[Aptorian]

BOOK CLUB: THE PRINCESS BRIDE BY WILLIAM GOLDMAN AKA S. MORGENSTERN'S CLASSIC TALE OF TRUE LOVE AND HIGH ADVENTURE

April 1st - July 1st 2022.

Quote

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.

New Year, New Book Club, New Reading Schedule.

2nd quarter of 2022 we're reading The Princess Bride by William Goldman and The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton.

To make participation more inclusive and easier to follow along with this year, we're doing quarterly reads and picking two distinctly different books. Meaning for the members with busy lives and slow reading progress, it'll be easier to finish and you can chose whether you want to read both books or stick to one.

1st rule of Book Club: You are allowed to talk about Book Club.

2nd rule of Book Club: You are allowed to talk about Book Club even if you're not participating in Book Club.

3rd rule of Book Club: Spoilers are to be put in a black box and labelled properly with a chapter number and if you like to be precise a page number. Overall thoughts and feelings are fine and don't need to be spoilered, use discretion.

4th rule of Book Club: I Win

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Reading prompts:

What do you think of the authors writing?

What do you think of the books story and plot?

What are the characters like? Who's your favorite? Who's your least favorite?

Are there any books you would compare this book to? Any you would recommend?

Did the book surprise you or disappoint you? Give us examples.

Is there any memorable quotes?

Would you recommend this book to others?

Did you like the book overall?

[JPK]

I'm starting with this one both because I suggested it and it has been in my trp for a few years now.

I've got a newer edition of the book and it appears that it has a chunk of group read discussion questions in the back. Would you all like me to post those up?

[Aptorian]

Sure. If they're spoilery put them in a black box.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 04 April 2022 - 02:55 AM

[Tiste Simeon]

Started reading this today, took me a second to realise the preface bit was part of the story (within a story and so on) got to the first chapter The Bride. Think this will take a bit less time than Shogun...

[Aptorian]

Starting with The Princess Bride.

This book sure has a lot of introductions. A 30th year introduction. A 25th introduction. Then some childhood intro?

Skipped the anniversary stuff because it seemed full of story spoilers. Can see it also has some added chapters at the end. The actual story isn't much more than 300 pages.

[Aptorian]

Finished the intro about how/why Goldman wrote a an abridged version of a fictional book. Don't like it. Maybe it'll become clear as I read but the whole setup seems pointless. And what's worse I came to sort of resent Goldman for his selfish and petty behavior, turning me off reading further.

A weird choice for starting a fantasy book.

[Salt-Man Z]

Apt, have you never seen the movie version of the Princess Bride? Goldman wrote the screenplay based on his novel, and each version uses a completely different framing device. Keep in mind that the book wasn't really originally a "fantasy" novel, more like a literary novel that uses the device of talking about a fairy tale story.

Personally, I loved the book with all the anniversary introductions (I read the 30th anniversary version a 10 years ago.) It's all very meta and amusing to me.

[Aptorian]

I watched the film 10-15 years ago. Don't remember much beyond the more meme worthy parts that get quoted a lot.

I'm about 130 pages in and not liking the story that much. Not sure if the enjoyment is ruined by remembering the story or if it's the fact that the actors improved on the written characters. Maybe the introduction soured my interest.

I just don't really care for the characters or attempts at humor that much.

[Tiste Simeon]

I've chuckled a couple of times so far. I'm like Apt, I watched the film a few years ago and can remember bits as I read it. It's fun and light hearted but I doubt I will read again once I'm done.

[Tiste Simeon]

About halfway through. It's pretty good TBF, not great but I'm having fun.

[QuickTidal]

I'm not going to join in as I re-read this last year (I have a swanky hardcover re-release from a few years ago) AND we recently just watched the movie with our kids (their first viewing).

It's a wonderful book of meta fiction, and I LOVE Goldman's "mega troll" of "the first chapter of the sequel" he includes...a book he was never going to write.

[Tiste Simeon]

Finished... Mixed thoughts...

Spoiler

So this is a strange book. I have the edition that has a chapter of the sequel "Buttercups Baby" at the end and honestly it pretty much ruined the rest of the book for me. Like the main story comes to a somewhat abrupt yet satisfying end.

Then there's a huge section of Goldman talking about how he ended up writing the first chapter is the sequel and it just feels a bit disjointed and pointless. Like, I get the meta aspects of it and appreciated them to a point but this last bit was just annoying somehow? I wish he'd ended it with the four protagonists just about escaping and his note explaining that they did get away.

I did enjoy this on the whole and if anything it's really made me want to watch the movie again because I think it's a novel written with a film adaptation in mind and as Goldman himself wrote the screenplay it's a pretty good adaptation. The dialogue is witty and the plot and characters are engaging.

Doubt I'll ever read it again but overall I'm glad I did read it.

[JPK]

Yeah, I've pretty much stalled out on this. I keep meaning to pick it back up but I just keep working on other books instead.

[JPK]

I pushed through and finished the book this morning. It was OK, I guess. If nothing else, it gave me renewed appreciation for the movie. It's rare that an adaptation is simultaneously that true to the book (outside of the Morgenstern storyline but I'm not convinced that really added much of value) and manages to uplift it the way the movie did. It may also be a sign of culture change but Buttercup's complete lack of agency really stood out here to me.

[Macros]

Just finished.
Not sure which version I have, no after chapter about baby or anything else.


I enjoyed it, I enjoy the film so that helps, I read all the characters in the actors voices naturally.

To my shame it took me a while to catch the morgenstein bit, ha

Once I got it, I enjoyed the meta far more.

Not great, not awful, short and easy to read. The not showing off screen stuff could easily be taken as a rip on Kvothes story telling