Wednesday, October 29, 2008

S. Morgenstern's Classi Tale of True Love and High Adventure -- The Princess Bride

Satire. That is about all I have to say.

Satire. Satire. Satire.

If you like satire, you will love this book, if you cannot stand it and it drives you crazy- do yourself a favor and do not read The Princess Bride- you will go insane.

Goldman uses a very distinct writing style- that involves a LOT of satire- you either like it or you do not.

***MINOR WRITING-STYLE-SPOILER ALERT*** Goldman claims that he is abridging S. Morgenstern's Classic tale, the princess Bride. He tells this whole story about why he got into the abridgment, and about his fat son and genius wife. He constantly interrupts the story to tell you what he took out and why, or how to read the parenthesis.... it is all fake. There is no Morgensstern. Goldman wrote the whole. Thing. There is no such place as Florin.... ***END SPOILER ALERT***

If you can get over that, you will be fine. Honestly, I really enjoyed this book. It was a little frustrating at times, but that just goes to show how good of an author Goldman is; he can stir up such feelings in the reader with what seems like no effort.

The Princess Bride starts where most fairy tales end; the poor girl is engaged to the Prince. Only one problem, the girl, Buttercup, does not really want to marry him. She had planned to marry Westley, but he had no money. He sailed to America to seek his fortune, and she promised herself to him. After all, they had true love, and so they HAD to end up together, right? Soon she gets news that he had been killed by the Dread Pirate Roberts. Several years later she agrees to marry the Prince, not that she has much choice... She gets kidnapped by Vizzini, Fezzik, and Inigo Montoya... but who hired them? and why? who is the man in black? is he 'a good guy' or not? Will you get through the book without screaming?

5 comments:

Noël De Vries said...

"Will you get through the book without screaming?"

:) I didn't.

One rare case of the movie outshining the book. In my opinion.

Nicole said...

the movie is pretty good :D, my favorite line has to be:

""are those rock up ahead."
"if they are, we will be dead"
"stop that rhyming now, I mean it!"
"does anybody want a peanut?""

also, the fencing scene! that is in the book too, but it looks better to see it.. :)

Noel, did you read the first chapter of Buttercups Baby?

Noël De Vries said...

Ummm ... Buttercup's Baby? I'm lost.

Nicole said...

He wrote the first chapter of 'morgensterns lost squeal' recently- the book I read had it in the back. Very annoying, and a bit disturbing...

If you are okay with the book, DON'T read it, if you already are angry/upset/indifferent, read at your own risk!

Sarah M. said...

Wow! I am so glad to know this (the spoiler) -- here I was assuming that I was missing out/cheating by not reading the official story. I never believed that Florin was real, but I assumed this was an abridged story. Yeah!!! :)