The Princess Bride by William Goldman

The Princess Bride by William Goldman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This movie, and the book, occupied a central place in my childhood. It was the selection for my bookclub for June, and my copy is in storage in Oregon, so I requested a copy from the library, which I just finished.

I find, distressingly, that while the story remains charming in broad outlines, there's a disconcerting and constant thread of sexism running through the entire novel that kept smacking the adult me in the face each time I tried to slip into a beloved book from childhood.

Peripheral female characters are silly: Goldman's author-narrator is forced to edit away pages and pages of accounts about their clothing, their hat collections, their packing and unpacking. Buttercup's principal virtues, in an adventure story, are her beauty and her faithfulness. In the book, unlike in the movie, Westley (as the Man in Black) actually strikes Buttercup, instead of just threatening it, as he does in the movie. She is entirely without agency, and in many instances is portrayed as being more than a little stupid. But that doesn't matter! She's the Most Beautiful Woman in the Word, preoccupied with an exercise routine that will render her pudgy wrist thinner, and her bony wrist more plump!

The one time that she takes any initiative, it's to jump in the water to get away from her kidnappers. This, of course, cannot be the correct course of action: she requires rescuing from sharks immediately. There are no other, competent women to take the onus off of Buttercup carrying a banner for all women in story, and that she is the only option makes me sad for the little girl I was, reading this story, and for any little girl who reads it today.

It's still as charming as ever, in places, but this time around the sexism was enough to spoil the read for me. I can't quite bring myself to downgrade it like I would if it were a new read, but it's not the perfect novel I once thought it.

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