Teaser Tuesday: The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Today my post is both a **Teaser Tuesday post, and also my first post for the Princess Bride readalong being hosted by Chris from ChrisBookarama. Not only had I not read the book before, but I also hadn't seen the movie. I can't tell you the number of times that I have confessed that and had people look at me aghast and say you really must watch the movie.

Given that I generally prefer the book to the movie I thought I would start with the book and maybe move onto the movie.

My teaser is a little longer than the customary two sentences, but I just loved the whole paragraph. It comes from page 58:

There have been five great kisses since 1642 B.C, when Saul and Delilah Korn's inadvertent discovery swept across Western Civilization. (Before then couples hooked thumbs.) And the precise rating of kisses is a terribly difficult thing, often leading to great controversy, because although everyone agrees with the formula of affection times purity times intensity times duration, no one has ever been completely satisfied with how much weight each element should receive. But on any system, there are five that everyone agrees deserve full marks.

Well, this one left them all behind.

Originally when I saw the readalong I was interested in participating but had decided against it when I noticed that the title that my library had on their catalogue was "The  Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's classic tale of true love and high adventure: the "good parts"" my immediate reaction was that there was no way I was going to be reading an abridged version. It was only later when someone explained that it was the actual title of the book, not a description of its contents that I was then happy to borrow it and confirm my participation in the readalong.

The structure of this book is pretty unique. I certainly can't remember a book where an author has written a story about a novel that he recalled from his childhood but only shared the good bits, just like his dad did when he read it to him all those years before.

It is actually quite strange because in the introduction Goldman talks about the process of getting this book into print, and does use some of the facts from his life, but then, as Chris points out in her Milestone 1 post, a lot of the information in the introduction is made up. I can't remember the last time you couldn't be sure what was fact and what wasn't in an intro!

Once we get into the story itself I have been surprised at how quickly the novel moves through - courtesy of the abridgements that take all of the superfluous information out of the novel.

So far I think my favourite secondary character is Queen Bella. She is married to King Lotharon, a chronic mumbler, and it is fun to see her seemingly seeking direction from her husband and yet doing precisely what she pleases!

The only problem is that I keep on expecting someone like Reepacheep from the Chronicles of Narnia to appear on the page. I have no idea why I expect that to happen. Maybe I heard something from the movie, or something. There don't appear to be any other talking animals yet.

In terms of expectations, I am half expecting Westley to reappear. We'll see!

So far I am having a lot of fun reading it, and can see why so many people love it.  I have heard that the movie is different from the book, but I have every intention of finding out for myself at this stage.


**Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out all about it, and how to join in!