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The Princess Bride: S Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure (平装)
by William Goldman
| Category:
Teens, Classic, Fantasy, Adventure |
| Market price: ¥ 258.00
MSL price:
¥ 248.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
MSL Pointer Review:
A witty and elegant subversion of the fantasy genre. It's one of those books where you never want it to end. Recommend it to everybody!
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AllReviews |
  1 2 Total 2 pages 15 items |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-28 00:00>
Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passion. Miracles. Great Literature.
There's not a whole lot that's not in this novel. It succeeds at being maybe the funniest, most exciting, and satisfying stories yet written. Plus, the novel contains startling depth.
The writing of the novel is so superb. The prose is smooth and light. It is really conversational, and word-play abounds. The novel also (as the Amazon review pointed out) serves as a satire of adventure and fantasy novels of the past and comments on the differences between fantasy and reality. The structure of the novel (with the hilarious first chapter, the flashbacks, and the author-commentary) serves to frame those bits of insight Goldman is trying to get across. Consider the line "Life isn't fair, it's just fairer than death, that's all." There's a lot in those words, and throughout the story, Goldman hammers home real truths about the nature of pain, death, and grief. And yet paradoxically, out of those truths The Princess Bride emerges as a story to give its reader reaffirmation in the greatness of life.
As you may can tell, The Princess Bride is my favorite novel. I've read it numerous times, and each time I read it, the book is better. I know that everybody watches the movie, and yes, the movie is great. Even a masterpiece. But the novel goes far beyond that. Read it.
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Venus Rachal (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-28 00:00>
If you are like me and saw the movie before reading the book, you will not be disappointed. Many times, if I see a movie before reading the book, I have a hard time appreciating the book. So I usually try to read the book and then watch the movie and if something goes wrong, I can blame the movie and not the original!
The movie is very faithful to the book. I was surprised to find that the book includes all the little inserts you see in the movie between the boy and his relative. Of course, the book is a little funnier at times because you get the benefit of the author's commentary. It is easy to see why the movie was such a success from reading the book. Each character is as witty and absurd on paper as they are on film.
There is also a bit which I love about how the author extended the reunion of Buttercup and Wesley but had to take it out because the publisher didn't think anyone would read it. Not all books can survive the intrusion of the author (even if the "author" is fictional), but The Princess Bride is all the better for it.
It is comical, witty, and wildly entertaining. You'll probably read it straight through from beginning to end. I did!
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Tyler Powell (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-28 00:00>
I've read several reviews on this site taking Mr. Goldman to task for editing S. Morgenstern's classic, The Princess Bride. Please allow me to set the record straight.
S. Morgenstern is a distant relation of mine. It had been very difficult in my early years, trying to explain to others about my Florinese heritage, when Florin is so little known and almost never taught in school (just try to search for it on the web - shameful - there's even a fringe group that claims Florin never existed at all)! Thankfully, all of that changed when Goldman wrote his book and even moreso with the release of the delightful film version in 87. Now, I have something to refer to, and even more than that, a family legacy to really be proud of. I am certain that Gilder-Americans feel much the same way, no matter how their anti-defamation league has taken Goldman, et al, to task over their supposed "racist portrayal."
You see, I have one of the few extant copies of the original Princess Bride, all leather-bound, gilded, thousand pages of it. And it is dull. I mean, DULL. My mother had to prod me for years before I finally read the thing through. Goldman did the world a favor by abridging it into such a wonderful novel (the Florinese are not known for their brevity) and my family a tremendous favor by giving fame to my ancestor that he does not, honestly, quite deserve.
People have asked me before whether I intend on ever suing for any share of the proceeds of the book or movie. Again, I'd like to clear the air by saying that Mr. Goldman tracked my parents down quite some time ago and made arrangments with them prior to the release of the novel. Mr. Goldman didn't want that made public; I hope that he will overlook my disclosure because I just want the Goldman-bashing to stop.
So, to all of those who've enjoyed this abridgment, I thank you as a scion of S. Morgenstern, but direct you to thank William Goldman all the more. For those who cry injustice at his abridgment, I ask you to stop: it's better this way. Believe me.
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Peter Mende (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-28 00:00>
One would have to have been born inside a desk drawer and lived their whole life on paper and pencil shavings to not have seen the classic movie, "The Princess Bride." However, very few of the people on this earth who don't live in desk drawers have read the classic book. And reading this book, even looking at the name on the front cover, clues you into the true genius of this fairy tale. What the move does not fully get across is that there is no actual "S. Morgenstern." (Sure, if you read the credits, you'll figure that out, but you know how many people read the credits? Look in a desk drawer.) Anyway, William Goldman, the true author has not only concocted the great story, but the author, the book, the father reading the book to the child, and even the child. In seamless cutaways, we go from the exciting details of Wesley's latest escape or Buttercup's stunning beauty to the Fred Savage-ish boy sitting in bed talking to his father.
And then, there is the story. The verbal cinematic masterpiece that sweeps across the hills of Florin and Guilder, that navigates the choppy sea, that climbs the precarious Cliffs of Insanity, that sinks into the flaming depths of the Fire Swamp, and rises to the highest turrets of Lotharon's Castle. You won't find better character development either; Goldman spends at least 30 pages on each main character, but somehow it never gets the slightest bit boring. Every page is both enrapturing and hilarious. (The childhood of Fezzik the Giant is especially amusing.) Goldman spins the tale perfectly as the father reading only the "good parts" to his son. The plot does far more than just plod, the climax is quite possibly the most climactic piece of writing I've read since the great Finnish climax of 1858, and the denouement is simply existential. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll dance around the room with an umbrella and call it a sword, and in the end, you'll utter the famous line, "Man, the book IS better than the movie." But hey, in another famous line, William Goldman's in fact, "Life isn't fair, it's just fairer than death, that's all."
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Frikle (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-28 00:00>
A lot of people have seen the film The Princess Bride and would know of the book from the film. The movie has for long possessed a cult-like status, being seen as funny, warm, irreverent and full of classic "love and adventure". All these things are true about the book, only more so. Like the film, the story follows the strife of the love between Westle and Buttercup, as Buttercup is set to marry the prince of Florin and all the circumstances in the world seem to be set against the true lovers from being reunited. The book has all the adventure elements of the movie such as the Cliffs of Insanity and the Rodents Of Unusual Size. It has more detail though and adds much more to the story, sepcially in the Zoo section of which the movie only took bits from as well as the backstories of the characters. The other major difference is that the wrapper story, instead of a grandfather reading to a sick grandson, is that the book is Goldman's abridgement of a classic Florinese work.
The Princess Bride can be looked at from some kind of post-modern tribute to adventure stories, full of deliberate and often humorous anachronisms. But I think it's so much more than that. It seems to be the only book I've read that's both a great member of a genre (the cloack and dagger, adventure-filled, swashbuckling romance) as well as a parody of the same genre. It's amazing how it's pulled off - on the one hand it's cynical about happy endings and the classic elements of adventure stories and sends them up in an amazingly funny way and yet reading it, you still feel a part of you yearning for those classic elements and finding them marvelously present in the book.
And of course, the characters are truly larger than life, from Inigo the Spanish swordsman who has dedicated his life to finding the man who killed his father to Fezzik, the slightly-slow-witted giant with a brand heart, sense of humour and love of rhymes.
Many readers in the reviews were annoyed by Goldman's whole wrapper of the book being written by Morgenstern as well as the 30 page intros and digressions into his fictional struggles to get the book published. An unbelievably high number of people fell for the whole thing and are currently hunting for the "unabridged" Princess Bride by Morgenstern! Personally, I enjoyed the digressions very much. I think without them it might have just ended up as a more conventional adventure story and not the cult classic it is. There's something about the whole appeal to an older/"greater" writer as well as some mockery of the world of publishing and manuscripts (and Morgenstern's digressions!) that adds to the cynical-yet-not-cynical nature of the book. I think the reason is that the book is a story and it's also about stories and storytelling and because it has so many layers, all of them warm and filled with Goldman's quirky visions, that everyone can get a lot out of it. So don't expect a regular, uninterrupted narrative!
Finally, this edition has Goldman's recent and brief return to the book, the first chapter of Buttercup's Baby (as Goldman was only allowed to do one chapter due to legal reasons, read the book!). In it, he picks up (sort of...) where the story left off and presents some fragmented visions of the characters from both past and present. I guess it's understandable that some fans wouldn't be happy as they might feel emotionally attached to the classic, which also feels like a complete-in-itself work. However, I read the whole thing for the first time (including Buttercup's Baby) over two days recently and it was actually quite good to get that little bit extra about the characters. I think if people saw the book as the classic but the supplement as quite a meaningful addition to our knowledge of the characters (especially Inigo) then it wouldn't seem so "sacriligeous".
This is the favourite book of many people and while it's not my absolute favourite, I think it's beyond superficial rank claims - just a really special novel.
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