The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Mass Market Paperback – October 8, 2007

The Princess Bride is a multi POV story of action, adventure and love. It features the beautiful Buttercup, her true love Westley, the giant Fezzik, sword master Inigo Montoya, and more!I’ve always loved this movie and the book was everything I hoped it would be! A tiny bit darker than the film adaptation, the book is witty and fun, a great read for all ages.

Being a fan of William Goldman and The Princess Bride Film, and with no sequel in sight, it progressed naturally that I would want to read the story on which the film was based. I was at first tempted to write a tongue-in-cheek review of "Morgernstern's work" to parallel the book, but a glance at the reviews shows that there is still a lot of confusion about this book, so it would probably be best to clear some things up first:- There is no author named "S. Morgenstern." The Princess Bride was written in 1973 by author and screenwriter William Goldman, the same person who wrote the screenplay for the film. Morgenstern serves the same purpose as the opening narrative from the film - to create a fairy tale atmosphere and allow the author (Goldman) to interject his own commentary into the story at will. It is a narrative device that is not used often, but works well for the film and the book.- It is labeled as "abridged" but there is no "unabridged" version. This is another lyrical device intended to reflect many of the fantasy classics by Dickens and Dumas that are frequently abridged. The text of the main story is the only version that exists.- The story is written with extensive commentary inserted by Goldman, much like that which was used in the film. Most of this commentary and the information provided by Goldman in his introduction is fictional.- The 25th anniversary edition includes the first chapter of the sequel, "Buttercup's Baby." While it is a full chapter, there are no additional chapters that have been written by Goldman.Since most people coming into the book will have seen the film first, I can say that the novel is about as close to the plot and structure of the film as possible. Unlike most novels, there is not a lot of additional plot and dialogue in the novel that is not already in the film, and it is difficult to make a comparison between the two. Goldman has a very unusual and original writing style that many people might be turned off by. The true beauty (Buttercup notwithstanding) of The Princess Bride is not the story (although it certainly stands up in its own right), but the structure of the book, most notably the commentary and introduction by Goldman. It allows for an additional entertaining and lighthearted layer to the story that I think many fans will enjoy.In the edition I own (the 25th edition), Goldman mentions a scene he left out of the original text, which featured a reunion between Wesley and Buttercup. Unfortunately, he exclaims that he was not allowed to include the scene by order of his publisher, and you could obtain it by writing a letter to them and requesting it (a lot like when you write a letter to 221B Baker Street - the residence of Sherlock Holmes). While none of the details surrounding this were true, it was a clever game to play with the readers. I'm told that the later 30th anniversary edition included a link to a web site where you could view the letters, which is unfortunately defunct. As such, I've included all of the letters in the comments below.The Princess Bride, the novel, isn't for everyone, even die-hard fans of the film. Although I thoroughly enjoyed it, I've also been an admirer of William Goldman's other novels and I am used to his writing style. My best advise would be to read the first chapter for free on Amazon and if you enjoy it, consider getting the book. It's a very short read and offers another layer to this "Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure."

I ordered this for my fiancé as a gift and he absolutely loved it. He has read it four times already.

The important thing here is that the book is not like the movie. The movie is not bad. This is not one of those "The book was better" reviews. The movie is good, and it's wholesome. In the book we have a frame story of a grandpa telling a funny story of derring do to his sick grandson, and that's sweet and adorable.In the novel we get the a frame story about the author - who keeps breaking into the story - thinking about cheating on his wife, and sending a book he fondly remembered (But never read) to his son, then getting upset when his son is too fat and dumb to understand it. (Not sure why 'fat' and 'dumb' are associated in this book, but they are) It's all pretty hilarious, but it is most emphatically not sweet and adorable.The story itself is a book that his father read him when he was young. After his son failed to read the book, William Goldman (The author) read it and discovered that it was absolutely nothing like he remembered, and evidently his dad was just making it up. so he decided to write the story his dad told him, rather than the one that's really in the book. It's a little unclear if his dad's version broadly followed the 'original' (Nonexistent) novel, or if he was making it up entirely. First time I read it, I came out of it with the impression that his dad was secretly illiterate and making it up to hide his shame, but the second time I read it, I was far less convinced of that.Anyway - the first third is hilarious, then it kind of loses a wheel when telling the story of Inigo and Fezik, and becomes much more somber. It picks up again, but never really quite recovers the giddy enthusiasm of the first third because, in the end, Goldman is too cynical to believe in happily ever after, but also can't bear to destroy his characters, so he kind of does it both ways. You'll understand what I mean if you read it.Which you totally should do, just don't expect it to be sweet, and be prepared for it to get sad in the last third.