Inconceivable!

December 16, 2015 2:18 PM

Why wife strongly recalls having seen an edition of The Princess Bride where all the interruptions from the reader are in red, and the introduction matches the movie with a Peter Faulk type character rather than the one with William Goldman's rambling take of being at the poolside with the starlet and taking phone calls from his wife. Does such an edition exist?i can find no trace of it online.
posted by Artw to Media & Arts (14 answers total)

Best answer: The edition I read had William Goldman's (presumably fictional) grandfather reading him the story. The story is that the story was written by someone else. William Goldman's father read it to him. Years later Goldman finds the book and realizes that it's nothing like he remembers. It's basically a rambling detailed treatise on victorian (?) life. I remmeber him saying that there were four pages describing the hats that a woman (buttercup?) was packing to go on some trip.

So the intro says that after William Goldman foudnt eh book and realized it was long and boring, he cut it down and published a "just the good parts" which is the edition you hold in your hands.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 2:23 PM on December 16, 2015

She might be conflating "The Never ending Story" with "The Princess Bride". Never ending story is printed in red and green ink, depending on where the story is taking place.
posted by cosmicbandito at 2:26 PM on December 16, 2015 [21 favorites]

Best answer: The copy of The Princess Bride I read when I was a kid had red-ink interruptions just like your wife says. The copy I read was from my local library. I don't remember any poolside scenes or phone calls being in there.

Sadly I can't help you track it down - I don't recall anything about the publisher or the edition - but I can at least confirm that your wife isn't imagining it or pulling your leg.
posted by DanielK at 2:43 PM on December 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: If only I had a penguin pretty much describes the lAter half of the long and rambling introduction from the one I have.
posted by Artw at 2:48 PM on December 16, 2015

Here, there's a comment from someone who says the 1974 Ballantine book club edition has Goldman's comments in red ink.
posted by culfinglin at 2:53 PM on December 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: "There was both a trade and a book club edition of The Princess Bride from about 1973 which had the two colors of text, much the way that The Neverending Story did a decade later."
posted by MonkeyToes at 2:55 PM on December 16, 2015 [2 favorites]

An old version of the Wikipedia page reads:

The first edition features red text for the abridgement notes, as does the first mass-market paperback edition (Ballantine, 1974); later paperbacks used italics instead, with the sentence "All abridging remarks and other comments will be in red so you'll know" correspondingly altered.
posted by crazy with stars at 2:55 PM on December 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

Does this cover ring any bells?
posted by MonkeyToes at 2:57 PM on December 16, 2015

Response by poster: So it sounds like the version with the red text absolutely exists but there is no edition with significantly different text?
posted by Artw at 3:06 PM on December 16, 2015

I remember the poolside scene and taking a call from his wife (and the red text). It was in Goldman's introduction to the book. The rest of the book is the same.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 3:37 PM on December 16, 2015

Best answer: List of various editions.
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:39 PM on December 16, 2015

So it sounds like the version with the red text absolutely exists but there is no edition with significantly different text?

Yep. I had the edition with the red text, but the intro is the same. Maybe your wife forgot the starlet part but remembered the antiquated dad part.
posted by Specklet at 5:19 PM on December 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

I read this version too; also got it from my local library.
posted by stoneandstar at 5:33 PM on December 16, 2015

I read this version too; also got it from my local library.

Oh, good; I was starting to wonder whether Artw's wife was making a meta-joke about non-existent books.

Maybe a library journal review of the book would point you to the edition(s) recommended for purchase?
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:55 PM on December 16, 2015