Hopefully everyone has seen the film (the one with the girl from Forrest Gump and the guy from Criminal Minds). If not, then I recommend it now. Right now. Go watch it with your family, friends and any kindly strangers you may have met today. For anyone questioning their judgement when picking out a film or book entitled "The Princess Bride", yes, the title suggests airy fairy Disney nonsense, a friend once confused it with "The Princess Diaries", but rest assured, this fairytale will knock your cynical socks off.
This book was recommended by my Dad. He had a perfect knack for finding books for others to fall in love with and this one now has pride of place in my chaotic answer to a bookshelf. I like to think that this a book people love to "discover" and pass on to fellow bookaholics. In a nutshell, "The Princess Bride" is a "re-telling" of a fairytale with all the long boring descriptive parts brutally cut out by William Goldman, complete with hilariously snide comments about his ex-wife for good measure.
Summary in a sentence:
The beautiful blonde Buttercup falls in love with the ever faithful farm boy Westley who goes away to sea to get rich and is unfortunately snared by the dreaded Dread Pirate Roberts leaving poor Buttercup heartbroken and vulnerable to the clutches of the villainous Prince Humperdink...
The book is packed with everything a fairytale should be, biting wit, sword fights with actual blood and gore, friendly giants, revenge, and of course, true love. All these things are sadly often forgotten in the standard romance due to the authors' dogged determination to deliver the romance and lovey dovey parts first and foremost. William Goldman's approach is one of a hopeless romantic bitten by the bug of realism and divorce, leaving the reader with a refreshing perspective of "true love". "The Princess Bride" shows that the only way to take love seriously is by having a wicked sense of humour that reaches out and touches to the very core. Nice one Dad!
Verdict: It is the perfect birthday/Christmas/Valentine's for anyone and everyone. It appeals to everything from the darkly humorous to the fluffy romantic side in all of us.
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