A Fair Desire

Title: The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure
Author: William Goldman
Year: 1973

Normally, I avoid reading books if I have already seen the movie version, but this one has been catching my eye off and on for the last year or two. I was particularly intrigued by the subtitle - who is this S. Morgenstern person? And why is there only this "abridged" version? I don't like abridgments!

So, I finally gave in. And I was not disappointed. It helps that the author of the novel also wrote the screenplay for the movie. Much of the dialog is verbatim, and it was actually enjoyable to hear (in my head) the lines in voices of the actors.

The story itself is presented in a mind-bending way. The author attests that he is writing an abridgment of a much longer novel by a famous "Florinese" author. As such, there are cuts and commentary by the author (that is, William Goldman) on the other author's work (that is, S. Morgenstern). However, even the supposedly true autobiographical notes are actually fiction, although extremely amusing fiction. The little editorials and explanations of what Goldman had to cut out from the Morgenstern text, along with his concerns that the Florinese experts would be furious with him (Columbia University hosts the foremost experts on Morgenstern, apparently), are hilarious.

The same kind of verbal wit and humor found in the movie is present in the novel, just in more abundance. Overall, the book was a huge relief to read. I just wish I had read it sooner.

By the way, here's a scan of the map included in my edition.