Genre: Fantasy
Series: Standalone
Page Count: 283
Publication Year: 1973
Publisher: Originally published by Harcourt Brace, and then by Random House.
Summary: A story about a princess, a pirate and the prince who gets in the way.
It’s hard to judge this book when I’m constantly imagining the movie, so I separated the review into rose-colored glasses and reality.
I’m assuming you’re familiar with the story and will not mark spoilers.
I’ve seen the movie many times (it is a cult classic, after all) and I’m glad to see it was a solid adaptation. As is to be expected, things were left out or shortened but it kept the key moments and overall flavor of the story. In fact, this is one of those rare times when I think the movie’s better than the book.
On the surface this is a lighthearted fairytale romance with plenty of action and laughs. But it peeks at a darker side and that surprised me. Drunkenness, torture, and suicide are just some of the things it included. Yes, those were in the movie, but it didn’t seem so serious then. This book juggles humor and grimness without losing its stride.
It was exactly what I expected it to be based on my experience with the movie. But…
Westley is a jerk. He treats Buttercup like trash. He drags her across the country when she doesn’t know who he is, slaps her, yells at her, doesn’t even have the guts to reveal his identity himself and still thinks she’ll love him to the ends of the earth. His personality is the Renaissance version of the bad boy with the tortured past and obsession for the dumb blond girl. I’m sorry, but no. The movie did a much better job of making him likable.
Why did Westley take so long to tell her who he was? More to the point, when was he going to reveal himself? I assume he didn’t do it immediately to test if she still loved him. But I gotta believe there are better ways of doing that that don’t involve being a jerk. Couldn’t he just, you know, ask? Like “Hey Buttercup, you remember that farm boy from a few years ago? Yeah, so, what’s your general opinion of him now?” Obviously it’d be better worded than that, but he didn’t even try. Instead he was a total scoundrel and made me want to slap him. He should’ve ripped off his mask and professed, “Buttercup, ’tis I, Westley,” and saved himself being pushed down a ravine.
You know, I gotta applaud Buttercup for how she handled some things. She had unexpected survival skills and a willingness to sacrifice her happiness to save others. When she said she could live without love, I respected her for that. Yeah, she’s low in the brain cell department and yet I saw potential for a decent heroine.
Now, what do Westley and Buttercup see in each other? Not sure. Westley’s basically Superman and Buttercup’s got the looks, but does that mean they make a great pair? They knew each other for a while and then suddenly declared their love for one another. Then he goes off to sea and she gets trained to become a princess. When they meet again they’re essentially different people. Their time together in the Fire Swamp doesn’t depict idyllic bliss and then they don’t see each other until the last few pages. It just doesn’t make much sense to me why they’d still believe in a life together.
I have to talk a bit more about Westley. So, he’s gone for three years and in that time he learns to sail, fight better than Inigo, build up enough confidence to convincingly portray the Dread Pirate Roberts, maintain his endurance so he only has to sleep 4 hours a day and still finds time to become immune to iocane. (Why did he think he’d need that iocane immunity? Does it go hand-in-hand with being Roberts?) Yes, there’s such a thing as natural talent, but come on! And on top of all that he still thinks Buttercup is good enough for him.
Movie Westley never seemed impervious to me but book Westley is. The movie made Westley a better man.
Moving to Inigo and Fezzik. There’s more backstory for them and while I appreciate it, the movie was right to cut it. But now I know why Fezzik was unemployed in Greenland. They seemed equally lily-livered, lucky, and pathetic, depending on what the story needed. They were used for humor and an okay revenge plot. I liked them better in the movie.
Humperdinck had more depth here and I sorta wanted him to win more than Westley. He’s still superhuman and a bit of a cheese villain, but I could almost believe his skills.
This book is presented as an abridged version of a book written by S. Morgenstern. I was going to write a whole bit on the cut parts of the story. Goldman said Morgenstern wrote chunks on Buttercup’s princess training, the visiting dignitaries, and other things, and Goldman said why he chucked them. But then I found something out. Turns out it’s a complete fabrication that I fell for like an IRS scam. There is no unabridged version because there is no Morgenstern, but it was presented in such a believable way I never doubted the validity. I’m still impressed.
I liked the interruptions in the story and oddball humor. A couple times it went too long, but he wrote well enough for me not to become irritated.
That ending. Wow. I did not see it coming. It veers significantly from the movie.
This review has a lot of buts in it. That’s the problem when you’ve seen an adaptation many times and have to plaster a new image over a well-established story. It sounds like I didn’t enjoy this book although I had a fun time. BUT, all the itty bitty annoyances snowballed into the realization that I’d rather watch the movie than reread the book.
A couple other observations:
How did Vizzini not even toy with the possibility of iocane being in both cups? What happened to his über genius skills?
I’m fairly sure this wasn’t touched on, so how did Westley find Buttercup? Did he know about the kidnapping? Did he just happen to see her being bundled into the boat? I don’t recall him saying he heard of a plot to kidnap her. Much less how he knew he’d find her at the Cliffs.
I bet the poison the albino offered Westley was iocane.
Who was the master swordsman on the ship who trained Westley? Or did he learn everything from a book? I’m really not buying that.
What happened to Buttercup’s parents? Did she ever return to the farm?
I feel like Goldman sneakily told my subconscious to watch Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Check out my rating here.
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