History Literature / ThePrincessBride

A 1973 book by Creator/WilliamGoldman, ''The Princess Bride'' is about the trials of true love in the Renaissance European nation of Florin. The story stars Buttercup, a simple yet incredibly beautiful farmgirl, and Westley, the farmhand she enjoys ordering around. Although they realize that they share the incredibly rare thing called "true love", fate conspires to keep them apart, as Westley is lost at sea.

* AbridgedForChildren: This is the in-story reason Mr. Goldman abridged ''The Princess Bride''. He wanted his kids to enjoy it, and there was far too much boring stuff. However, he did leave in all the torture and death (though he ''does'' warn us about what's coming at one point, telling us that this isn't ''Curious George Uses The Potty''). Mr. Goldman's (in-story) father's Good Parts abridgment fits the trope more accurately. He tried to leave out the scary parts until he was called on it.

* AltarDiplomacy: The ailing King and Queen of Florin want to marry Prince Humperdinck to the Princess of Guilder to ally with the two rival countries. Humperdinck breaks off the engagement when it turns out during a banquet that his fiancee is congenitally bald, and comments that he'd always planned to just conquer Guilder instead.

* WorldsMostBeautifulWoman: Buttercup -- though at first, she's only in the top twenty. The first couple of chapters are in fact a lengthy parody of the trope, as the narrator somehow has access to a list of "Who was the most beautiful woman in the world at any given time," and on what qualifications, pays careful attention to Buttercup's rise through the ranks, and even gives anecdotes on what happened to the ''previous'' holders of the title (in order: chocolate, smallpox, and [[SelfFulfillingProphecy wrinkles brought on by worrying about how to hold on to the title of "World's Most Beautiful Woman.]]") In the end, despite the beauticians working on her while she's Humperdinck's fiance, it's her maturity and sadness that puts her over the top.

* {{Discontinuity}}: The entire fairy tale was supposed to be completely fictional, but later anniversary editions of the book have forwards in which William Goldman goes to Florin and Guilder to visit the exact places where events took place - which have become popular tourist spots. [[invoked]]

* DramaticIrony: Inigo has spent years training himself in the art of the sword, learning from every master he could, completely, single-mindedly focused on hunting down his nemesis so that they can engage in a FinalBattle... which barely even happens. They cross blades a couple of times, and then, before Inigo can finish cutting out Rugen's heart, the man just drops dead from fright.

* RevengeIsSweet: Inigo Montoya tracks down and kills Count Rugen, the six-fingered man who murdered his father. While the book [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome does not shy away from the negative side effects of fixating on a decades-long revenge quest]], Inigo still finds the revenge itself quite satisfying. Finally achieving his lifelong goal does leave Inigo wondering [[NowWhat what to do now]], but Westley solves that problem by suggesting Inigo could fill the recently vacated role of Dread Pirate Roberts.

->''[[BlatantLies "As a matter of fact, everything Morgenstern wrote is historically accurate; read any decent book on Florinese history."]]''

->''[[ImmediateSelfContradiction "As a matter of fact, everything Morgenstern wrote is historically accurate; read any decent book on Florinese history."]]''

* TreatedWorseThanThePet: Buttercup is much nicer to her horse, [[ADogNamedDog Horse]], than she is to pretty much any other living creature - most especially Westley, the FarmBoy who cares for Horse and for her father's cows. At one point she orders Westley to stay up all night cleaning Horse's stable and polishing his saddle.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Goldman hangs a lampshade on this in the framing story, complaining that he had to argue with his editors about Max and Valerie being "too Jewish" for a medieval fantasy story -- as though crotchety Jews were invented in the Catskills in 1952. He also relates a similar battle he went through with the "bifocals" line in ''Film/ButchCassidyAndTheSundanceKid'', fighting a studio executive who didn't know and didn't care that Ben Franklin invented bifocals nearly a century before the movie's period.
** All four of the fencing masters mentioned by Inigo and The Man in Black are real historic figures.
*** Rocco Bonetti is credited with bringing the Italian style of fencing to the British Isles and was the target of a hilariously one-sided hatred from British-born fencing master George Silver.
*** Gerald Thibault D'Anvers was a famous fencer, mathematician, and alchemist, who attempted to create his "new" fencing based on geometric principles.
*** Ridolfo Capo Ferro was another fencer, who famously advocated for being able to outrange one's opponent as the most important principle of fencing, and therefore was a warm proponent of excessively deep lunges and very long swords.
*** Camillo Agrippa was another proponent of geometric fencing and is also credited with creating "modern", thrust-centric fencing.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The entire life of Inigo Montoya from ''The Princess Bride'' is a massive TakeThat to the classic "I live only for revenge" character/plot.

** In the book only, Humperdink doesn't take his humiliation and defeat well, and promptly orders his men to pursue Westley, Inigo, Fezzik, and Buttercup. The book ends on a SequelHook that notes that Inigo's wounds reopened and worsened during the attempt to escape pursuit, leaving his survival in doubt.

* CoolHorse: Prince Humperdinck breeds white horses, which Fezzik steals to facilitate the heroes' escape.

* {{Discontinuity}}: The entire fairy tale was supposed to be completely fictional, but later anniversary editions of the book have forwards in which William Goldman goes to Florin and Guilder to visit the exact places where events took place - which has become popular tourist spots. [[invoked]]

* NiceHat: Princess Noreena of Guilder has hundreds of hats, described in the unabridged book in excruciating detail for three pages. They're all extravagant and very useful for hiding her bald head.

** To wit: Narrator Goldman talks about a wife and kid he doesn't have in real life (not to mention saying the story is actually satirical non-fiction). Narrator Morgenstern says that the story happened before Europe but after America. Narrator Father never informed his son that the story came from a historical text and he skipped over all the (lengthy) boring parts.)

* NothingIsScarier: The last level of the Zoo of Death is a long, dark hallway, entirely devoid of the horrific beasts of the other levels. The idea is to lure the intruders into a false sense of security so that they are bitten by the ''extremely'' venomous spider hidden in the doorknob at the end. Inigo finds the apparent lack of beasts and traps even more worrisome than the previous two levels, and Fezzik is so terrified of what's going on that he bursts through the door at the end -- without touching the handle, squashing the spider in the process.

* AndNowYouMustMarryMe: The ScarpiaUltimatum version. If the "Dread Pirate Roberts" does not respond to the messages that Humperdinck purports to send, Buttercup must marry him.

* AuthorFilibuster: Parodied; the original version[[note]]which does not in fact exist[[/note]] was apparently riddled with these, but the 'editor' didn't realize until adulthood because his father only told him 'the good bits' as a child. The editor promptly cuts all of them from his annotation, as they apparently completely bog the novel down in irrelevant minutiae and pompous tangents, but his descriptions of them are entertaining in their own right -- for example, the editorial on the removal of chapter 3: 56 and a half pages to cover Queen Bella inviting Princess Noreena to meet Prince Humperdinck, including traveling both ways, out of which fifty pages are spent describing the two of them packing and unpacking their luggage.

* BolivianArmyEnding: The end of the novel explores the logical aftermath of the heroes' escape. Inigo's injury worsens and the entire army of Florin is after them. [[spoiler:They survive, though.]]

* BullyingADragon: Vizzinni actually ''physically'' threatens Fezzik, which will give one an idea of just how cowed Fezzik is by him.

* FoeYay: Invoked InUniverse, as both Vizzini and Inigo both get "excited" when they realize The Man in Black is a WorthyOpponent.

* ContemptibleCover: There exists a mass-market paperback edition that came out about two years after the book's first release in 1973. [[http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Princess-Bride.jpg The cover art]] depicts a nearly-nude woman surrounded by skulls, snakes, tentacles, and other horrifying objects. Apparently, not only did the artist not read the book beforehand, he must not have even seen a ''plot summary''.

* MismatchedEyes: Noreen, the Princess of Guilder, has one eye that's "bluish" and one that's "greenish."

** Interestingly enough, there ''was'' a period of time that could be said to be "after America" and "before Europe"; specifically, the 1500s, between the discovery of the Americas, and the Thirty Years War (which started in 1618), which so redefined the terms of the relations of states that it has been claimed to be the beginning of "Modern European History". (The story takes place in the late 19th century.)

* MarriageOfConvenience: Buttercup to Prince Humperdinck, which he argues is a practical matter of him needing an heir and a wife whose appearance he won't be embarrassed by at court (his parents' pick, the princess of Guilder, was {{bald|Women}}), and he's willing to lift her and her family out of poverty for it. [[spoiler:Actually, he plans to murder her and frame Guilder as a PretextForWar.]] She goes along with it because she believes Westley to be dead, and neither expects love out of it.

* NeverBareheaded: Princess Noreena of Guilder is never seen without one of her many hats. After a sudden breeze blows one-off, it turns out [[BaldWomen she has good reason]].

* AltarDiplomacy: The ailing King and Queen of Florin want to marry Prince Humperdinck to the Princess of Guilder to ally with the two rival countries. Humperdinck breaks off the engagement when it turns out during a banquet that his fiancee is [[BaldWomen congenitally bald]], and comments that he'd always planned to just conquer Guilder instead.

* BaldWomen: Prince Humperdinck briefly considers marrying a princess of Guilder, but angrily rejects her after a sudden breeze blows off the hat she wears and reveals her to be bald.[[note]]It's implied he did this on purpose because he really wanted a war with Guilder.[[/note]]

* PunchPunchPunchUhOh: Westley does this to Fezzik, who very kindly lets him get some strikes in so that he can feel he's doing well.

The even newer edition for the 30th anniversary contains additional commentary about the film, as well as everything contained in the 25th-anniversary edition, resulting in three forewords. One more foreword and the 'Good Parts' version will be thicker than Morgenstern's original version!

* FairytaleWeddingDress

-->'''Vezzini:''' A common ordinary seaman bests the great Inigo Montoya with the sword? [[PunctuatedForEmphasis In-con-ceiv-a-ble]].

* TheBigDamnKiss: For Westley and Buttercup's first kiss, the narrative goes on at length about how, since the accidental invention of the kiss, people have been divided over what mathematical equation will best describe the perfect kiss; however, there have been five throughout history that everyone agrees "deserve full marks." The narrative then declares, "Well, this one left them ''all'' behind."