William Goldman

The Princess Bride is probably less famous as a book than it is as a movie.  It's a movie starring Fred Savage as a kid, Andre the Giant as Fezzik, Billy Crystal as Miracle Max, Robin Wright as Buttercup, and others. I myself had been familiar with the movie (which I now own) for years before I found out that the book even existed. Amazingly enough, the book is really not very different from the movie. I guess that's because Goldman also wrote the screenplay. In reading the book it is interesting to notice the ways he fits information together differently than in the movie: presumably he wrote the movie differently to make it a reasonable length, to turn narration into dialog, and make the movie exciting. And all this is accomplished without very many loose ends at all. The book and movie fit pretty well.  But the book is a little darker, even though it is funny.  Buttercup is pretty stupid, actually.  I don't know much about Goldman's other books and movies (although I remember seeing and enjoyoing "Maverick"), but you can learn more by following the links at the bottom of the page.

Books by William Goldman

(O=own, R=read, E=enjoyed)

Novels:
  • Absolute Power
  • Boys and Girls Together
  • Brothers
  • Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid
  • The Color of Light
  • Control
  • Edged Weapons
  • Father's Day
  • The Great Waldo Pepper 
  • Heat
  • Magic
  • Marathon Man
  • No Way to Treat A Lady
  • The Princess Bride (ORE)
  • The Silent Gondoliers
  • Soldier in the Rain
  • The Temple of Gold
  • The Thing of It Is...
  • Tinsel
  • Wigger

Non-fiction:

  • Adventures in the Screen Trade
  • The Big Picture: Who Killed Hollywood?: And Other Essays
  • Blood Sweat and Stanley Poole
  • Hype and Glory
  • The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway
  • Wait Till Next Year (with Mike Lupica)
  • Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade

Screenplays:

  • Absolute Power
  • All the President's Men  
  • A Bridge Too Far  
  • Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
  • The Chamber
  • Chaplin
  • Dreamcatcher  
  • Fierce Creatures  
  • The General's Daughter
  • The Ghost and the Darkness
  • The Great Waldo Pepper
  • Harper
  • Hearts in Atlantis  
  • Heat (also a novel)
  • The Hot Rock
  • Magic (also a novel)
  • Masquerade
  • Maverick  
  • Memoirs of an Invisible Man  
  • Misery
  • Mr. Horn (TV)
  • The Princess Bride (also a novel)
  • The Stepford Wives
  • Year of the Comet

Links

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