The Princess Bride: An Illustrated Edition of S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure

I remember seeing the movie years ago and I loved it too. Great world building and likable characters. There’s also good character development. The story is (mostly) good fun, and Goldman’s commentary which is interspersed throughout is very amusing. All in all an amusing and fun read.

Another reviewer wrote: "William Goldman writes The Princess Bride as an abbreviated novel. The original book was written by S. Morgenstern, but Goldman rewrites it and cuts out all the boring parts and left only the fun and adventuring parts of the book which makes every page interesting and exciting." Heh, heh! Another one who was taken in by William Goldman. S. Morgenstern is a tongue-in-cheek fiction of William Goldman; he is the only author of the Princess Bride. Here's the origin story of the book, according to William Goldman. When his two young daughters asked for a story, he asked them what the story should be about. One said, "a bride!" and the other said "a princess!". More later.

I love Princess Bride. I've seen it sooooooo many times I can recite 3/4 of the dialogue with the actors. It is one of THE best films ever, classic, funny, and true love wins out.In my mind an "illustrated" version is illustrated. Not just a sepia line art at the beginning of each chapter. Also William Goldman's life and story don't interest me. Don't get me wrong he can write one heck of a screenplay. I still cry at the end of Butch & the Kid after all these decades.But this book is not what I thought. Inconceivable but true!Read it, as you wish.

I bought the book to read to my 11 year old daughter after having loved the movie for years. We are almost 2/3 the way thru and it’s been a pleasure to read. The intro is a bit funky and confusing but now that I’m into it we are laughing out loud together.

This book was so great! I saw the movie many times when my sons were young but I had never read the book. Two of my sons wanted to read it so I decided to read it too. It is a really funny book with so much information. I could see the actors from the movie while reading the book and that made it so much better. Normally I prefer to read the book before seeing the movie, but this time, I am glad I saw the movie first. Now I have two more William Goldman books to read becosse I enjoyed this one so much.

Very good parody romance novel. This one has a great cover and is the story I love to see in a great quality.

Bought this for my kids homeschooling because I remembered reading it in school, and oh my goodness. We were all laughing so hard that half the time we never got through the chapter we were trying to read! We did NOT read buttercup baby, as that chapter is not exactly child appropriate (and also kind of made me angry for unrelated reasons,) but it was a fantastic book otherwise!

If you like the book or the movie, this illustrated Printing deserves to be on your bookshelf. If you’ve only seen the movie, get this book and read it. The drawings are fun, (I wish there were more of them.) The paper is of good quality as is the binding. And it’s a purchase. I am extremely happy that I made.

Loved the illustrations. The movie followed the book mostly and all my favorite quotes came directly from the book. That doesn’t always happen. They reason for leaving out some parts of the original were explained as that part was reached which was helpful. A brief description of the part left out was provided.

If you love the movie, the book is a whole other level of greatness! Written as a story within a story, it has all the features of the movie, with so much more. The illustrations are really great. I bought a copy, and my son got his hands on it, so I bought him his own.

Have been meaning to read this for decades. Since this year is the 50th anniversary, I decided to treat myself to a hardcover copy. I couldn’t be happier. It’s a great and fun read and the book is a bibliophile’s dream. The paper is of such beautiful quality that just turning the pages is a delightful tactile experience, and there are plenty of lovely illustrations that are well served by the paper’s smooth, low-gloss finish. What a joy to hold and read. Almost inconceivable!

You might find this hard to believe, but it's sillier than the movie. It was almost too silly to read.This particular version has two lengthy introductions by the author. Note also that while the writing itself is good, there's interruptions and commentary that's meant to be part of the experience and it took a lot of getting used to. The only reason I enjoyed it enough I think was appreciating what he was poking fun at as an author.In this version there was also to my surprise a section on the follow-up "Buttercup's Baby".There were a few details I think the movie did better, and a few I think the book did better. But I was surprised at how accurate the movie actually was, particularly the quotable lines. Getting a history of backstory behind Fezzik and Inigo plus their extra adventures was actually rich detail.

I read this book in October of 2020 and am reviewing it in January 2021. I took a month off from reading in September of 2020 to cope with all the was 2020 and got back into this book as a means of pure escape.I adored the movie for years and always wanted to read the book, but had no idea how much drama was involved with this story. I can't imagine trying to read the original Morgenstern version. For a true history buff, it sounds interesting, but I've never been more grateful for an abridgment than I was for this story.The story itself is, of course, a classic and is full of action, adventure, and humor. I enjoyed reading all the parts that wouldn't fit in the movie and getting to know these iconic characters on a whole new level.I'm still bummed about the sequel. Where is it?Highly recommended to fans of the movie and fans of great action-adventure stories.

This is a beautiful edition of this book. The Princess Bride is Easily one of my favorite books. A number of years ago I discovered it was a book, I had honestly just thought it was a movie. I received the book for Christmas and has finished it by December 27th. If you're a fan of the movie and are feeling skeptical, fear not. The book and the movie were both written by William Goldman and, I woukd say, are equally enjoyable. The book had me laughing, in tears, and on the edge of my seat. I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves a good story. It's action packed, romantic, funny; really I could ask for no more. Now, this specific copy I purchased as a gift for my brother, who is also a dedicated fan, and he loves it! The book really is beautiful and it has wonderful illustrations. It made an excellent gift. Worth every penny. I will try to get it from him to add photos at a later time.

Please know that I love this story, I love this book, and I love the movie. To me deserves 5 stars. But this particular ebook edition has an editing error and I don't know where else to report it. There's at least a paragraph of text missing on page 194. It's the part of the book where the "editor" of the good parts version interjects to explain that he wrote a reconciliation scene between the lovers because there is no such scene in the unedited original. A significant portion of that explanation is missing from my copy of the ebook. The missing segment occurs mid paragraph too, which makes for an abrupt and incoherent shift. Here's a transcript of where the problem is:"This is me, and I'm not trying to be confusing, but the above paragraph that I'm cutting into now is verbatim Morgenstern; he was continually referring to his wife in the unabridged book, saying that she [THIS IS WHERE THE MISSING TEXT SHOULD BE] he was with a generous publishing house (they all stink--sorry about that, Mr. Jovanovich), so let me just add here..."I'd appreciate it if someone from Amazon would contact the publisher about this issue so that they can reinsert the missing text and send correct copies to everyone who buys this ebook. If this happens, then I'll update this review and change the star rating to 5, which is the rating that this story truly deserves.

This is the best way to read "The Princess Bride." I had originally purchased the 25th Anniversary paperback edition, that did not have the gorgeous illustrations, for my fiance and she loved it. It's one of our favorite movies and neither of us had read the story and we're huge book readers so that was a shock. She loved the story and so did I. The movie pretty much follows the book, except the movie is only 90 minutes and the book is 400 pages so there's a lot of material left out and more for a viewer who's never read the book to discover. You get great details on the backstories of Inigo, Fezzik, and Humperdink. You also learn more about Westley's years in training to become the Dread Pirate Roberts and Inigo's unrelenting journey to become the perfect death machine for his revenge against Count Rugen for killing his father. And there's more Miracle Max and his 'witch' wife in here, too, for those that love comic relief. Ha-ha!This is the ultimate way to read the story. Definitely worth every dollar. :)

I'm happy to say that re-reading this lovely illustrated edition did nothing to diminish my ardor for one of my favorite books. In fact, the additional content was a welcome addition by William Goldman.For the uninitiated movie-only watchers, everything between the covers of this book takes place in an alternate universe where there exists countries called Florin and Guilder (both defunct currencies in our world) and a great Florinese writer named S. Morganstern. Morganstern wrote a novel called The Princess Bride, which Goldman's Florinese grandfather read to him when he was bedridden as a child. What grandpa didn't tell little William was that he skipped over wide swaths of the novel and only read him the "good parts." William grows up and discovers his grandfather's edits, and decides to release an annotated "good parts" version of The Princess Bride.Sure it's a bit meta, but Goldman's dedication to the concept in his prose really sells it, especially in the additional content, which consists of his of course fictional efforts to produce a good parts version of Morganstern's sequel "Buttercup's Baby." Much of his travails make him sound very Woody Allenesque.Oh yeah, there's also fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles...but you know that part already. It's all there -- Westley and Buttercup and Inigo and Fezzik and Vizzini and Humperdink -- mostly intact as it was presented in the magnificent movie, with a little more backstory for the various players.Alas, if you're looking for a strong female character, you'll find this book sorely lacking, but you probably knew that already, too. Frankly, Westley could've done better.Highly recommended.

I want to review this because I love it, but I don't actually know how to proceed with the review. The Princess Bride has been a story that's been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My sister would rent the film version (usually in a double-feature with Labyrinth) and watch it with her friends. When I was about 12 or 13 she was the one who bought me a copy of the book and I was hooked. I've been through three paperback copies of this book, because I've shredded them with re-readings and I'll never forget how hard I laughed during my first read of the scene where they break into the castle by setting Fezzik on fire. It's hard for me to review because I can't really separate my many years of emotion from book enough to take a critical look at it. It's like trying to review my best friend. Yeah, I might be able to point out one or two minor quibbles, but my review would collapse into a soliloquy about just how much I adore them and treasure them in my life and it would be pointless.So, I'll just say that the illustrations in this version in particular are lovely! The art style is really beautiful and I think the artist did a wonderful job of bringing scenes to life without just making them look like the already-extant film. This is no mean feat! The movie is a wonderful adaptation (understandable, since Goldman also wrote the screenplay) and the actors have pretty perfectly slotted themselves in as my default mental image for these characters, so it's actually nice to see someone able to deftly create new interpretations.

It's always problematic seeing the movie version of a classic book because you tend to "test" one against the other. While there are differences between the book and the movie, I think they're both wonderful, although the movie still leads by a nose. How could it not? The characters became, not just classics, but legends through this movie. Amazon still sells "As You Wish..." and " Inconceivable!" t-shirts. The illustrations in this edition are lovely and very authentic to the book and the era it was written in.My only real complaint is the feeling that Mr. Goldman's comments were so widespread (and sometimes devisive) that it muddied the storyline. He went into great detail about the material he cut, and why, but left a subtle, contemptuous taste in my mouth. I think an editor or a screenwriter, should rabidly maintain the author's vision. In this case, Mr. Goldman clearly felt Mr. Morgenstern added too much "fluff"- too much detail about Buttercup's education, too much detail about trees, to the point that he chopped hundreds of pages the author felt belonged there. I understand this has to happen for the purposes of abridging a book or writing a screenplay, but allowing this degree of license during an edit would be no different than having a gallery paint over Van Gogh's Sunflowers with Hydrangeas.If I were Mr. Morgenster's estate, I would be like " I am S. Morgenstern. You killed my book. Prepare to die!"

The Princess Bride is a charming and funny fable filled with love and adventure. It's the kind of book that will keep you up all night not wanting to put the book down. This fairy tale dances through adventure and shows us what fighting for love is like. It’s not only a love story but also a book with excitement and suspense which is why it’s a must read. William Goldman writes The Princess Bride as an abbreviated novel. The original book was written by S. Morgenstern, but Goldman rewrites it and cuts out all the boring parts and left only the fun and adventuring parts of the book which makes every page interesting and exciting. No one wants to read a book when there are continuous boring chapters that make it hard to want to continue reading. The Princess Bride is not boring but filled with lots of excitement, love and adventure. It starts off with Buttercup, who is one of the world’s twenty most beautiful women; she lives on a farm with her parents, her horse, which she enjoys riding, and Westley, their farm boy. Westley always responds to Buttercups request to "as you wish” and he is secretly in love with Buttercup. Throughout time Buttercup realizes that she is deeply in love with Westley and confesses her love to him. Shortly after, he tells Buttercup he is leaving America to seek his fortune. As they say there goodbye they share the most beautiful kiss. Buttercup’s heart is broken because Westley is leaving. Later, Buttercup agrees to marry a Prince by the name of Prince Humperdinck. Before their marriage Buttercup is kidnapped by some bad guys and taken away on a boat. The story goes on with suspense, fighting, fencing, pain, sadness, a giant, a man in black, and a surprise and unexpected turn… all things that make a great novel.Goldmans writing is between a traditional fairly tale and a comedy. My favorite line in the book is when Westley says, “As you wish.” William Goldman is great at always adding something romantic and funny at the same time. As I read the book I noticed that he would set up the chapter and make it appear like everything is great and than would add a twist to throw you off. In my opinion, this style of writing makes things more exciting.What I love the most is The Princess Bride is not only a book for girls; it's a book for all genders and ages. Yes, it is the cute love story for girls, but fighting and killing is included for the boys. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a great, witty fairy tale.