The Princess Bride

I had seen the movie of this classic book many, many years ago, but I had no idea how wonderful the “backstory” would be in the S. Morgenstern’s classic tale adapted and the 25^th Anniversary version by William Goldsmith called The Princess Bride.  This is a must read!  Not only is the fairy tale a gem of a story - “true love” vs. “true evil” - it has adventure, history, great characters, and a story for the ages.  Add to all of that the experience of the second author, William Goldsmith adding how this story came to be, through his nightly “bedtime story tales” shared by his Florin father at the young age of ten.  Goldsmith then was re-connected to the book on his son’s tenth birthday by finding one of the only copies from an out of print book by Morgenstern and has it delivered to his son.  He repeated the story of how impactful it was for him when he was a youth, but his son was bored by it.  Wondering why, Goldsmith picked up the book and realized the book was much longer, and his father had only told segments of the story, mainly because of a language barrier his father, a native Florin, had with reading and translating to English.  Goldsmith reminisces on how wonderful the story was and decides to write it as his father had told it (and in this edition adding a ton of comments about what he removed, and the legal troubles he had with the estate of Morgenstern’s family decedents who wanted it stopped!).  So besides a great fairy tale story, you get the stories of how Goldsmith, his family, and the estate of the Morgenstern’s are battling things out.  Add in Stephen King was hired by the Morgenstern’s to rewrite the book himself (the new ending) and you have quite the three stories in one.  Of course the best part is Princess Buttercup, her beauty, her love (Wesley) who gets taken away by the evil Prince, and the cast of characters who kidnap the Princess (by the Prince) because she cannot love him.  Yes, there are times of sadness, Goldsmith shares his frustrations with those, and then some great joy.  The battles, the heartbreak, and the “happily ever after” is all worth it!  Pick the 25^th anniversary edition up, would be a great gift for any reader out there!   Never on my list but then this semester three new RAs added it to the list.  Amazing how these books can come in waves.