Of all the books published in the twentieth century, there are some capable of lasting for eternity and touching a chord with everyone who reads them. And one of them is undoubtedly William Goldman's Princess Bride, a book published in 1973 which re-adapts a work by S. Morgenstern based on the parts of it that Goldman's father selected for him during his childhood.
Synopsis of The Princess Bride
The engaged princess is divided into two parts. The first, as a prologue, supposes a presentation by William Goldman himself, who through fiction, recounts his own life, specifically that childhood in which his father, an emigrant Florinian, read to him every night The Princess Bride: Classic tale of true loves and great adventures by S. Morgenstern. The same one that helped him to enter literature and leave an adolescence of "wasted imagination," according to his parents and teachers. Years later, when Goldman finally established himself as a novelist, he decided to send the same book to his son, realizing shortly after that he had abandoned him after reading the first chapter. This is how the author discovers that the story his father told him was actually based on the most entertaining parts of Morgenstern's book. The key that would lead William Goldman to write The Princess Bride, the second story covered by the title.
The princess bride, herself, is a story that combines different genres such as romance, adventure, fantasy and humor. Set in the fictional country of Florin (Goldman's father was a Florinian, so it automatically leads the reader into a story as real as it is fictional based on the name of an ancient coin used in Florence during medieval times), The Princess Bride tells the love story between Princess Buttercup and her beloved Westley, who after dying leads Buttercup to be engaged to Humperdinck, an evil prince, in order to avoid a war. However, shortly before the wedding, a gang of robbers kidnaps the princess. The members are Íñigo Montoya, the best swordsman in the world; Vizzini, the most intelligent human being; and Fezzik, the strongest, who will not have the presence of a mysterious man in black who pursues them during their escape.
Princess Bride Characters
The Princess Bride is full of villains, princes, princesses and many other imaginable characters, the following being the main characters in the story:
- Buttercup: She is the heroine protagonist and in love with Westley. A headstrong milkmaid with fixed ideas turned into the most beautiful girl in the kingdom of Florin and, in turn, the key to avoiding a war between both sides.
- Westley: He is the stable boy who falls in love with Buttercup, his owner's daughter and whose house is burned down, leaving him in absolute poverty. To solve the situation and be able to marry Buttercup, he goes on a boat trip promising that he will return for her. However, during the journey, he is killed by the evil Pirate Roberts Deel.
- Prince humperdinck: Perfidious and evil, Prince Humperdinck does not even know who Buttercup is, with Count Rugen being in charge of bringing him the most beautiful woman in the kingdom. He is an avid hunter and plans to kidnap Buttercup before marrying in order to provoke a war with the nation of Guilder.
- Inigo Montoya: Of Spanish origin, this character is considered the best swordsman in the world, being one of the members of the trio that kidnaps Buttercup. Like the rest of the mercenaries, he drags a past from which he cannot escape and to which the reader accesses through flashbacks throughout the story. His is the mythical phrase «I am Íñigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die», so much on the lips of young people that, in the 80s, they played swordsmen emulating this character.
- Vizzini: Of Sicilian origin, he is the most intelligent man and right hand of Prince Humperdinck regarding the kidnapping of Buttercup. It also carries various problems from the past.
- fezzikHailing from Greenladia, Fezzik is a big young man who is considered the strongest human being in the world. She often sings rhymes that drive Vizzini crazy and she doesn't like dirty fighting.
The Princess Bride: The Fantasy Novel Reinvented
The adventure and fantasy novels were those that consumed much of the childhood of the author of The Princess Bride, William Goldman. The author who with this story sought to completely reinvent the genre by allowing an a priori children's story to be interpreted by the adult audience. Based on humor, parody and characters that did not meet the canons expected in a typical medieval love story, The Princess Bride It was published in 1973 in the United States by the Harcourt Brace publishing house.. However, later Goldman insisted on adding a new scene that his editor rejected from the beginning to avoid copyright problems with Morgenstern. Remember that The Princess Bride is a compendium of Morgenstern's stories, but at no time does it try to modify the existing material.
After becoming a bestseller, the book rose even higher thanks to the film adaptation released in 1987. Directed by Rob Reiner and starring Cary Elwess and Robin Wright, the film was scripted by Goldman himself and became a box office success.
Thirty years after the premiere of the film (and forty of the book), The Princess Bride continues to be a classic of universal literature. A set of genres through which William Goldman reinvented the adventure novels of a lifetime, criticized the excess of European royalty, denoted the benefits of death, and ultimately attracted the attention of hundreds of readers.
The same people who today continue to consider The Princess Bride as one of the best books ever and the proof of how a good book can beget a better one.
Did you read The engaged princess by William Goldman?