1. The Princess Bride
By: William Goldman

2. Author: William Goldman
He was born in Illinois on August 12, 1931.
He is an American Novelist, Playwright, and two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter.
He is now 84 years old and lives in New York City.
He started writing screenplays in 1965.

3. Goldman has won two Academy Awards:
original screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
adapted screenplay for All the Presidents Men
He has also won two Edgar Awards (from the Mystery Writers of America) for Best Motion Picture Screenplay:
Harper in 1967
Magic (adapted from his own 1976 novel) in 1979

4. Other screenplays he’s written:
Mission Impossible 3
General’s Daughter
Maverick
The Ghost and the Darkness
All the President’s Men
The Stepford Wives
The Princess Bride

5. William Goldman A.K.A. Morgenstern

6. Simon Morgenstern is both a pseudonym and a narrative device invented by Goldman to add another layer to his novel, The Princess Bride. He presents his novel as being an abridged version of a work by the fictional Morgenstern, an author from the equally fictional country of Florin.

7. The details of Goldman's life given in the introduction and commentary for The Princess Bride are also largely fictional. For instance, he says that his wife is a psychiatrist and that he was inspired to abridge Morgenstern's The Princess Bride for his only child, a son. (The Princess Bride actually originated as a bedtime story for Goldman's two daughters.) He not only treats Morgenstern and the countries of Florin and Guilder as real, but even claims that his own father was Florinese and had immigrated to America.

8. Creation of TPB:
Goldman would make up bedtime stories for his daughters, who at the time were 7 and 4. One night, asking them what they wanted his next story to be about, one replied “princesses,” the other “brides.” Thus The Princess Bride was born.
Witty criticism of the fairy tale format
Satire: writing that criticizes ideas, conventions, and/or other literary works

9. TPB as Satire:
It’s a satire of the extreme British royalty and how excessive they were. 
The use of florin (name for a type of currency from Florence, Italy at the time--gold coin struck in 1252) as the name of the country.
In Britain, a florin was a two-shilling coin produced from 1928 to 1968.

10. Archetypes in TPB: Character Archetypes: Situational Archetypes
The Battle Between Good and Evil
The Unhealable Wound
The Ordinary World
The Call to Adventure
The Ordeal
The Task/Journey
Supernatural Intervention
The Fall
Character Archetypes:
The Hero
The Beautiful Maiden
The Damsel in Distress
The Monster/Ogre
The Companions
The Hag/Witch/Shaman
The Evil Genius
The Sadist

11. Major Characters
Buttercup -  The most beautiful woman in the world and the heroine of this story. Buttercup loves Westley and her horse. She is feisty and tomboyish.
Westley -  Buttercup's beloved Farm Boy. Westley is a brave, multi-talented man who leaves to seek his fortune.

12. Prince Humperdinck - The heir to the Florinese throne
Prince Humperdinck  - The heir to the Florinese throne. Humperdinck is squat, hunting-obsessed, and rather ridiculous.
Vizzini -  A Sicilian man of genius. Vizzini is the brains behind the trio (himself, Fezzik, and Inigo). He is smug and ruthless.

13. Fezzik -  The timid, large-hearted, and obedient giant who accompanies Vizzini. Fezzik loves rhymes and his friend Inigo, and he is excellent at lifting heavy things.
Inigo Montoya -  Vizzini's man of steel. Inigo is the world's youngest sword-fighting wizard and an extremely skilled and dangerous man. He has spent his life learning the sword in order to avenge his father's death at the hands of Count Rugen. He is an inherently good and loyal man, and he loves swordfighting, brandy, and Fezzik.

14. Count Rugen - Prince Humperdinck's right-hand man
Count Rugen  -  Prince Humperdinck's right-hand man. He loves to torture others.
The Countess -  The Count's wife. The countess is the most fashionable woman in what would become Europe. Her attentiveness to Westley stirs envy in Buttercup.
King Lotharon -  The King of Florin, and Humperdinck's father. King Lotharon, by the time of the story, is quite old, deaf, and difficult to understand.

15. Queen Bella - The Queen of Florin and Humperdinck's stepmother.
Miracle Max -  Once the king's leading miracle man, but Humperdinck fired him and he retired.
Valerie -  Miracle Max's wife. Valerie stands in as his witch, since all miracle men must have their own witches.
Dread Pirate Roberts -  The most feared pirate name on the seas. .