Buttercup, the commoner-turned-princess, loves Wesley, the farmhand-turned-dashing hero, with all her heart, and of course Wesley loves her, too. But when he is killed by pirates while off trying to make his fortune so he can marry her, she agrees to marry the horrible Prince Humperdink. However, all is not as it seems. Humperdink plots to kill Buttercup with the help of his right-hand-man, the sadistic Count Rugen, in order to start a war with the neighbouring country of Guilder, and only the timely resurrection of her darling Wesley can save her. But since this is a satire of fairytales, nothing goes according to plan, and although Wesley and Buttercup are the romantic leads, they are far from being the most interesting characters. Buttercup may be the most beautiful woman alive, but she has all the brains and depth of character of a cardboard cutout. Wesley is just way too perfect, and how can a reader sympathise with that? It is the supporting cast of quirky secondary characters, including my favourite, Inigo Montoya, that makes this story a classic. However, the truly classic work of fiction here is Goldman's introduction, explaining how he didn't write the story, only abridged the "good parts" version from the Florinese original by S. Morgenstern. The story he weaves about his life and his discovery and love of this "timeless classic" -- not to mention his notes interrupting the text to explain what he cut out and why -- has had countless readers searching for years for the Morgenstren "original". Much to my delight, at the end of this edition (25th anniversary), I discovered the "abridgment" of the first chapter of Buttercup's Baby, the putative sequel, prefaced by a 22 page introduction every bit as delightful as that of the original book. This new chapter also included a PG-rated "sex scene" between Buttercup and Wesley that had me giggling all the way through.