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Summary: A Classic For Those Who Hate Classics
Review: This book is the best book in the world. It is writen as thought it is abridged(did i spell that right?) but it isn't and it is the most funny thing you will ever read. for example(read this and see if you can say you dont like it):" we have now decided that the poisened cup is most likely in front of you. But the poison is powder made from iocane and iocane comes only from Australia and Australia, as everyone knows, is peopled with criminals and criminals are used to having people not trust them, and I don't trust you, which means I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you." come on you have to love that and there are ROUS rodents of unusual size, and lots of other stuff that everyone loves. also the movie is really good too.
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Summary: Hilarious, Touching...Need I Say More?
Review: Okay. Take a courageous farmboy who's pretty darn smart. Then take the most beautiful woman in the world. Imagine that they're madly in love. Add an evil prince, some interesting swordplay, and a few more nutball characters and viola- you've got The Princess Bride. While making fun of the usual fairy tale, at the same time, it conveys the normal idea that good always triumphs over evil. The would be author, William Goldman, tells the reader that he has edited an out-of-print novel of a man named S. Morgenstern that his father used to read to him when he was a kid. At first I thought he made up S. Morgenstern and the "original" The Princess Bride, but upon looking more closely at the reviews page, there were a few quotes from professors at Columbia University saying they taught a course in Morgenstern . Wow! Well, the girl, Buttercup, (the name says it all,) lives on a small farm in a place called Floren. (Wherever that is, I don't know.) Then, one day, she realizes she's in love with the farmboy. How inconvenient. But, it turns out he's in love with her too. So, he goes off to seek his fortune so they'll have money when they get married. Pirates that are famous for leaving no survivors attack his ship. Figures, huh? Well, Buttercup goes into despair, she'll never love again, blah de blah. So then the prince of the place, seeing her exquisite beauty, asks her to marry him, she thinks, Hey, that have I got to loose, and agrees. But then dudes wanting to use her to start a war capture her. She's rescued by a mysterious man in black who turns out, by some deranged law of nature, to be her long lost love. Well, of course, as you can imagine, the prince isn't too thrilled. He tries to do away with the used to be farmboy (who's name, by the way, is Westly.) And, there's a bit more action, and some interesting dialogue. I would tell you that the end is happy, but that's not for me to say now is it? The book certainly has its moments. The characters seem to know the way the world works. "Life is pain," the queen tells her son, the prince. "Anyone who says differently is selling something." How true. If you're looking for a funny, touching novel, I would definitely suggest The Princess Bride. Not only does you face ache from smiling after even the first few pages, but the characters stay in your mind and heart long afterwards. Read it. You'll thank me.
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Summary: Incredibly Interesting and VERY Entertaining
Review: This book is the farthest thing from a conventional fantasy, a "time honored, classic" book that literally everyone invariably reads in high school and that is always supposed to be fascinating but never really is. This is a hilarious, incredibly entertaining book that you absolutely will keep reading. I have no patience with a lot of fantasy books-but this one is different. The interesting part about this book is that while you will love the story, the thing that really makes this book so incredibly is it's details. There are a thousand little side stories, a million little anecdotes, a billion little hilarious moments that make the book so incredible. It goes into every detail-you know in some books, how something interesting happens and you wish the author would expand it, but they just plod along with the not-so-interesting plot? This book refuses to do that. If you loved the movie, this is the ultimate tell-all book. You'll learn everything-about Buttercup's parents, kiss statistics, the motivation behind the torture machine, character backround stories in minute detail..honestly, half the book is dedicated to filling the gaps that the movie leaves. I have nothing but praise for this book-buy it!
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Summary: traditional postmodern fun
Review: metafiction SYLLABICATION: met·a·fic·tion PRONUNCIATION: mt -fk shn NOUN : Fiction that deals, often playfully and self-referentially, with the writing of fiction or its conventions. -DEFINITION : "metafiction" (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.)If you look for the one trend that most sharply defines modern literature it would probably be the use of metafictional techniques, those which seek to keep the reader constantly aware of the existence of the author and of the fictional nature of the tale. Of course, what's bizarre about this is that the novel, from its very beginnings in Cervantes' Don Quijote--in Part II of which, Cervantes refers to people having read Part I--has often utilized these techniques; when you get right down to it, there's really nothing modern about at least this one aspect of modernism. However, the use of these techniques, even if they are nothing new, has certainly become much more pervasive over the past century. Nowhere is this more evident than in children's entertainment. In everything from the old "Fractured Fairy Tales" on the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show to the televisions in the bellies of the Teletubbies, the culture assumes that even kids are prepared for self referrential irony and are alert to the wholly fictitious nature of the stories they are being told. This trend received perhaps its ultimate expression in William Goldman's very funny novel, The Princess Bride, and the fine movie based on it. Think of how many layers removed from "reality" you are by the time you get to the film, which is after all based on a book by William Goldman which ostensibly abridges a classic tale by S. Morgenstern, which Goldman's father used to read him; the abridgment having been made necessary by Goldman's discovery that his father significantly abridged Morgenstern's story himself, so as to make it more enjoyable for the boy. Suppose for just a moment that some genuine occurrences inspired some "original" story, by this time we're awfully distant from them, aren't we ? There can't be many folks who actually need further authorial tricks and devices to clue them in to the fact that we're in the realm of fiction. But here at last we stumble on the key ingredient that makes The Princess Bride such a success : Goldman isn't so much trying to alert the reader (viewer) that the story is fiction, instead he's trying to convince us that it's real, or at least that there is an S. Morgenstern and an original version. He wants us to appreciate, even to love, Morgenstern and his Princess Bride in the same way that he did as a boy, at least fictionally or at least books like this one that the real William Goldman recalls from his real childhood. And this is the little-understood secret to any effective parody/satire/what-have-you : before the irreverence begins, you have to approach the source material with reverence. It's just not very funny to make fun of something that no one takes seriously in the first place (which perhaps explains why comedy is so completely the province of conservatism and why liberals have no sense of humor--taking everything seriously but reverencing nothing, they find no amusement in irreverence). Princess Bride is so funny precisely because Goldman has been so careful to follow the conventions of the fairy tale and because he's obviously thought them through so thoroughly. Thus, for all the fun he has at the expense of the genre, in the end the good guys win, the bad guys are dead or vanquished, true love has been vindicated, and we all fondly recall having our father or grandfather read to us. Thankfully, there is now a hardcover version of The Princess Bride--for a long time you could only find the paperback movie tie-in--and you can get a copy to read to your kids and your grandkids. There's some kind of cosmic irony in a send-up of classic children's literature becoming a classic itself, an irony which probably galls the modernist apostles of irony--which is all the more reason to enjoy the story, which, even without this additional inducement, is an awful lot of fun. GRADE : A
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Summary: A lovely fantasy
Review: This is easily one of my favorite works of all time. Goldman does a brilliant job. The characters are both fantastical yet altogether real. In many ways, the book surpasses the movie. No longer is Fezzik just a gentle giant, but you understand the loneliness of his existence and why he hooked up with the Vizinni. The in-depth background on Inigo's quest for revenge makes an already great character even better. In addition to the terrific characters, the book is downright funny. It's easy to see why the movie hews so closely to the novel's words. The end result is a a humourous, touching tale that should be on everyone's bookshelf.
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Summary: Never too old
Review: This book has played an important role in my life. I bet there aren't a lot of people who can say they graduated college because of _The Princess Bride_! Mind you, I agree with some people that the book has its problems. For instance, people look at you funny on a Greyhound when you're reading something and start laughing nearly uncontrollably. And other people, who have never read any fantasy in their lives are like, "How can you read this stuff? Aren't you too old for stuff like this?" As a matter of fact, no. I love this book. As a young woman with very little prospects in the way of love, this book gave me hope that, someday, some guy would look at me and see what was truely going on inside my head. So long as I kept saying, "As you wish." :) But what I really love is the blend of 'in character' and 'out of character' that Goldman does. It's an interesting narrative technique that I have never seen used outside this book. For the record, Goldman's family wasn't like that at all. He doesn't have a son, he has two daughters. And I forget what his wife really did, but she was nothing like the woman he describes in the book. This book is fiction. Of course, no names were changed to protect the innocent. In this book, nobody is innocent. Except maybe Morgenstern, since he had absolutely nothing to do with it. Oh...and how did I graduate college because of this book? I wrote my senior paper on _The Princess Bride_ and the narrative structure found within it. Don't laugh. I got a B+.
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Summary: It gets better every time I read it.
Review: I first read this book when I was ten, and then again the same year, twice when I was eleven, and again this year. I became entranced with it from the first page. It's one of those books where you never want it to end because it means that you'll have to say goodbye to all the characters that you know and love. It's one of those books where you you get so caught up in it, that nothing else matters, and you find yourself becoming one with the page, not seeing or hearing anything else around you. At least that's how I feel. It gets better each time I read it, and I know that I will many times in the future. If you read The Princess Bride as a child, it becomes a relic that induces nostalgia and a feeling of warmth and happiness, like saturday morning cartoons and Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup. Perfect for rainy and sunny days alike, The Princess Bride is an unsung hero in the book world, the place it deserves being filled by the likes of Harry Potter. In short, this might be one of the best books you will read, or have read if you are as lucky as me.
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Summary: The Unofficial Princess Bride Review
Review: From the moment I started reading it I loved it! It was an instant classic to me. It was perfectly set. It is a true classic. The story, " The Princess Bride" is about the most beautiful woman in the world falling in love with a lowly and poor farm boy, but when Buttercup ( The most beautiful woman in the world) is told by Wesley (The poor farm boy) that he is going to America to seek his fortune, her heart is shattered at the thought of loosing her one and true love. He says that he will return but she is not so sure, but deals with it the best way she knows how, but when she finds out that the ship, that is to take him to his fortune in America, is attacked by the one and only, "Dread Pirate Roberts" (That never takes prisoners) she vows never to love again (The story does go on of course but I won't spoil it for you, that would ruin the whole point of this review, which I may remind you is to get you interested in reading the book) So now onto the part about what I think is the best part in this truly amazing book. My favorite part (Which comes later on in the story) is when Buttercup is captured and destined to die, but help comes from the most unlikely place, "The Man in Black." The end was great, but also in a sense..... not so great. The ending is, like most books, the way it is supposed to be, but what's up with the pill though? (People that haven't read the book won't understand this so you might want to go on, but if you want, to read it.) It is supposed to last only for 45 minutes, and then he was supposed to die again, which he did, but he came alive again. What is up with that, if someone would like to explain go ahead, cause i sure would like to know. That's, really the only reason i didn't like the ending, but for the most part it was great. This book is great, I recommend it for anyone, and I mean it. Go to your local library and pick it up, or to your local bookstore and buy it, or buy it on this great and wonderful web site, Amazon.com.
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Summary: How storys should be told
Review: So, I love this book. I read it after watching and loving the film, and thought it added even more satire and detail to the story. Probably naively I believed the whole "abridgement" thing, until I read a book called, "William Goldman : Four Screenplays With Essays : Marathon Man, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the Princess Bride, Misery" in which he explains it was the only method he could think of to link the story, without it being ridiculously long, and bogged down in detail. To be fair, for a little while, I was disappointed, but now after re-reading, I think it adds something. It shows you his skill as a storyteller, that he can suck you in so wholeheartedly to his world. I should have spotted it really when he talks about his fat waster son. Who would really write that in a book their son was going to read? Anyway, like I say, it's still a fantastic book. Read it, and if you think it might help, don't believe a word I've said.
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Summary: A princess Bride
Review: I really liked the beginning. Buttercup reminds me of myself. The book is about girl who falls in love with the farm boy and becomes the prettiest in the whole world and then becomes a princess. I really don't have a Favorite part yet but I just adore the book. I recommend this book of feelings to everyone. It is so good that I can't wait to get to 1st period to listen to my teacher read it out loud.
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