The Princess Bride (novel)
1973 novel by William Goldman
The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure, The "Good Parts" Version is a 1973 fantasy romance novel by American writer William Goldman. The book combines elements of comedy, adventure, fantasy, drama, romance, and fairy tale. It is metafictionally presented as an abridgment of a longer work by the fictional S. Morgenstern, and Goldman's commentary asides are constant throughout. It was originally published in the United States by Harcourt Brace, then later by Random House, while in the United Kingdom it was later published by Bloomsbury.
The book was adapted into a 1987 feature film directed by Rob Reiner, starring Cary Elwes and Robin Wright.
William Goldman said, "I've gotten more responses on The Princess Bride than on everything else I've done put together—all kinds of strange outpouring letters. Something in The Princess Bride affects people."
When the original edition failed to sell well, the author and editor Spider Robinson convinced Goldman to let him excerpt the novel, namely the "Duel Scene", in the anthology The Best of All Possible Worlds (1980). Robinson believes this helped the novel reach the right audience.
In 2015, a collection of essays on the novel and the film adaptation was published entitled The Princess Bride and Philosophy.
Plot
The novel opens with William Goldman explaining how he came to write the story.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Princess Bride (novel)” as 1973 novel by William Goldman. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1973 novel by William Goldman. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1935913. VIAF identifies the subject as 305161467. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1973, 1987, 1980 and 2015.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “The Princess Bride (novel)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.