As You Wish: Rediscovering The Princess Bride
In a world saturated with tales of good versus evil, true love, and high adventure, few stories have endured in our hearts like William Goldman’s The Princess Bride. First published in 1973 and brought to iconic life on the silver screen in 1987, this “classic tale of true love and high adventure” is both a parody and a celebration of fairy tales. It’s just as delightful today as it was when we first opened its pages or pressed play on the VHS tape.
Within the pages (and frames) of The Princess Bride, you’ll meet the incomparable Westley, the ever-hopeful Buttercup, the comically vengeful Inigo Montoya (“You killed my father—prepare to die”), the lovable giant Fezzik, and the gloriously despicable Prince Humperdinck. It’s a perfect blend of romance, sword fighting, giants, and rhyming duels that somehow manages to poke fun at clichés while making us fall in love with them all over again.
William Goldman, novelist, playwriter, and screenwriter, was born on August 12, 1931. He might be best known for The Princess Bride, but Goldman also won two Academy Awards: first for Best Original Screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, (1969) and then for Best Adapted Screenplay for All the President's Men (1976).
So come check out the movie and related books, because when it comes to epic stories filled with heart, humor, and heroism, The Princess Bride is, quite simply, inconceivable to miss.
The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure, by William Goldman.
The book that started it all. Presents the timeless love story between a farm boy named Westley and the beautiful Princess Buttercup. The book combines elements of comedy, adventure, fantasy, drama, romance, and fairy tale. It is presented as "an abridgment" of a longer work by the fictional S. Morgenstern, and Goldman's "commentary" asides are constant throughout.
In the movie, a child, home sick from school, grudgingly allows his grandfather to read him a dusty storybook, which is how we meet the innocent Buttercup, about to marry the nefarious Prince Humperdinck though her heart belongs to Westley.
The Princess Bride: The Official Cookbook by Jenn Fujikawa
This cookbook features more than 50 recipes for dishes seen in, and inspired by, the film, including Farm Boy Breakfast, Twu Wove's Kiss Cookies, and Iocane Powder Punch.
As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes
In a twenty-fifth anniversary, behind-the-scenes account of the making of the cult classic film, the lead actor shares never-before-told stories and exclusive photographs as well as interviews with fellow actors and producers of the film.