On the HahaFiction shelf
The Princess Bride
Buttercup believes pirates have killed Westley, the farm boy she loves. Prince Humperdinck intends to marry her, but a mysterious man in black has other plans. Goldman surrounds the rescue with sword fights, giants and competing ambitions, then adds a narrator who keeps stepping in to explain which parts of the story deserve telling.
From the publisher’s blurb
“a dazzling satire of classic fairy tales.”Read the full description at Bloomsbury Publishing
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What makes it funny?
Even the opening’s grand claims about beauty come with fussy qualifications and irrelevant history. The narrator invokes Voltaire as an authority, then remembers that Voltaire hasn’t been born yet. Buttercup, meanwhile, has named her horse Horse.
The comedy at work
Goldman pretends to be editing an old Florinese classic, preserving the exciting passages his father supposedly read aloud. That invented editorial job gives him room to interrupt an adventure with opinions about how adventures ought to be told. The straight-faced corrections in the opening make the narrator another source of jokes.
Try this if…
A taste for romantic rescues and swordplay helps, as does patience for a narrator who talks back to his own story. The book’s elaborate framing gives readers interested in storytelling as much to follow as the fairy-tale adventure.
Good to know
The claim that this is an edited version of an older book belongs to the fictional framing. It’s part of Goldman’s novel, rather than a reason to search for a missing original.
A few distinguishing details
- A fairy-tale rescue told through a mock abridgment
- An intrusive narrator with dubious historical expertise
More funny adventure
Sources & further reading
- Contemporary book review
Review
- Authorized opening excerpt
Reading sample
- Publisher and paperback edition
Publisher
- Author literary representative
Author commentary
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