The Princess Bride by William Goldman is kind of tough to explain to someone who hasn't read it.
The Princess Bride is a real novel by the real William Goldman, about a fictional author named William Goldman who fell in love with the fictional book, The Princess Bride by a fictional author, S Morgenstern, after his father read it to him as a child. When he grows up, he hunts down a copy to share with his son. After finding out his son found it so boring he couldn't get past chapter two, Goldman decides to revisit it and is shocked to find out that his father abridged it severely and only read him the good parts because a lot of it is boring and satirical. He decides to abridge Moregenstern's version and the abridged version is what most of us are familiar with, the one the movie is based on.
In the fictional, abridged version of The Princess Bride the fictional Goldman includes a lot of personal asides where he comments on the story and justifies his editing decisions. It's like footnotes you would see in novels like The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell except, instead of footnotes, it's italic in parenthesis. The real Goldman goes pretty meta with both the real and fictional Princess Bride. He blends autobiographical elements with fiction- think AU, retconn, head cannons, fanfic, etc. I loved that element. I think it elevates what could have been just a cute middle grade story into a funny satire. However, this is the element that pisses off a lot of the movie fans.
I read someone say that The Princess Bride (real book) is about a miserable author who shits on true love and it ruined the movie for them. That's hyperbolic, but…
In the movie, it's mostly Westley (the MMC) that embodies true love, and in the book Westley is… not the best. The only thoughts he ever has of Buttercup (the FMC) is how beautiful she is. He find Buttercup to be simple and kind of stupid. He antagonizes her, bullies her, and slaps her (unlike the movie). And in the end, both Morgenstern and the fictional Goldman agree that it maybe won't last because Buttercup will get old and stop being beautiful. Add in all the personal notes from (the fictional) Goldman about his lukewarm marriage and thoughts of infidelity, I can see why some people think that Goldman is saying true love isn't real.
Buttercup is better in the book (vs the movie) because she's given a bit more agency. She's uneducated and naive but also pragmatic and realistic. She loves Westley because he's perfect at everything he does which… okay, he is… at least she loves him for more than just his looks. She's not a complex character but experiences inner conflict and regret. And while she is still a damsel in distress, she's slightly less useless in the book.
The real star of the book is Inigo Montoya, so much so that I think one can argue that The Princess Bride (the fictional book) is actually his story, and that Buttercup and Westley are just plot conveniences to get him where he needs to be to accomplish his ultimate goal. Goldman spends just as much time fleshing out Inigo's origin story as he does the one true love between Westley and Buttercup. Inigo feels like a real character, not just a fairy tale trope. He embodies the lesson that both versions of Goldman are trying to say, which is that life is not a fairy tale. If you liked Inigo in the movie, you will love him in the book.
In writing this post I realized how life imitates art. The Princess Bride is a book about an author who revisits a childhood classic only to discover that the story he enjoyed as a child is an abridged version, and the actual version is bogged down in satire (Morgenstern was also pretty meta and satirical according to the fictional Goldman). So, he decides to strip that away and present a fairy tale version that kids can enjoy. William Goldman the actual author, is also a screenwriter who wrote the screen play for the movie version of The Princess Bride, where he stripped away the meta satire and presented a fairy tale version of his own story that kids can enjoy. And those kids who grew up watching the abridged version of The Princess Bride decide to read the book as an adult and discover that the actual version is bogged down in meta satire. (I know I've used the word "meta" a lot. If used incorrectly, please feel free to point out that while I keep using that word, you don't think it means what I think it means.)
And, if you're familiar with the book and was wondering… There is no reconciliation scene, the publisher will not send you anything. The version I read did come with Buttercup's Baby. I read the fictional William Goldman part but not the fictional Buttercup's Baby because I wanted the epilogue about the fictional Goldman but wasn't interested in the teaser for the sequel to the fictional The Princess Bride.
by Anxious-Fun8829