The story of Buttercup and Westley, the princess bride and the Dread Pirate Roberts, respectively, is in the form of a fairy tale originally recorded by S. Morgenstern and written for a contemporary audience by William Goldman. The novel is a "modern" fairy tale with everything the modern world has come to expect in a story.

But in the manner of old fairy tales the place and the time of the action are not specified.

The Princess Bride reflects the violence and the absurdities of the modern world; there are fist fights, sword fights, instruments of torture, poisonings, disfigurations, and death. In addition to these elements, the world of the novel is populated with misfits: a giant with tremendous strength, a hunchback with great intelligence, a scarred Spaniard with only his father's revenge on his mind, an albino, and an unlikely princess with...