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1-Page Summary of The Princess Bride
The Princess Bride begins with William Goldman’s discussion of his life, family and the book itself. He explains that he has edited out the “good parts,” which were originally read to him by his father when he was ten years old.
The story begins with Buttercup, one of the world’s most beautiful women. She lives on a farm with her parents and Westley, their farm hand. One day a band of Florinese royalty appear on the farm, and while watching them watch Westley, she falls in love with him. He leaves to America to seek his fortune soon after that encounter. Soon he’s reported as dead by Count Rugen (the Dread Pirate Roberts). Buttercup is broken-hearted and vows never to fall in love again for fear of being hurt like this.
The next three chapters deal with the preparations for Humperdinck’s wedding to Buttercup. We learn that he loves hunting, is good at it, and spends most of his time in a zoo he created where he keeps dangerous animals from around the world. His father is old and dying, so Humperdinck must marry soon or else lose his place as king. After an unfortunate event with Princess Buttercup’s cousin Beatrice (the princess of Guilder), Count Rugen leads him to meet Buttercup. He demands her hand in marriage.
In Chapter Five, Buttercup is kidnapped by a group of men that includes Vizzini, Fezzik, and Inigo. They sail across the sea to the cliffs on the coast of Guilder. Meanwhile, there’s a mysterious black boat following them from afar. The man in black follows each man individually and defeats him in his strength—Vizzini gets killed in battle with wits; Fezzik gets beaten up but lives; Inigo ends up unconscious after fighting with swords and wrestling. While Buttercup runs away with Westley (the man who was assumed to have been killed), Humperdinck sends out his soldiers to chase after her as well as Westley. She decides she’ll only go back if he promises not to hurt Westley or kill him because she loves him so much. The lovers are separated again when they run into Humperdinck anyway on their way back to Florin castle.
Chapter Six is about the plans that Buttercup, Humperdinck and Inigo have leading up to the wedding. The man in black (Westley) is being tortured by Count Rugen at the Zoo of Death. Buttercup has nightmares about Westley’s death, which makes her sad because she still loves him. Meanwhile, Humperdinck wants to kill his new wife on their wedding night so he can blame it on Guilder and start a war with them. He also reassures Buttercup that they are looking for Westley but then says he would never lie to her, which shows how much he respects her as a person. However, when she calls him a weakling for not finding Westley yet, he gets offended and leaves in order to kill Westley himself at the torture machine in the zoo of death.
Chapter 7 describes how Inigo and Fezzik make their way to the bottom of the castle, where they think Westley’s body is. They have to go through a lot of obstacles on their way down, including a ravenous snake and King bats. Both Inigo and Fezzik save each other from certain death when one of them is in trouble with something dangerous. When they finally arrive at Miracle Max’s house, he creates a miracle pill that brings Westley back to life. He takes it right away outside while still on top of the castle wall, so everyone can see him come back alive again! Then he comes up with an idea for them to get inside the castle without being seen by any guards or anyone else who might be watching. So then they light Fezzik on fire and wheel him toward some guards standing nearby; this works perfectly because no one notices anything unusual about this sight!
