The film which is based on this book is probably more famous than the book itself. The main plot was very familiar - I have seen the movie several times and the movie plot follows the book almost in verbatim except for a few scenes which have been dropped out of the movie (apparently they would have been too complicated to shoot). At the end of this edition, there are also some unconnected scenes from the “second part” of the book. (Unfortunately, that can’t be published as the writing is supposed to be done by Steven King and he hasn’t written it yet). The book has a framing story which tells how William Goldman heard these stories as a child. When he hunted down the book as an adult, he found that there were some boring bits besides the good parts as his father had omitted the boring bits while telling the story. Then he decided to abridge the story by removing all the boring bits, and was able to produce something even his son loved. However, there were a lot of legal difficulties with the curator of the original author’s estate, which all were eventually settled. All that is totally fictional, as fictional as the basic plot probably everyone knows: The Story of the True Love (+ some exiting action) where a beautiful girl falls in love with a farm boy who ends up as a pirate while his love of life is courted by the evil prince of the realm, who is plotting the assassination of his bride to be.
The book is as good as the film; the writing is warm and witty. There are lot of action, a lot of humor, a lot to love in this book.
416 pp
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