Beautiful, flaxen haired Buttercup has fallen for Westley, the farm boy, and when he departs to make his fortune, she vows never to love another. When she hears his ship has been captured by the Dread Pirate Roberts, who never leave survivors, her heart is broken. But her charms draw the attention of relentless Prince Humperdinck, who wants a wife, and will go to any lengths to have Buttercup. So starts a fairy tale like no other, of fencing, fighting, torture, poison, true love, hate, revenge, giants, hunters, bad men, good men, beautifulest ladies, snakes, spiders, beasts, chases, escapes, lies, truths, passion, and miracles.
The Good
Westley loves Buttercup so much that he risks everything for her. Even when she seems to reject him, he never gives up. There are also several funny parts. 🙂
The Bad
Read the first paragraph starting at “So starts a fairy tale…”
Ages
Ages 11+ should read this book. If your child is good with the things mentioned in the first paragraph, as well as ROUS (rodents of unusual size), they should be fine with reading it.
My Take
I have mixed feelings about The Princess Bride. I know, you’re saying, “What?!? How can someone have mixed feelings about The Princess Bride!?!?!” First, I have to say I absolutely LOVE the story. It’s amazing. As you can see below, I almost gave it five stars. Why didn’t I? Because of William Goldman. I don’t really enjoy his editing. I would LOVE to read Morgenstern’s original version. Why do I not like William Goldman’s editing? I have several reasons.
One, he talks a TON during the book. He has italicized sections all throughout the book explaining why his wife wanted to put this here and how somebody didn’t like this there, et cetera.
Two, he doesn’t summarize. There are some HUGE chunks he took out, but instead of summarizing, he talks in italics about how long this section was and how many pages pertained to skirts, hats, invitations, et cetera.
Three, he really didn’t tie the story all together. Buttercup’s Baby, the “sequel”, is really random because it has two sections before it goes back to the original story. Then there is really no ending to the story whatsoever.
Now, William Goldman did do some great things to Morgenstern’s story. It was originally 1,000 pages and he brought it down to 300. And in Buttercup’s Baby, Morgenstern’s relatives filed 13 law suits against him. So, with all that pressure, he did a pretty good job. But if he had worked on it just a little bit longer, I think the book would have turned out better. If I were William Goldman, I would have written a prequel to The Princess Bride with all the material he didn’t use in the main story. And not have talked so much during the book, with more summarizing.
Anyway, if you enjoyed The Princess Bride movie, the book is a bit different. I still would recommend you read.
| Story line | |
| Characters | |
| Scary stuff | |
| Romance | |
| Weird Creatures | |
| Overall Rating |
Review by Kaitlyn