The Princess Bride
*The Princess Bride is a timeless tale that pits country against country, good against evil, love against hate. This incredible journey and artfully rendered love story is peppered with strange beasties monstrous and gentle, memorable surprises both terrible and sublime, and such unforgettable characters as...* **Westley**, the handsome farm boy who risks death (and much worse) for the woman he loves; **Inigo**, the Spanish swordsman who lives only to avenge his father's death; **Fezzik**, the gentlest giant ever to have uprooted a tree with his bear hands; **Vizzini**, the evil Sicilian, with a mind so keen he's foiled by his own perfect logic; **Prince Humperdinck**, the eviler ruler of Guilder, who has an equally insatiable thirst for war and beauteous Buttercup; **Count Rugen**, the evilest man of all, who thrives on the excruciating pain of others; **Miracle Max**, the King's ex-Miracle Man, who can raise the dead (kind of); and, of course, **Buttercup**... the princess bride, the most perfect, beautiful woman in the history of the world!
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about The Princess Bride
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Framed as William Goldman's abridgment of a fictional S. Morgenstern classic, the novel follows Buttercup, the most beautiful girl in the country of Florin, and Westley, the farm boy who loves her. After his ship is taken by the Dread Pirate Roberts, she agrees to marry the prince Humperdinck.
Yes. William Goldman wrote both the 1973 novel and the 1987 film's screenplay. Goldman was a celebrated screenwriter (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men) and considered The Princess Bride his most personal work.
Yes. The 1987 film is widely considered one of the most faithful film adaptations of any modern novel. William Goldman wrote the screenplay and worked closely with Rob Reiner on production.
The Princess Bride was written by William Goldman, published in 1973 by The Ballantine Publishing Group.
The Princess Bride is 398 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Princess Bride takes most readers 6 to 9 hours to finish.
The Princess Bride is a standalone novel by William Goldman, not part of a series.
The Princess Bride is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.