The Princess Bride is a tale of high adventure, true love, tragedy – a modern storytelling classic. It has cast its spell over movie-goers for decades, but the book has its own twists and turns that many may not be familiar with.
S. Morgenstern’s story follows the life of Buttercup, a farmer’s daughter and Wesley, her farm boy. Their young love is cut short by a pirate attack on the high seas, leaving Buttercup in the midst of her grief as Florin’s Prince Humperdinck seeks her hand in marriage. Through a kidnapping, Buttercup meets Vizzini – a criminal philosopher who will do anything for gold; Fezzik – the gentle giant; and Inigo – the Spaniard who thirsts for revenge against his father’s killer. Foiling all their plans and jumping in to rescue Buttercup is her true love Wesley, who is not as dead as she believed him to be.
Morgenstern’s tale of epic romance was originally a 1,000-page manuscript with lengthy chapters and unnecessary details. The original manuscript fell into the hands of movie playwright William Goldman who turned the story of Wesley and Buttercup into a more manageable read.
However, there have been some complaints about what was left out of the now 300-page novel.
The Princess Bride is set in real-life Florin, which has a history that Morgenstern wove into his fictional story. Goldman cut out certain details of the feasts, celebrations, and Buttercup’s princess training. These held historical value that some believe should have been included. Famous author Stephen King is one of those believers.
In Goldman’s 30th anniversary edition of The Princess Bride, Goldman includes a conversation he had with King when he discovered King was going to work on Morgenstern’s sequel to Bride – titled Buttercup’s Baby. Goldman was distraught over this revelation and, having worked with King on previous projects, thought he could convince King to let him write Buttercup’s Baby instead. The conversation did not go as planned.
It turns out Stephen King has family in Florin and the project is close to his heart. Goldman was disappointed when King would not let Goldman take over Buttercup’s Baby. The writers did reach a compromise. King gave Goldman the challenge to work on the first chapter of Buttercup’s Baby. There was no promise of working on the rest of the novel, but it was a start.
Besides the issues with King, Goldman faced many legal challenges with Morgenstern’s estate after the first edition of The Princess Bride was published. With the introduction of Buttercup’s Baby, the battles have not stopped. In the 30th edition, Goldman said he hopes to one day publish Buttercup’s Baby under his name.
I first fell in love with Buttercup and Wesley through the movie. I am a firm believer in reading the book before seeing the movie, but in this case, I made an exception. Because I had the movie version planted so firmly in my mind, I constantly compared the book to the movie as I read each chapter.
The movie left out key elements to the story – not surprising, but disappointing.
One of elements was Prince Humperdinck’s Zoo of Death. The five-level, underground arena held anything from bats to snakes to cheetahs to spiders. I believe it should have been included in the movie because it was such an important location in the book. Wesley was kept there after Humperdinck captured him and it is where he was tortured. Fezzik and Inigo traveled through each level, facing their fears in order to find the Man in Black.
Another missing element – this time from the book and not the movie – was the reunion scene between Wesley and Buttercup in Guilder. The iconic embrace at the bottom of the hill was never actually written by Morgenstern. Goldman was just as displeased by this as the readers, and he did in fact write a reunion scene, but it could not be included in the actual Princess Bride book. The scene Goldman wrote can be found online.
The movie also left out how Humperdinck orchestrated Buttercup’s kidnapping in order to start a war with Guilder, which is his main motivation throughout the book. It was hinted at in the movie, but if it had been outright stated by Humperdinck himself, I think it would have shed even more light onto the prince’s true nature.
While reading the book, I found a problematic element to Wesley and Buttercup’s characters that was not shown in the movie. When Wesley was the Man in Black, he struck Buttercup across the face. This was disturbing, but was even more disturbing was how highly Buttercup spoke of Wesley to Humperdinck after she left Guilder with the prince. She spoke of him as though he could do no wrong. This true love turned into obsession and it was not the kind of love story I saw in the movie.
However, there are many things I enjoyed about Morgenstern’s book: Buttercup’s tomboy nature, Fezzik and Inigo’s pasts, Goldman’s explanations added throughout the book. What I liked most was the moral of the story: life is not fair.
Goldman included his reasoning on why this was true on page 218.
“I’m not about to tell you this book has a tragic ending. I already said in the very first line how it was my favourite in all the world. But there’s a lot of bad stuff coming up, torture you’ve already been prepared for, but there’s worse. There’s death coming up, and you better understand this: some of the wrong people die. Be ready for it. This isn’t Curious George uses the Potty. Nobody warned me and it was my own fault and that was my mistake, so I’m not letting it happen to you. The wrong people die, some of them, and the reason is this: life is not fair. Forget all the garbage your parents put out. Remember Morgenstern. You’ll be a lot happier.”
S. Morgenstern’s story follows the life of Buttercup, a farmer’s daughter and Wesley, her farm boy. Their young love is cut short by a pirate attack on the high seas, leaving Buttercup in the midst of her grief as Florin’s Prince Humperdinck seeks her hand in marriage. Through a kidnapping, Buttercup meets Vizzini – a criminal philosopher who will do anything for gold; Fezzik – the gentle giant; and Inigo – the Spaniard who thirsts for revenge against his father’s killer. Foiling all their plans and jumping in to rescue Buttercup is her true love Wesley, who is not as dead as she believed him to be.
Morgenstern’s tale of epic romance was originally a 1,000-page manuscript with lengthy chapters and unnecessary details. The original manuscript fell into the hands of movie playwright William Goldman who turned the story of Wesley and Buttercup into a more manageable read.
However, there have been some complaints about what was left out of the now 300-page novel.
The Princess Bride is set in real-life Florin, which has a history that Morgenstern wove into his fictional story. Goldman cut out certain details of the feasts, celebrations, and Buttercup’s princess training. These held historical value that some believe should have been included. Famous author Stephen King is one of those believers.
In Goldman’s 30th anniversary edition of The Princess Bride, Goldman includes a conversation he had with King when he discovered King was going to work on Morgenstern’s sequel to Bride – titled Buttercup’s Baby. Goldman was distraught over this revelation and, having worked with King on previous projects, thought he could convince King to let him write Buttercup’s Baby instead. The conversation did not go as planned.
It turns out Stephen King has family in Florin and the project is close to his heart. Goldman was disappointed when King would not let Goldman take over Buttercup’s Baby. The writers did reach a compromise. King gave Goldman the challenge to work on the first chapter of Buttercup’s Baby. There was no promise of working on the rest of the novel, but it was a start.
Besides the issues with King, Goldman faced many legal challenges with Morgenstern’s estate after the first edition of The Princess Bride was published. With the introduction of Buttercup’s Baby, the battles have not stopped. In the 30th edition, Goldman said he hopes to one day publish Buttercup’s Baby under his name.
I first fell in love with Buttercup and Wesley through the movie. I am a firm believer in reading the book before seeing the movie, but in this case, I made an exception. Because I had the movie version planted so firmly in my mind, I constantly compared the book to the movie as I read each chapter.
The movie left out key elements to the story – not surprising, but disappointing.
One of elements was Prince Humperdinck’s Zoo of Death. The five-level, underground arena held anything from bats to snakes to cheetahs to spiders. I believe it should have been included in the movie because it was such an important location in the book. Wesley was kept there after Humperdinck captured him and it is where he was tortured. Fezzik and Inigo traveled through each level, facing their fears in order to find the Man in Black.
Another missing element – this time from the book and not the movie – was the reunion scene between Wesley and Buttercup in Guilder. The iconic embrace at the bottom of the hill was never actually written by Morgenstern. Goldman was just as displeased by this as the readers, and he did in fact write a reunion scene, but it could not be included in the actual Princess Bride book. The scene Goldman wrote can be found online.
The movie also left out how Humperdinck orchestrated Buttercup’s kidnapping in order to start a war with Guilder, which is his main motivation throughout the book. It was hinted at in the movie, but if it had been outright stated by Humperdinck himself, I think it would have shed even more light onto the prince’s true nature.
While reading the book, I found a problematic element to Wesley and Buttercup’s characters that was not shown in the movie. When Wesley was the Man in Black, he struck Buttercup across the face. This was disturbing, but was even more disturbing was how highly Buttercup spoke of Wesley to Humperdinck after she left Guilder with the prince. She spoke of him as though he could do no wrong. This true love turned into obsession and it was not the kind of love story I saw in the movie.
However, there are many things I enjoyed about Morgenstern’s book: Buttercup’s tomboy nature, Fezzik and Inigo’s pasts, Goldman’s explanations added throughout the book. What I liked most was the moral of the story: life is not fair.
Goldman included his reasoning on why this was true on page 218.
“I’m not about to tell you this book has a tragic ending. I already said in the very first line how it was my favourite in all the world. But there’s a lot of bad stuff coming up, torture you’ve already been prepared for, but there’s worse. There’s death coming up, and you better understand this: some of the wrong people die. Be ready for it. This isn’t Curious George uses the Potty. Nobody warned me and it was my own fault and that was my mistake, so I’m not letting it happen to you. The wrong people die, some of them, and the reason is this: life is not fair. Forget all the garbage your parents put out. Remember Morgenstern. You’ll be a lot happier.”