The Princess Bride (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
William Goldman's beloved story of Buttercup, Westley, and their fellow adventurers in a deluxe limited edition featuring sprayed edges and a new cover perfect for fans of the movie and the book alike.
A tale of true love and high adventure, pirates, princesses, giants, miracles, fencing, and a frightening assortment of wild beasts--The Princess Bride is a modern storytelling classic.
A tale of true love and high adventure, pirates, princesses, giants, miracles, fencing, and a frightening assortment of wild beasts--The Princess Bride is a modern classic, William Goldman's beloved story of Buttercup, Westley, and their fellow adventurers.
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 recused 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.
The Princess Bride was unforgettably depicted in the 1987 cult classic film directed by Rob Reiner and starring Fred Savage, Robin Wright, Billy Crystal, Mandy Patinkin, Wallace Shawn, Cary Elwes, and others.
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Readers say the book captures the charm and adventure of the beloved movie, offering richer detail and witty author commentary that some find clever a...
Love this story.
First there is two introductions to the book, one for the 30th anniversary edition and one for the 25th (which goes on for 44 pages total). And you just doesn't care! Maybe if you've already read the book once, but I hadn't, so I just skimmed that part.
Then the book starts! Finally... just that, it doesn't. Here the author explains his relation to The Princess Bride and why he had the need to make an abridged version, and he goes on for another 35 pages!! Ugggh!! I just wanted to read an adventure story!!
So, then, FINALLY!! The first chapter "The Bride" begins, and I really liked this story! It was wierd and adventurous and I loved the characters.
I was just mopey that it hadn't begun at once (especially since this is a modern classic!) so I already resented the book when I got to the good part.
It had a great flow after that and I enjoyed most of it!
But then I got to the ending, and the author had another mini-chapter about his struggles etc, so I just didn't bother with the last part of the book. So I've read almost everything except the excerpt from "Buttercup's Baby". I hope I'm not missing much, but I was pretty content with the ending, so I just stopped where I felt the book had completed it's task!
When I first started reading I skipped the introduction letters because I knew the movie and just wanted to get into the book. However when I got to the first abridgement note I was frustrated and searched for the unabridged version as I generally prefer to read unabridged version if I can get ahold of it..... Well, that failed and I had to go back to the introduction letters and I am so glad I did. It had one from the 25th and one from the 30th anniversary editions of the book.
I even emailed into the company to get the missing reunion scene.
I maybe biased having grown up loving the movie but I am so glad I finally read this book.
The humour was subtle and highly amusing at times. I appreciated how closely the movie follows the book at times though the writer apparently worked on the film too? However I am left wondering if the writers name is actually William Goldman or if even that is a pseudonym.... I think his photo on the back of the book had an entirely different name and I'm starting to lose track of what's real and what isn't.
This is now probably one of my all time favourite books ever.
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