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Monkey

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Monkey

Written by: Wu Ch’êng-ên, Arthur Waley - translator
Narrated by: Kenneth Williams
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Summary

Considered one of China's great classical novels, Wu Ch'êng-ên's Journey to the West was translated by Arthur Waley in abridged form as Monkey in 1942 and has delighted English readers ever since. It is a riveting adventure story about a priest's quest to obtain holy Buddhist scriptures for the Tang emperor; joining him on this rollicking journey: Sandy, Pigsy, and the mischievous monkey king, Sun Wukong, whose flying cloud and magic cudgel are never far from his infamous deeds. Waley's accessible rendition of Wu Ch'êng-ên's novel has become a classic in its own right: Gods, demons, and disobedient monkey spirits all come alive in this entertaining work.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©1981 Nimbus Records Ltd. (P)2015 Naxos AudioBooks Classics China
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I'm a big fan of JTTW and Kenneth Williams did the brief chapters in this version much justice. Will listen to again.

Wonderfully done.

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A nice change from Western classics. The book reminded me a lot of adventure stories like the Ramayana and Don Quixote. Some chapters weave into each other, a-la One Thousand and One Nights. The book is playfully voiced by Kenneth Williams.

Playful, clear, and unique

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For those that doesn't know, Monkey is an abridged translation of Journey to the West, a(n absolutely massive) novel from 16th century (Ming Dynasty) China. It's a mythologized telling of how Buddhism was brought to China, featuring a broad array of creatures and personalities from Chinese folklore/mythology. The story, after the first few chapters which act as a sort of prologue, is largely episodic. Monkey contains only a few such "episodes" from Journey to the West but these are (as far as I can tell) translated in full. It's enough to get a sense for the characters and themes, and given the ~2500 page length of of a full translation of Journey, Monkey's ~350 pages is much more manageable for a casual read (or listen, in this case).

It's a fairly fun adventure story which proceeds a fair bit faster than many European classics, but still has a degree of depth to it. As for this vocal recording, Kenneth Williams is generally fine here in my opinion, although he does mispronounce and over-emphasize a lot of the Chinese names, and some of the voices he uses are a bit silly for my tastes (although it does help for following the back and forth dialogue that happens quite frequently and works with the generally fun tone of the story). So if either of those are things which are likely to bother you then that's something to be aware of. Overall I'd highly recommend this audiobook for those looking for either a fun adventure story or for an audio recording of one of China's most famous stories.

Very Enjoyable (Translated) Chinese Classic

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