Episode 024: The Princess Bride
Download MP3Today we are talking about S. Morgenstern’s “The Princess Bride”, edited by William Goldman.
Summary:
Westley and Buttercup live a simple life on a farm, and fall in love. Westley sails off to find his fortune so that he can properly marry Buttercup, but his ship is overtaken by a notorious pirate who never leaves survivors. Heart-broken, Buttercup eventually agrees to marry Prince Humperdinck (rather than face execution), but she does not love him. Then she is kidnapped by people intending on murdering her, then kidnapped again by a masked stranger who turns out to be her lost love, Westley. They are captured by Humperdinck, who secretly tortures and then murders Westley, and plans to murder Buttercup after they wed. Unlikely alliances and one miracle later, Westley rescues Buttercup and they ride off into the sunset into eternal happiness.
That’s the story.
Or at least, that’s one of the stories, told within a bigger story about stories. It’s a romance, it’s an adventure, it’s a revenge tale, it’s a fairy tale, it’s social commentary, and maybe it’s something else too.
Nerd Words:
Dennis: harried https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/harried
Trevor: swashbuckler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swashbuckler
Kirsten: egelwegel https://nltimes.nl/2019/12/17/boomer-voted-new-dutch-word-year
Alan: decade https://www.dictionary.com/browse/decade
Tell me about a book I haven’t read yet:
Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline
The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel
Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Time to Read podcast. We were talking about The Princess Bride by William Goldman.
Time to Read is a production of the Winnipeg Public Library. Our panel today included Alan Chorney, Dennis Penner, Kirsten Wurmann, and Trevor Lockhart. Erica will return in a future episode. Our webmaster is Arryn Seburn. Our social media guru is Reegan Breu. Audio production, and music by Dennis Penner.
Some of our comments today came from: Adam Ziegler, Charlie Nellam, missdsmenagerie, Jamie Biebrick,
You can be a part of our show too. Email us at wpl-podcast@winnipeg.ca with suggestions for books that you’d like us to read and discuss, and comments and questions about the book we’re reading for our next show!
Visit us on the web at wpl-podcast.winnipeg.ca: check out our show notes with links to some of the things we talked about today, and take part in a discussion about the books we’re reading. You can also join our Facebook group!
Next month we’re reading Great House by Nicole Krauss. We’re looking forward to hearing what you think about it.
Creators and Guests
Host
Dennis Penner
Dennis works in the ideaMILL and while he prefers mysteries and non-fiction, he’s open to reading almost anything. He’s also the editor/producer, so he can edit the show to make himself sound smarter than he really is.
Host
Trevor Lockhart
Trevor is the Branch Head of the Louis Riel library. He tends to be a slow reader but a fast talker, so it all evens out.
