I just finished watching the Princess Bride for the first time last night.
Well, not really, but this is the first time I’ve watched it since I read the book “The Princess Bride: The Good Parts Version” by William Goldman, the version of the book that the movie was based on. As often happens, the book was even better than the movie it was based on, but since I had watched the movie first, the characters in the book were, to me, as the actors had played them on TV. For me, Fezzek will always be Andre the Giant.
One of the most interesting parts of reading the book, was remembering that in the movie, The Princess Bride was the story within the story of a young boy who had been read a book by his Grandfather, and realizing that this too was actually in the book as well, but as an editorial by the man who abridged the original Morgenstien, he had been quite ill, and over the course of several weeks, his father, who wasn’t the best at reading or speaking English, read him that book, and that is what began his love of reading.
Two of my other favorite parts were the back-stories of Fezzek and Inigo, which were only just hinted at in the movie. These two had their own chapters devoted to their back story, Fezzik’s was just as oddly humerus as any part of the story, and Inigo’s was as wonderfully heartfelt, dramatic, and nuanced as the character himself. It brought them even more to light in my eyes, and there is no way that I will ever regret reading that book, just because of those two characters alone.
For any who have not actually read it yet, I highly recommend William Goldman’s “The Princess Bride: The Good Parts Version”.
There are a couple of things that I was upset about being cut out. One was the Royalty school that teaches buttercup how to be royalty. The other was a full chapter of Inigo and Fezzek collecting the ingredients for the miracle pill, where you got to see way more of Inigio, Fezzek, Max, and his wife.
Still, it was a great read, and it makes me want to go back and read the original Morganstein.
The publishing company wanted it out because “the two seem to Jewish, we don’t want to offend” my response. Then you find out that Morganstein’s parents were Jewish. A man is allowed to parody his own parents for goodness sakes!