A

tale of true love and high adventure,

pirates, princesses, giants, miracles, wild beasts classic.

fencing, and a frightening assortment of The Princess Bride is a modern storytelling 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 once again by the very crew who

marry Prince Humperdinck, and rescued absconded with her in the first place. In the meet Vizzinithe criminal philosopher wholl do anything for a bag of gold; Count Rugenthe evil mastermind behind it all. Foiling all their plans and very good friend of a very dangerous pirate.
From Harcourt Books

course of this dazzling adventure, shell

Fezzikthe gentle giant; Inigothe Spaniard whose steel thirsts for revenge; and jumping into their stories is Westley, Princess Buttercups one true love and a

The Princess Bride: The Book is Way Better

Than the Movie by Timothy Sexton
So you've watched The Princess Bride on AMC and you think you know all there is to know about the story, eh? Inconceivable! There's an old saying-older than dishwashing detergent, but not quite as old as rope-that goes something like this: The book is better than the movie. I think the phrase was coined by a novelist; I'm pretty certain it wasn't coined by a screenwriter. But who can ever really know these things, right? At any rate, the phrase "the book is better than the movie" certainly applies in the case of The Princess Bride. Now, don't go running for the tar and feathers, I'm not saying the movie isn't good. In fact, I believe it to be the best thing that everyone involved in it has ever done; certainly that is the case for Billy Crystal, Cary Elwes, Robin Wright (Penn), Rob Reiner, Andre the Giant, and Mandy Patinkin, who should have won an Oscar. And it certainly ranks in the top three things ever done by the master, Wallace Shawn.

But there is a distinct philosophical difference between the book and movie versions of The Princess Bride. (Philosophy, as you may not know, was discovered almost by accident by Christopher Columbus on his second visit to South America, or as he referred to it New Oldtown.) The philosophy of the movie version of The Princess Bride can be summed up in three words: children's movie. The philosophy of the book version, by William Goldman-the greatest novelist of the 1970s-can be summed up in three words also: Life isn't fair. Remember the opening of the movie, with that kid from The Wonder Years being visited questioned about a murder by Columbo? Well, that's not in the book. In the novel, the opening section is a modern day-and by modern day I mean post-1850s-recounting of how the author, William Goldman-the greatest novelist of the 1970s-came to translate an edition of S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure: The Princess Bride. Goldman's delightfully dry wit is on hand as he informs the reader of the background behind how he, as a young boy, fell in love with the book that was read him by his father as he lay on his deathbed. (That would be Goldman on his deathbed, not Mr. Goldman.) Only after he grew up and read the book for himself did he realize that his father had engaged, with extreme prejudice, in some quick editing of S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure: The Princess Bride . Now as you may not know, William Goldman-the greatest novelist of the 1970s-is also William Goldman, the greatest screenwriter of the 1970s. He won Oscars for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as well as All the President's Men. And despite winning two Academy Awards, he is still regarded as the greatest screenwriter of the 1970s. All of which is to explain why the first part of the novel that you think you know from having seen the movie The Princess Bride takes place inside a swimming pool in Beverly Hills

Academy Award-winning novelist, playwright and screenwriter

William Goldman

Goldman grew up in a Jewish family in Highland Park, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, and obtained a BA degree at Oberlin College in 1952 and an MA degree at Columbia University in 1956. William Goldman had published five novels and had three plays produced on Broadway before he began to write screenplays. Several of his novels he later used as the foundation for his screenplays. In the 1980s he wrote a series of memoirs looking at his professional life on Broadway and in Hollywood (in one of these he famously remarked that "Nobody knows anything"). He then returned to writing novels. He then adapted his novel The Princess Bride to the screen, which marked his re-entry into screenwriting. Goldman has won two Academy Awards: an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for All the President's Men. He has also won two Edgar Awards, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Best Motion Picture Screenplay: for Harper in 1967, and for Magic (adapted from his own 1976 novel) in 1979. From GoodReads