Metafiction Fantasy “The Princess Bride” by William Goldman (post 2): Author says all he did was abridge “S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure”

The first thirty-two pages of this fantasy novel are metafiction (1, 2). The first sentence is, “This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it” (3, p. 1). Goldman goes on to explain that when he was a child, his father read him this book by S. Morgenstern, and that all Goldman has done is abridge Morgenstern’s book by leaving out the dull parts.

Since the fantasy story itself does not warrant this metafictional distraction, Goldman must have been very impressed by a subjective sense that he did not write it. Yet, as he well knew, no other person did write it. Therefore, “S. Morgenstern” must refer to one or more of Goldman’s alternate personalities, because the only way that a person can both be, and not be, the author of a novel, is multiple personality.

Goldman’s feeling that he did not write his novel is typical of novelists. For example, as noted in past posts, Charles Dickens confided to his friend and biographer, John Forster, “I do not invent it,” and Stephen King has said that his stories are “found objects.”

1. Wikipedia. “Metafiction” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metafiction

2. Wikipedia. “List of metafictional works” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metafictional_works

3. William Goldman. The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure, The “Good Parts” Version, Abridged by William Goldman [1973, 1998, 2003]. New York, Harvest/Harcourt, 2007.