The Princess Bride

William Goldman · 1973 · Novel

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It masterfully satirized and deconstructed classic fairy tale and adventure tropes by presenting them with a meta-narrative and ironic distance.

What it is

A fairy tale adventure presented as an abridged classic, featuring a beautiful maiden, a dashing hero, a giant, a master swordsman, and a six-fingered man. It constantly comments on and subverts the tropes of such stories.

↑Inherited from

This work originated its idea. No known prior influences in the dataset.

↓Passed on to(1)

Discworld: The Colour of Magic· 1983↓ open

Goldman's novel, published a decade before 'The Colour of Magic', explicitly uses a meta-narrative to comment on and subvert traditional fantasy and fairy tale conventions, a technique later central to Pratchett's Discworld.