Buttercup’s Baby

by William Goldman

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Adventure, Romance

Unknown Binding

About the author

Goldman grew up in a Jewish family in Highland Park, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, and obtained a BA degree at Oberlin College in 1952 and an MA degree at Columbia University in 1956.His brother was the late James Goldman, author and playwright.

William Goldman had published five novels and had three plays produced on Broadway before he began to write screenplays. Several of his novels he later used as the foundation for his screenplays.

In the 1980s he wrote a series of memoirs looking at his professional life on Broadway and in Hollywood (in one of these he famously remarked that "Nobody knows anything"). He then returned to writing novels. He then adapted his novel The Princess Bride to the screen, which marked his re-entry into screenwriting.

Goldman won two Academy Awards: an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for All the President's Men. He also won two Edgar Awards, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Best Motion Picture Screenplay: for Harper in 1967, and for Magic (adapted from his own 1976 novel) in 1979.

Goldman died in New York City on November 16, 2018, due to complications from colon cancer and pneumonia. He was eighty-seven years old.

Reviews

[Lily :0 · Rating 4 out of 5]

my only complaint is that it wasn't longer. its brevity, ultimately, leaves it being a pretty inconsequential piece of work, but id argue that through the snippets of the authors personal life that are weaved in, goldman successfully continues theme of creation and emotional/existential dependency on art as a legacy from the og work. overall a fun addition, i just wish it were a true sequel and not just an extended and very open-ended epilogue

[Cyndi · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a lot of background from William Goldman. This is the story about Buttercup and Westley's baby and how she is raised.

[Lilly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This little story was made up of chapters of fragments that don’t seem to fit together. It’s jumping between present with Fezzik and Waverly, then to a fragment of Inigo’s backstory that feels completely irrelevant, then going back to the end of The Princess Bride, and then continuing back to where first chapter leaves off, only to leave the past a cliff –quite literally.

My favourite part and arguably the only part I somewhat enjoyed of it was chapter two. Which speaks of Inigo and his love Giulietta. It’s the only thing that saved it from a lone 1 ⭐️ rating.

[Mads Nieves-Renz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish they had fleshed this out more, I would have loved this as a completed story.

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Somehow, Goldman made me cry even if it’s supposed to be a joke on his fans. That last part with Fezzik hugging Waverly and just holding her tight and saying bye to her crushed something in me. And then the last message of the autor… more nostalgic tears

[The literal poppet · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t even know what’s going on anymore.

[Gabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun addendum where we get to spend a little more time with our beloved characters but ultimately too open-ended and random to be satisfying.

[⌦K8U · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know this whole thing is meta-fiction satire or wtv but I still wanted to know what happened to Fezzik.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Buttercup’s Baby because (1) it’s the closest thing we have to a sequel to my beloved The Princess Bride by William Goldman and (2) it was included in the back of my copy of The Princess Bride. It’s an unfinished manuscript basically covering some ideas Goldman had (which he credits to S. Morgenstern, of course), and though it’s cool to see our beloved characters revisited, Buttercup’s Baby is pretty fragmented and just has a couple of fun moments here and there.

As in the original novel, author William Goldman explains that he has taken the unfinished book Buttercup’s Baby (which is a sequel to The Princess Bride by Florinese author S. Morgenstern) and heavily abridged its first chapter, which he admits is simply fragments of what would have eventually become a full story. The first bit describes the giant Fezzik risking his life to save Waverly, the infant daughter of Westley and Buttercup, as she is being kidnapped by a faceless madman. The story then leaps over to tell more about the backstory of Spanish swordsman Inigo Montoya during his training with the Italian mindmaster Piccoli and his romance with the beautiful Guilietta. The majority of the manuscript picks up immediately where The Princess Bride left off, with the four heroes escaping Humperdinck thanks to pirates and settling on a nearby island to hide. Buttercup’s pregnancy leads to a traumatic birthing experience in which she almost dies but is saved by Fezzik, who gets possessed by an unknown force just in time to deliver Waverly. The manuscript ends abruptly by going back to the first fragment, where Fezzik saves Waverly’s life at the cost of his own.

I don’t know if Goldman ever actually intended to flesh out Buttercup’s Baby into a full-length novel (knowing him, I doubt it), and he leans hard into his metafiction worldbuilding, explaining why certain passages are the way they are, and identifying his reasons for not being able to adapt more of the novel. There’s no cohesive plot, of course — just a series of vignettes related to The Princess Bride. Goldman owns up to the fragmented nature of the novel and even uses it for narrative purposes of his own, but Buttercup’s Baby just doesn’t have the sparkle of its predecessor. The tone is not nearly as comical or witty as The Princess Bride, nor does it have the “heartfelt satire” vibes of the original story. Not even Goldman’s trademark matter-of-fact editorial notes can redeem a story that reads like scraps torn out of Morgenstern’s fanfiction diary.

Inigo Montoya’s story is by far the best part of Buttercup’s Baby. We see him as a twenty-year-old master swordsman, by far the best in the world but still seeking a higher perfection as he begins training under Piccoli, the Italian “master of the mind” who teaches him that his real journey is a quest to kill the pain inside himself. This portion is made especially good in the very romantic, compelling love story between Inigo and Giulietta, a peasant girl who is the fulfillment of Inigo’s literal dreams since childhood; Guilietta turns out to be a noble lady, of course, and that portion of the book ends all too abruptly. The largest portion of Buttercup’s Baby picks up during the four heroes’ escape from Humperdinck at the end of The Princess Bride; it fills in some blanks and shows us a few sweet interactions between our characters, but overall it’s a bit disjointed, unremarkable, and even downright weird. The bookend narrative, with Fezzik trying to save Waverly, shows a precious connection between the giant and the baby, but I just… can’t accept that ending. I’m with Goldman — Morgenstern would never kill off Fezzik.

Buttercup’s Baby ends with a touching final note from Goldman as he ponders Morgenstern’s intentions with the sequel, the impact of The Princess Bride on people’s lives, and the unusual connection it facilitates between author and reader. I enjoyed revisiting the world of The Princess Bride and getting some extra info about what happened to the characters after the story ended, but I also kind of feel like The Princess Bride was fine as it was. Buttercup’s Baby adds a few fun little moments to the canon, but not enough for me to want to read it again. Except maybe Inigo’s part.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some stories don't need a sequel, and The Princess Bride is one of them....

While this co tinu3s the narrative of having Goldman jump in with his own life/thoughts/opinions kept in theme with TPB, the back and forth of Fezzik/Waverly, continuing where TPB left off, and the almost possibility of a happier life for Inigo was like a game of ping pong.

This left me very unsatisfied, almost wishing that I didnt read it.

[Matthew Carvalho · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's not too much to say. It's a nice extra edition to the Princess Bride! Although I'll be honest I wish I never read it! I think the Princess Bride ends perfectly and this extra ending isn't warranted. There was some funny parts; mainly relating to when Stephen King is mentioned; other than that it's okay I guess.

[Sheryl Hart]

I read the excerpt and it was ok. Also does no one realize that the kids could write the sequel or if he has kids that they could write it though if it's a ghostwriter they would have to be very into his books to write like him.

[Zainab · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty odd story, especially with the very long explanation that Goldman wrote beforehand. Good continuation to the story otherwise.

[Lalima B · Rating 4 out of 5]

more like a short epilogue

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

So many unanswered questions and too much time line movement.

[Akku · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually 2.75 but i rounded it to 3.

[Jennifer Keniry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel silly rating this the same as The Princess Bride since it’s so short/unfinished, but I actually teared up during the Fezzik Falling section and his little relationship with Waverly.