Fiction Friday: The Princess Bride
In hindsight, I probably should’ve consulted my sister first. But we hold these truths to be self-evident, that the book is always better than the movie. Or perhaps the exception proves the rule, though I’ve never understood how this could be so.
In any case, The Princess Bride is a charming film, perhaps one of the mostest charmingest ones of all time. (I just gave it to a friend as a late, late Christmas gift, due to his having never seen it.)
The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure, by William Goldman, is not charming, and it’s rather shocking and disappointing just how uncharming it is.
Positioned as a redaction of an earlier work by S. Morgenstern, the book has a looooong introduction, stretching to about fifty pages of tiresome descriptions of the author’s history with the book and his struggles to pass his affection for it on to his chubby son. And no, I didn’t mention chubby randomly. The fatness of his fictional son is a major topic in the introduction. Tiresome.
Of course, the entire introduction is fictional, except perhaps the parts about the filming of the movie adaptation. In my mind, though, it was a mistake to even mention the movie, because it’s actually hard to believe the screenplay and the novel were written by the same person.
Actually, I didn’t find the introduction nearly so offensive as I’m coming off here. For the first ten or fifteen pages, that is. In fact, I was actually taken in a bit by the fictional history of the book at first. Until the first few mentions of Florinese history were made. I’m not the most credulous person, so I did a quick Wikipedia search and found what I suspected: the “history” was all fiction.
And don’t get me wrong here, the fictional history thing is actually somewhat charming as far as it goes, but then it keeps going and going. And going.
Nevertheless, I slogged through the introduction, figuring that it would be a somewhat tedious setup to one of the all-time charming books. Alas, no.
I actually found the prose in this book to be strikingly similar to that of Ladies and Gentlemen: The Bible!, which if you recall was the worst book I read last year.
It’s not that the writing is bad, so much as it’s just not to my taste. Authors are not obliged to please me with their writing, so that’s fine, and others may find the writing readable. I just didn’t. It was filled with asides and parentheticals (from “Morgenstern”), in addition to Goldman’s “notes” about his abridgement, the latter of which never did anything but annoy me.
But it’s not just the writing, either. I didn’t care for the characters. Buttercup is a twit, Westley is something of a chauvinist, and Inigo is a bit full of himself and his mad sword skilz. (I can’t say anything bad about Fezzik, however.)
Vizzini was enjoyable, of course, and I can’t say there were no passages I liked in the book. In fact, I’m forced to admit that after enduring a one and a half hundred pages or so, I adjusted to the style and enjoyed some passages a bit. Who’s not going to enjoy the Battle of Wits? Or Fezzik’s fight with Westley?
(The fight which contains a modification of one of my favorite lines, after Fezzik asks the Man in Black why he wears a mask, wondering if he was burned by acid or something: “Oh, no, it’s just they’re terribly comfortable. I think everyone’ll be wearing them in the future.”)
Still and all, the little highlights don’t add up to much. The book fails by every comparison to the movie, and it’s a cryin’ shame. I’m still not sure how the screenplay could be so brilliant and the novel so inane. It’s a mystery.
A quick warning about the ending, too. It’s left somewhat ambiguous, but it’s ambiguously negative, which fits after the author’s frequent asides about how life isn’t fair. So if you were looking for the ending with the Top Kiss of All Time, you won’t find it. The Kiss is described on page 59, and it’s Buttercup and Westley’s first kiss.
Of course, I invite disagreements or commiseration from anyone else who’s read this book. Maybe I’m being too tough on it. Lob me a comment if you’re in either camp.
(Oh, I should probably also mention that this edition of The Princess Bride included the first chapter of Buttercup’s Baby, the supposed sequel. I didn’t read it. Maybe I should have, but I was just not inclined to read any more that I absolutely had to. It would’ve been seventy (!) pages I’d never have gotten back.)
February 5th, 2010 - 17:56
I have the feeling that the book came after the movie. At least that was my sense when I read it. I rather liked the book…not nearly as much as the movie, mind you… but I did enjoy it none-the-less.
February 5th, 2010 - 19:22
I think any of your sisters could have warned you!! I almost did when I saw your last Friday post, but you said you had already started to read the book (and even when a book is inane, it is hard to stop when you think it must get better before the end!). Sorry!
February 5th, 2010 - 19:31
Oh, and I hated the ending! That won’t surprise you since you know I am not fond of sad endings (the passionate and pure kiss was so much better)! =)
February 6th, 2010 - 07:08
The book came loooooong before the movie. The book was published in 1973, and the movie came out in 1986.) I read the book as a kid, loved it, and re-read it several times over the years and urged friends and relatives to read it. They (almost without exception) loved it, too.
However – the movie is better. It’s sweeter, softer around the edges, and has an unbelievably good cast.
William Goldman’s real talent was/is in screenwriting, and he is responsible for a lot of good movies. His books, while good, just aren’t as good as his movies, but he did try to write in a lot of different genres (ever read the book or see the movie “Magic”?).
February 6th, 2010 - 09:00
I guess it just didn’t meet my expectations, and the style of it just didn’t work for me. But I’m glad to see not everyone shares my opinion.
February 6th, 2010 - 14:40
I didn’t even know it WAS a book.
However, the movie is a family favorite. Whenever one of us gets sick, my sister and I still give each other The Line: “Tyrone, you know I love to watch you work. But…”
February 6th, 2010 - 18:11
I liked the book. It was definitely NOT like the movie though. I read it for a book report in high school thinking it was going to be like the movie- which I loved.
I was a bit disappointed, and like you, I slogged through some bits. But, I finally did read it all and liked it.
February 19th, 2010 - 23:22
+JMJ+
After my first (and only) reading, I shared your surprise that the book’s author was also the movie adaptation’s screenwriter. His screenplay was definitely better–and he really did know what to do with that “Top Kiss of All Time” the second time around!