Nostalgic Friday: The Princess Bride

Welcome back to Nostalgic Friday! Since I love all things historical (culturally, physically, and personally) I do a post on Fridays honoring some awesome book that is a bit older. Many of them are books I enjoyed in my teens and others are books that I discovered as an adult that I think are relevant to YA readers.

The Princess Bride is a timeless tale of love and adventure by William Goldman that was originally published in 1973 and turned into a cult classic film in 1987. Who wouldn't love a story about everything from pirates to miracles? I think this tidbit from Goodreads captures it all.

What happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be...well...a lot less than the man of her dreams?

As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the "S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride. But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad's recitation, and only the "good parts" reached his ears.

Now Goldman does Dad one better. He's reconstructed the "Good Parts Version" to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere.

What's it about? Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Sex.

In short, it's about everything.

Honestly this is one of the best action/adventure love stories I have ever read. Of course I grew up on the movie with Cary Elwes and his endlessly popular line of, "As you wish." After seeing the movie, I decided to read the book and I was surprised by how much more I loved the book. While the movie gave the characters life and depth that I sometimes felt was lacking in the movie, I got a different tone/vibe from the book. It was quite clear that the movie was geared towards children, where I could see the book geared more towards an adult audience.

There is so much to be gleaned from this book that one misses out when only viewing the movie. The back-story that surrounds the book's creation was quite delightful and added some extra connection for the readers. It's a hilarious story that I couldn't put down and I hope that if any of you have seen to movie, then you'll consider reading the book. If you haven't seen the movie, so that first. I promise, you'll love the book even more once you've seen the movie. Good luck!