The Princess Bride: Reread Date 7/26-7/28

The Book: The Princess Bride by William Goldman

First Edition: 1973

My Edition: 1987 film companion.

Pre Reread Notes:

I’m going to be perfectly honest. (If I can’t be honest on my blog, where can I be?) The first time I read The Princess Bride I was underwhelmed. I love the movie. I love everything about the movie. I love the cast, I love the dialogue, I love all of it. But well, I was young. It was a long book. I read it at the beach. There was no Billy Crystal. I think you get the point.

That being said, the copy that I found in my basement has that really awesome well loved feeling. I mean to say, it is falling apart. In fact, I’m pretty sure it fell apart. The cover is held on with masking tape. To be fair, The Princess Bride has been crazy loved. We love this book in the Nayden household. My brother especially. And my brother doesn’t love books. My sister once gave a copy as a Christmas present to her ex boyfriend, do you know why? Because he’d never heard of it and she said if they wanted to continue dating he had to read it. He did, they were together for about another year and a half. Of course, that guy turned out to be kind of a loser, but I digress. The point is, The Princess Bride has magical uniting powers. It makes everything better. But really, from what I recall, the movie is way better.

Post Reread Notes:

I still like the movie better. That’s not really fair. It’s just the reading is so tainted by the movie. I mean, how could anyone not hear Peter Faulk’s voice in the narrative prose, Mandy Patinkin’s perfect baritone talking of his father’s death, etc. when they read it. To be fair, I enjoyed it much more than when I first read it. I was able to appreciate the satire of it more. I got the joke.

The idea behind The Princess Bride is that it was originally a satirical novel about the fall of royalty written by S. Morgenstern, about the fall of royalty, that William Goldman’s father read to him when he was sick in bed with pneumonia. (Yes, here it’s father to son, to grandfather to grandson.) But the thing was that his father skipped all of the satire and turned it into a romance and adventure story. So Goldman claims that his is the “good parts” version, complete with the occasional commentary (which in the movie is the Faulk/Savage parts.) It also helps that Goldman wrote the screenplay, so he was able to iron out any of the problems that were in the novel (and there are a few). I think that’s why it’s better. Or maybe it’s just Billy Crystal.

Either way, it boils down to this I liked it. This book is an amazing piece of work. A classic. I understand why my father waited years for us to be old enough to read it. But for all of that, I still think the movie is better. And that’s not even because of Cary Elwes’s pecs (Cary Elwe’s was Orlando Bloom before Orlando Bloom, except funny, you know, on purpose) although they are quite nice. A pre Wonder Years Fred Savage doesn’t hurt either. I still think his performance as the video game and baseball obsessed Grandson more greatly impacted his little brother Ben than Kevin Arnold, because this kid is Cory Matthews. And all roads lead to Boy Meets World. But I guess that’s not the point. Actually I’m not sure I have a point. I just wanted to extol the virtues of this spectacular film. But back to the book.

I said already that it was a family favorite. But I didn’t quite expect what happened when I told my brother about this whole project and asked if he had any suggestions. (I noted before that Mike’s not a nook person. Just not his thing.)

“Princess Birde, is on there right?” He said urgently. I gasped in horror at the presumption that I would ever not include it.

“Of course!” I said. “I’m not crazy!”

“Good,” he nodded. “What about Jurrasic Park?” (Mike will also read anything Michael Chrichton wrote. It wasn’t. I added it.)

What I said before about the book bringing people together? I meant that. I think it’s the only non school book that all five members of my immediate family have read. Maybe something by Grisham, except that Mary doesn’t really read Grisham. Therefore, it’s the only book that we can all five of us have a conversation about without the tint of teacher’s voices in our heads. Although usually, those conversations descend into us saying over and over again:

“Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!”

Ella Enchanted Reread Date: 7/26/2010

The Book: Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

First Edition: 1997

My edition: 1998 Scholastic Paperback edition

Pre reread thoughts:

I decide to start with something simple, something small, but still epic. So I chose Gail Carson Levine’s fractured fairytale, Ella Enchanted. The first time I read this book I was in elementary school. I was already pretty into feminism, or what I thought was femnism. So, Levine’s quirky feminist retelling of Cinderella totally appealed to me. The book itself was even better. Ella of Frell, who is cursed by a fairy at birth to be ever obedient, is funny and whip smart. Her prince, Prince Charmont (French, for Charming) is her match in wit and temperament and the pair fall in love not under the starry night sky of a ball, but over the year that Ella turns from fifteen to sixteen and Char to seventeen to eighteen. This is also the year that Ella’s mother dies. It’s not your average Cinderella story.

Ella Enchanted is one of my comfort books, which is why it made this list. To paraphrase the other Ella, no matter how my heart is grieving, Ella manages to give me a little lift. I read the book every year or two, just to make sure that it still hits me the same way. So far it always has. But, like every book that I reread I find something new in it every time I read it. I haven’t read it again since I really took on feminism. So that’s what I’m looking for. Also, it has the added benefit of being a fantasy story, that takes place in a medieval fictitious country, so there’s none of that messy dated pop culture feeling to it that some children’s and teen books get. Anyway, we’ll see.

Post Reread thoughts:

Well I was right about it not taking long. Four hours later, I’d laughed, cried and fallen in love with Ella and Char and their story of magic, fairies, ogres all over again. I was also right about the feminism. My God! If we’re worried about what Bella Swann is going to do to the feminist possibilities of young girls who love to read from now on, we’re just going to have to count on heroines like Ella to counter act them. I have to confess, I did sort of take this simple children’s story and read it as a feminist allegory. It was just so easy. After all Ella fights against her patriarchal father, saves herself, rather than waiting for Char to save her, and creates her own happily ever after.

The romance between Ella and Char is perhaps the biggest revelation at this point in my life. The two form a friendship, a “we like each other but don’t know what it means,” kind of relationship and then fall in love. It’s remarkably mature for a romance meant for little girls. It teaches the steps for building a healthy relationship. Plus in the end, the choose each other. A beautiful sentiment. Oh, and did I mention the part, where he falls in love with her all over again, when she’s disguised at the ball? I love that part.

Ella’s evil step family in this version aren’t portrayed as outwardly wicked. No, they are instead shown as foolish, greedy and mean spirited. Her step mother Dame Olga and her two daughters, Hattie and Olive are like mean girls in a middle school. They use Ella’s curse against her, but never in the ways that Ella most fears. Hattie controls Ella while the girls are at school, banning her from speaking to her only friend, a girl named Arieda. Dame Olga uses it to force her to be a servant in her own home when her father loses all of her money. Olive uses it to take money from Ella. Eventually, Hattie tries to use it to steal Char. But our stalwart, feminist era prince will have none of it. No, he sees right through Hattie and wants only Ella.

I’m not crazy. I swear, I mean, a lot of fictional characters have helped me become a feminist. But I think Ella’s a major one. I’m not saying I’m looking for my Prince Char and that’s why I’m so terminally single. Or maybe I am. Is it so wrong to want a guy who laughs at my jokes, and would catch me a centaur colt (which Char does for Ella before she leaves for finishing school) or put up with my crazy family. I’d settle for life without the centaur. Because if Harry Potter is to be believed, centaurs are kind of douchey. But I don’t think it’s wrong to strive for that kind of relationship. Or that delusional. I mean, expecting him to be the crown prince of a mystical country would be delusional, but not unacceptable, if it turns out that Narnia or something is real, and some guy I’m totally compatible with is the prince of it, that’s cool. Or even if say, I make really good friends with Prince Harry, or one of Grace Kelly’s grandsons, I’d absolutely do the marriage thing with them. If we were right for each other, the way that Ella and Char are. I’m not saying I’d marry them just because they were Royal. (Her Serene Highness Princess Irene Brady Nayden Renaldo does sound super nice though)

So, basically after rereading it, with more education and life experience behind me, Ella Enchanted still gets a huge thumbs up from me. I still adore everything about the book. It’s well written and funny, and gives a real look at what a real heroine could be. Even if she does still end up with the totally cute guy at the end, Ella gets much more than just that. And that is what makes her special. Or at least what makes her special to me.

Here We Go

I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Reenie. I'm a twenty two (almost twenty three) year old customer service representative with a small internet retailer/English Lit student. Someday I want to be a writer. Or I guess I am a writer. Whatever. This is my Happiness Project. For more information on what exactly that means, either stay tuned, or check out Gretchen Rubin's website.

I’ve been spending a lot of time reading memoirs about people who made changes in their lives to improve them. Sometimes, these changes are huge, Elizabeth Gilbert’s quest across the world to find inner peace, or Gretchen Rubin’s small, but no less revolutionary Happiness Project (See I told you it would come back!), Julie Powell’s culinary insanity, and I’m about to start in on A.J. Jacobs’s two big quests, after reading about his smaller ones and being enchanted. There is a distinct theme in all of these stories.

These are all fairly normal people, with reasonably functional lives. Oh sure, Gilbert was a serial monogamist with self esteem issues, Powell a dissatisfied cubicle dweller (aren’t we all, at least on the inside?) and Rubin a, OK, I still can’t quite figure out what exactly was wrong in Rubin’s life, but that’s sort of what I love about her book (more on that later.) They all also took something that made them feel passionate, and excited and folded it into their regular routine to make their lives better. The only thing that has ever gotten me that excited, was books. I love books. I love them so much I want to take them out behind the middle school and get them pregnant. (Thank you Mr. Tracy Jordan for that gem.)

So for my big life change, here’s what I’m doing. I’m making a list of 50 books, I’m reading them, and I’m writing about them. Sounds easy? There are some rules:

I have to have read the book before.

1. I have to have had some visceral or passionate reaction to this book (love, hate, life changing awe and wonder, doesn’t matter. The book had to make me feel something other than just, “Oh, I read that book.”)
2. Before I begin the rereading, I have to outline my initial experience with the book, what it’s meant to me, when I first read it (if I can remember) and why it made the list
3. During the reading, I’m not allowed to write full sentences or paragraphs (notes are fine)
4. Once I’m finished I have to write what the book meant to me this time around. Has my opinion of the book changed, etc. and I have to categorize how it affected the project. Not all books will be equal, for example, I’m sure I’ll have much more to say about like Little Women than I will about say, Stephanie Meyers’s The Host. But they’re both on the list.
5. I must read at least one list book a month, for the next twelve months (more are allowed, of course, but at least one.)

So, those are the rules. Now, for the list:

1. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

2. Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster

3. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

4. Divine Secrets of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

5. Emma by Jane Austen

6. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

7. Avalon High by Meg Cabot

8. The Host by Stephanie Meyer

9. Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling

10. Clapton: The Autobiography by Eric Clapton

11. The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

12. Looking for Mary or The Blessed Mother and Me by Beverly Donofrio

13. The Partner by John Grisham

14. A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

15. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

16. The Hound of The Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

17. Sundays at Tiffany’s by James Patterson

18. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

19. Wicked by Gregory Maguire

20. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

21. The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde

22. The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown

23. Julie and Julia by Julie Powell

24. My Life in France by Julia Child

25. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

26. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

27. The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy by Douglas Adams

28. Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan

29. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas

30. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

31. Le Petite Prince (en Francais) by Antoine De Saint-Exupery

32. Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

33. Dearest Friend by Lynne Withey

34. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

35. Island of The Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell

36. Ramona Quimby: Age 8 by Beverly Cleary

37. The Princess Bride by William Goldman

38. The Giver by Lois Lowry

39. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

40. The Catcher in The Rye by JD Salinger

41. A Separate Peace by John Knowles

42. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

43. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

44. The Voyage of The Dawn Treader by CS Lewis

45. The Return of the King by JRR Tolkien

46. Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller

47. Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell

48. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

49. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

50. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton