There’s a history in this office of Feelings about The Princess Bride. Some Horn Bookers find it irritating how often people quote it. (I can’t imagine why.) And others believe that this story within a story is a dweam wiffin a dweam. That “Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Fate. Revenge…” is only the beginning. That the “anybody want a peanut?” of the movie is the best-placed legume reference in cinema. That the only appropriate response to “you seem a decent fellow. I hate to kill you” is “you seem a decent fellow. I hate to die.” That somewhere out there, Buttercup and Westley’s descendants share family lore about the Fire Swamp around the dinner table. That when Billy and his dad in the book choose the “good parts” of (ahem) S. Morgenstern’s tome, it gives readers permission to find their own “good parts” in whatever they read.
That as long as The Princess Bride remains quotable and beloved, author and screenwriter William Goldman is only mostly dead.
(I’ll let you guess which group I belong to.)
About Shoshana Flax
We are not able to monitor every comment that comes through (though some comments with links to multiple URLs are held for spam-check moderation by the system). If you see something objectionable, please let us know. Once a comment has been flagged, a staff member will investigate.
We accept clean XHTML in comments, but don't overdo it and please limit the number of links submitted in your comment. For more info, see the full Terms of Use.