The “Good Parts” Aren’t the Only Good Parts

By Peter M.

Normally, you would expect that an author writing a fiction novel would just write the story of that novel within the novel, and that his writings would solely relate to that story. You would expect that if an author wanted to talk about his life, he would write a memoir or something. Even if an author were to make comments about his writings and his life within his book for some reason, you would normally expect them to actually be true. In The Princess Bride, however, William Goldman blows all of these expectations out of the water.

On the surface of the book, the novel is an abridgement done by Goldman containing all "the good parts" of a much longer, older novel written as a satire by a Florinese writer named S. Morgenstern, or so Goldman tells us. Throughout the novel Goldman briefly interrupts the narration to comment Morgenstern's writing, clarify what he is saying, or to explain and summarize a section of the novel that was cut out.

"... what Morgenstern has done is open this chapter with sixty-six pages of Florinese history. More accurately, it is the history of the Florinese crown.

Dreary? Not to be believed.

Why would such a master of narrative stop his narrative dead before it has much chance to begin generating? No known answer." (Goldman 65)

Goldman's comments help to provide helpful insight into Morgenstern's narration while allowing us readers to read "the good parts" of Morgenstern's story without enduring sixty-six pages of Florinese history. Or, at least that is what it seems like if we don't look deeper into the story.

As it turns out, there is no such writer as Morgenstern, or an original copy of The Princess Bride, or even a country called Florin. These are all fictional elements created by Goldman to tell a second story. Besides the classic story that Goldman tells with great plot, hilarious remark, and fantastic characters, Goldman weaves another story through his comments on 'Morgenstern's novel'.

He talks about how his father, who could barely speak English, would read him Morgenstern's The Princess Bride when he was sick, skipping all of the boring parts and reading only the good parts. Goldman never knew this as a boy and only figured this out when he tried to get his own son to read it, not knowing that Morgenstern periodically went off on fifty page rants about Florinese history. However, the story of The Princess Bride shaped Goldman's aspiration to be a writer and his writing. When he was in a large writing slump, and he finally discovered that Morgenstern's version contained many boring parts, he decided to write an abridgement for the novel that had shaped him so much and show it to others through his eyes.

As meaningful as this story is, this is not Goldman's actual life. It is the second story that he tells through his ingenious usage of comments and the creation of the fictional author Morgenstern's version of The Princess Bride. This second story comes with a completely distinct set of characters including Goldman, his son, his wife, his father, and his second grade teacher. It is even possible to get a glimpse of Morgenstern's character through Goldman's comments and through the voice that Goldman uses to write Morgenstern's narration.

Through Goldman's usage of comments, he is able to tell a second story to readers who don't just take the story at face value. He creates a distinct tale that is almost as well told as the first. Goldman also uses his periodic interruptions to comment on his own writing that is under the guise of Morgenstern. This commenting allows the reader to see the main story through his eyes. This not only enhances the main story for the reader, but it also builds a relatability for his own character, who is the narrator and main character of the underlying story. It seems that Goldman can not only tell a story very well through his writing, but he can also tell another story by manipulating the way his writing sounds, whether it is Morgenstern writing or the fictionalized version of Goldman writing. This skill in writing, in being able to convey another tale and build underlying characters through the way the narration sounds, is something I aspire to in my own writing and is something that I hope that I will be able to do one day.