[fantasyfan]

I enjoyed The Princess Bride. It has been described as a "revisionist" fairy tale, and I suppose it is that, as Goldman treats the various conventions of the fairy tale very much tongue-in-cheek. While I think he does go overboard in the process on occasion, by and large I think he gives a great deal of entertainment. Certainly, it is a very original approach and I am very glad that I read it.

The film tends generally to be more conventional and makes the most of the swashbuckling and monster scenes. The gentle satire is aimed at the old swashbuckling films of the Errol Flynn variety and in its own way it works just as well as the novel. The fact that Goldman himself write the screenplay adaptation from his book is one of the reasons both approaches work so well.

I wouldn't be without either.