William Goldman The Princess Bride

"Nutball funny. . . . A 'classic' medieval melodrama that sounds like all the Saturday serials you ever saw feverishly reworked by the Marx Brothers."-- Newsweek A tale of true love and high adventure, pirates, princesses, giants, miracles, fencing, and a frightening assortment of wild beasts that is a modern storytelling classic, now available as a limited Olive Edition from Harper Perennial. As Florin and Guilder teeter on the verge of war, Princess Buttercup is devastated when her one true love dies at sea. But instead of being able to grieve in peace, she finds herself kidnapped by a mercenary and his henchmen, then rescued by a pirate, then forced to marry Prince Humperdinck, and finally rescued once again by the very crew who absconded with her in the first place. In the course of this dazzling adventure, she'll meet Vizzini--the criminal philosopher who'll do anything for a bag of gold; Fezzik--the gentle giant; Inigo--the Spaniard whose steel thirsts for revenge; and Count Rugen--the evil mastermind behind it all. Foiling all their plans is Westley, Buttercup's true love who survived after all, and became a very good friend to a very dangerous pirate. The Princess Bride was unforgettably depicted in the 1987 cult classic film directed by Rob Reiner and starring Fred Savage, Robin Wright, Billy Crystal, Mandy Patinkin, Wallace Shawn, Cary Elwes, and other actors.