William Goldman's The Princess Bride

In the story “The Princess Bride” we read of action and adventure, and if you have watched the movie you have a very romantic view of the tale. Before I read the book that was my view, which after reading the book, I found to be incomplete. Fortunately, I have read the book and my view of this adventure has changed from a less romantic one to a more realist thought. I believe that what William Goldman was trying to tell us, in his book version of the story, is that life is made up of reality, sprinkled with what I would call romanticism of the realist. What I mean by this is that even realists must have a desire to believe in “Twoo wuv.” In the end what we find is that even though we have our romantic notions, life happens and life is what is real. What this book provides is the realities of life and how life is not fair, wrapped inside a tale of adventure.

The first thing you notice when you start this book is that it does not start quite like the movie. It begins by describing the fictional life of William Goldman, in which he had been read a story by his father, not grandfather, called “The princess Bride.” This book was written by the made up author, S. Morgenstern. As a kid he had remembered fondly how his father had told the tale of true love and gallantry. Only to find, later in life, that his father had edited it while reading it to him. This shook his world, in fact he states: “Who can know when his world is going to change? Who can tell before it happens, that every prior experience, all the years, were a preparation for . . . nothing.” The notion here is not that preparation is not important, but that all of our preparations cannot completely prepare us for how our life will really happen.

The interesting thing about...

... middle of paper ...

...words ‘true love and high adventure’ I believed in that once. I thought my life was going to follow that path. Prayed that it would. Obviously it didn't, but I don't think there's high adventure left any more. Nobody takes out a sword nowadays and cries, ‘Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father; prepare to die!’ And true love you can forget about too. I don't know if I love anything truly any more beyond the porterhouse at Peter Luger's and the cheese enchilada at El Parador's. (Sorry about that, Helen.) Anyway, here's the ‘good parts’ version. S. Morgenstern wrote it. And my father read it to me. And now I give it to you. What you do with it will be of more than passing interest to us all.”

Works Cited

Goldman, William. The Princess Bride. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1973

Campbell, Donna M. Realism in American Literature, 1860-1890. Web 2014