the sentence "All abridging remarks and other comments will be in red so you'll know" correspondingly altered.
Author S. Morgenstern
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Fantasy novel
Publisher Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (USA)
Publication date 1973
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 493 pp
ISBN ISBN 0-345-41826-3

The Princess Bride is a 1973 novel written by William Goldman and presented as if it were an abridgment of a work by S. Morgenstern. It was originally published in the United States by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. It combines elements of comedy, adventure, romance and fairy tale. It was made into a feature film in 1987 by Rob Reiner, and an attempt to adapt it into a musical was made by Adam Guettel.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

In a Renaissance-era fairy-tale world, a beautiful woman named Buttercup lives on a farm in the fictional country of Florin. She delights in verbally abusing the farm hand Westley by demanding that he perform chores for her. Westley's only answer is "As you wish", which represents his great affection for her. After Buttercup realizes the true meaning of the words, as well as the fact that she returns his love, Westley leaves to seek his fortune so they can marry. Buttercup later receives word that his ship was attacked at sea by the Dread Pirate Roberts, who is notorious for killing all those whom he boards. Believing Westley to be dead, Buttercup reluctantly is engaged to Prince Humperdinck, heir to the throne of Florin.

Before the wedding, Buttercup is kidnapped by a trio of outlaws: the Sicilian criminal genius Vizzini, the Spanish fencing master Inigo Montoya, and the enormous and mighty Turkish wrestler Fezzik. A masked man in black follows them across the sea and up the Cliffs of Insanity, whereupon Vizzini orders Inigo to stop him. Inigo arranges a fair fight, allowing his opponent to rest before the duel, during which Inigo reveals that he is seeking revenge on a six-fingered man who killed his father. The man in black wins their duel, but leaves the Spaniard alive. Vizzini, stunned, orders Fezzik to kill the man in black. Fezzik, moved by his conscience throws a rock as a warning, and challenges the man in black to a wrestling match. The man in black then chokes Fezzik until the giant blacks out. The man in black catches up with Vizzini, who is holding Buttercup hostage, and proposes a battle of wits. Vizzini is tricked into drinking poison, and subsequently dies.

With Prince Humperdinck's rescue party in hot pursuit, the man in black flees with Buttercup, and reveals that he is the Dread Pirate Roberts, Westley's murderer. Enraged, she shoves him into a gorge, yelling "You can die, too, for all I care!" only to hear him call, "As you wish!". She realizes that he is Westley, who tells her that the Dread Pirate Roberts did attack his ship, but kept Westley alive after hearing of the depths of his love for Buttercup. Westley thereafter became his apprentice, learning to sail, fence, and fight. Eventually, Roberts secretly passed his name, captaincy, and ship to Westley. Westley and Buttercup travel through the feared Fire Swamp to evade Humperdinck's party, but upon exiting, they are captured by Humperdinck and his menacing six-fingered vizier Count Tyrone Rugen. Buttercup negotiates for Westley's release and returns with Humperdinck to the palace to await their wedding. Rugen, who has no intention of releasing Westley, instead takes him to the underground hunting arena called the 'Zoo of Death', where he is tortured.

Buttercup later has several nightmares regarding her marriage to the prince. She expresses her unhappiness to Humperdinck, who proposes a deal wherein he will send out four ships to locate Westley, but if they fail, Buttercup will marry him. Humperdinck reveals that although he arranged Buttercup's kidnapping in order to start a war with neighboring country of Guilder, it will be better propaganda if she dies on her wedding night.

On the day of the wedding, Inigo meets Fezzik, who tells him that Count Rugen is the killer of Inigo's father. They seek out the man in black, hoping that his wits will help them overcome the guards. Buttercup learns that Humperdinck never sent the ships, and taunts him with her enduring love for Westley. Enraged, he tortures Westley to death. Westley's screams draw Inigo and Fezzik to the scene; upon finding Westley's body, they enlist the help of the magician Miracle Max. Max pronounces Westley to be merely "mostly dead" and resurrects him.

Westley devises a successful plan to invade the castle during the wedding. Upon hearing the resulting commotion, Humperdinck orders the wedding ceremony cut short. Buttercup decides to commit suicide as soon as she reaches the honeymoon suite. Inigo pursues Rugen through the castle and finally kills him. Westley reaches Buttercup before she commits suicide and assures her that her marriage is a sham because she never made any vows. Still partly paralyzed, he bluffs his way out of a sword fight with Humperdinck. Instead of killing his rival, Westley decides to leave him alone with his cowardice. The party rides off into the sunset on white horses, conveniently discovered by Fezzik. They are pursued by Humperdinck's men, and their fate remains unknown. A terminal passage states that Westley's ressurection had worn off and the horses scattered, implying a contradiction of Westley's purpose.

[edit] Context

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The Princess Bride is presented as Goldman's abridgment of an older version by "S. Morgenstern", which was originally a satire of the excesses of European royalty. The book, in fact, is entirely Goldman's work. Morgenstern and the "original version" are fictional and used as a literary device.

Goldman carried the joke further by publishing another book called The Silent Gondoliers (explaining why the gondoliers of Venice no longer sing to their passengers) under S. Morgenstern's name.

Goldman's personal life, as described in the introduction and commentary in the novel, is also fictional. In The Princess Bride, Goldman claims to have one son with his wife, a psychiatrist. In reality, Goldman has two daughters, and his wife is not a psychiatrist. The commentary is extensive, continuing through the text until the very end.

The countries are both named after coins. The florin was originally a silver coin minted in Florence, whose name came to be applied to other silver coins, most notably the British pre-decimal 2 shilling piece and the Dutch guilder.

The device of claiming that a book is a pre-existing work that the author merely discovered and edited has been used by authors as diverse as Horace Walpole, Miguel de Cervantes, Umberto Eco, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Søren Kierkegaard; British fantasy authors Mary Gentle, J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings), and C.S. Lewis (Space Trilogy, The Screwtape Letters); Alison Croggon; L. Frank Baum; science fiction author Michael Crichton (Eaters of the Dead); zoologist Gerolf Steiner (The Snouters: Form and Life of the Rhinogrades); cartoonist Scott Adams (Dilbert); and musicologist Peter Schickele (P.D.Q. Bach). Some employers of this device admit to it, but claim that their act of writing the work constituted "discovering" a story or truth which already existed within the collective unconscious or some similar "pool of knowledge".

[edit] Reunion scene

In the novel's commentary, Goldman writes that he added nothing to the "original" Morgenstern text, although he comments that he did write one original scene, a loving reunion between Buttercup and Westley, but claimed that his publisher objected to this addition.[1] He invited any reader who wanted to read the "Reunion Scene" to write to the publisher (formerly Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; now Random House) and request a copy. Many readers wrote in to the publisher and did receive a letter, but instead of an extra scene, the letter detailed the (obviously fictitious) legal problems that Goldman and his publishers encountered with the Morgenstern estate and its lawyer, Kermit Shog. This letter was revised and updated periodically; the 1987 revision mentioned the movie, while the 25th Anniversary Edition publishes the letter with an addendum about Kermit's lawyer granddaughter Carly. The 30th Anniversary Edition has an asterisk at this point saying that you can now find the three pages of the reunion scene online. However, if one goes to the website detailed in the asterisk, all they receive via email is the text of the three letters.

[edit] Buttercup's Baby

The epilogue to some later editions of the novel, notably the 25th anniversary edition, mentions a sequel, Buttercup's Baby, that was having trouble getting published because of legal difficulties with S. Morgenstern's estate. This sequel seems to be just as fictional as S. Morgenstern's unabridged edition, though later editions actually reprint Goldman's "sample chapter" of this book (see link above). The 30th anniversary edition of The Princess Bride included hints to the sequel's plot, and a promise to have the full version completed before a 35th anniversary edition (2009).

In a January 2007 interview, Goldman admitted that he is having difficulty coming up with ideas for the story:[2]

MPM: I hear you're working on a sequel to The Princess Bride called Buttercup's Baby.
William Goldman: I desperately want to write it, and I sit there and nothing happens and I get pissed at myself. I got lucky with The Princess Bride the first time, and I'd love to get lucky again.[2]

[edit] Musical

Goldman partnered with Adam Guettel to create a musical version of the story with Goldman writing the book and Guettel writing the music but the two parted ways on the project when they could not agree to the division of the creative royalties. Guettel's score was nearly complete, but it is unlikely that it will be heard beyond an orchestral suite that was performed at the Hollywood Bowl in 2006.

[edit] Computer Game

In 2008 the Production Company Worldwide Biggies made The Princess Bride Downloadable Game. Composer Steve Horowitz was the audio director and composer for the game.

[edit] Card & Board Games

In 2008 Toy Vault Inc. announced they were working on a Princess Bride-based card game due for release in the 2nd quarter of 2008. They also announced that they are working on a board game, the first ever produced for this movie.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Spark Notes. The Princess Bride - Chapter Five Summary (English). Spark Notes, LLC. Retrieved on October 27, 2007.
  2. ^ a b Christopher Piehler (2007). William Goldman, The Storyteller’s Story (English). Moving Pictures Magazine. Retrieved on October 27, 2007.

[edit] External links

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