The Bartered Bride melancholy in a delicate, elegiac manner "without the crushing world-weariness and pessimism of the Russians." Thus, Mařenka's unhappiness is illustrated in the opening chorus by a brief switch to the minor key; likewise, the inherent pathos of Vašek's character is demonstrated by the dark minor key music of his act 3 solo. Smetana also uses the technique of musical reminiscence, where particular themes are used as reminders of other parts of the action; the lilting clarinet theme of "faithful love" is an example, though it and other instances fall short of being full-blown Wagnerian leading themes or "Leitmotifs". Large has
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