The Princess Bride

[Film Hobbit]

Well I finally finished reading the Princess Bride, and greatly enjoyed it.

However, Goldman's little interrupting narratives explaining why he cut this and why he cut that are a little annoying. And I WISH someong could tell me if this Morgenstern fellow is REAL or if he's just some wacky literary device that Goldman came up with. I have a hard time buying into it.

Would have been nicer if Goldman had just told the story.

My deluxe edition that I bought from B&N also contained a few chapters of "Buttercups Baby" which I liked very little as it's totally different from tone and pace than the original. It's weird with all this stuff about Fesik being "invaded" and well, maybe if the entire book had been available to read I might have liked it more.

Come on now, i can't be the only one who has read this.

[MBNorris]

i heard a rumor that


possible spoiler.....












that the king tracked down all the good guys and killed them. is that true??

[Film Hobbit]

In Buttercup's Baby?

No, Morgenstern tries to make you THINK that, but it didn't actually happen.

[MBNorris]

ok good. that sounded scary!

[Queen of Cups]

Morgenstern is completely made up. In "Which Lie Did I Tell?" Goldman explains that he made up The Princess Bride for his two daughters. He was leaving on a trip and told them he'd make up a story for them, and ask what they wanted it to be about. One said "a princess" and one said "a bride" and that's where it came from. When he sat down to really write it out (he told it to them over the phone while on his trip, I think), he was having terrible writers block. Finally, he realized that if he made it into a story within a story, that it was a lot easier. There's also this really touching scene where he writes about how after he wrote Wesley's death scene he started crying because he'd killed Wesley.

[Film Hobbit]

So Goldman doesn't REALLY have a fat son who he hates and a cold prudish wife named Helen whom he despises? Whew, THAT is a relief! hehe.

He takes it so far that you start to question if there is a Morgenstern.

In the forward to Buttcups' Baby in the anniversary edition I have, he STILL keeps up the appearance, even going so far as to concoct this story of how Steven King is Florinese and a huge Morgenstern fan... and so when it came time to "adapt" Morgenstern's sequel, King convinced the publisher that he was Florinese and thus the best man to do it, not that "hack Goldman" who all Florinese scholars feel totally destroyed Morgenstern's masterpiece, "The Princess Bride". lol

Ok, knowing that I have a new respect for Goldman. What a writer.