The Bartered Bride performed in a public concert on 18 November. In this, he departed from his normal practice of leaving the overture until last. The opera continued to be composed in a piecemeal fashion, as Sabina's libretto gradually took shape. Progress was slow, and was interrupted by other work. Smetana had become Chorus Master of the Hlahol Choral Society in 1862, and spent much time rehearsing and performing with the Society. He was deeply involved in the 1864 Shakespeare Festival in Prague, conducting Berlioz's "Romeo et Juliette" and composing a festival march. That same year he became music correspondent of the Czech
The Princess Bride by Goldman himself. William Goldman said, "I've gotten more responses on "The Princess Bride" than on everything else I've done put together—all kinds of strange outpouring letters. Something in "The Princess Bride" affects people." A segment of the book was published as "Duel Scene (From "The Princess Bride")" in the anthology "The Best of All Possible Worlds" (1980), which was edited by Spider Robinson. In 2015, a collection of essays on the novel and the film adaptation was published entitled "The Princess Bride and Philosophy". In a Renaissance-era world, a young woman named Buttercup lives on a farm in the