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Monkey King: Journey to the West cover art

Monkey King: Journey to the West

By: Wu Ch'eng-en, Julia Lovell
Narrated by: Kevin Shen
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

This Penguin Classic is performed by Kevin Shen, and was translated by Julia Lovell.

One of the world's greatest fantasy novels and a rollicking classic of Chinese literature, in a sparkling new translation.

A shape-shifting trickster on a kung-fu quest for eternal life, Monkey King is one of the most memorable superheroes in world literature. High-spirited and omni-talented, he can transform himself into whatever he chooses and turn each of his body's 84,000 hairs into an army of clones. But his penchant for mischief repeatedly gets him into trouble, and when he raids Heaven's Orchard of Immortal Peaches, the Buddha pins him beneath a mountain.

Five hundred years later, Monkey King is finally given a chance to redeem himself: he must protect the pious monk Tripitaka on his journey in search of precious Buddhist sutras that will bring enlightenment to the Chinese empire.

Joined by two other fallen immortals—Pigsy, a rice-loving flying pig, and Sandy, a depressive river-sand monster—Monkey King does battle with Red Boy, Princess Jade-Face, the Monstress Dowager, and all manner of dragons, ogres, wizards and femmes fatales; navigates the perils of Fire-Cloud Cave, the River of Flowing Sand and the Water-Crystal Palace; and is serially captured, lacquered, sautéed, steamed and liquefied - but always hatches an ingenious plan to get himself and his fellow pilgrims out of their latest jam.

Comparable to The Canterbury Tales or Don Quixote, Monkey King is at once a gripping adventure, a comic satire and a spring of spiritual insight. With this new translation by the award-winning Julia Lovell, the irrepressible rogue hero of one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature has the potential to vault, with his signature cloud-somersault, into the hearts of a whole new generation of audiences.

©2021 Julia Lovell, Wu Ch'eng-en (P)2021 Penguin Audio

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What listeners say about Monkey King: Journey to the West

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Unbearable

The most annoying voice for monkey makes it unlistenable! What a shame because it is a most fantastic story.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

shame

The narrator delivers Monkey's lines in a very loud screech which means it's impossible to set the volume so that those lines are comfortable and still be able to hear the rest of the narration clearly while listening in the car, so I will be returning. Terrible shame, as otherwise it sounds good.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Irritating

There are too many modern intrusions in this translation for my liking (were hobnobbing and baseball even things when Monkey was written?) Also, the translation is more childish than either of the others I know and was irritating and distracting. And the reader!!! Personally, I found the voice excruciating.

Stick with the Kenneth Williams reading.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliantly told

A wonderful and captivating performance. I was hooked from beginning to end. I really spaced my listens out because I didn't want it to end. Will most certainly be listening over and over.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

The worst voice for a great satire

I understand why the voice of the monkey was chosen to be this, but I cannot forgive that noise. It hurts my ears, and I mean this seriously.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

vivid tale

i remember watching the tv series monkey years ago as a child. so i was surprised to learn it was actually a Chinese novel. moreover i was surprised how vivid the book was. the book reminded me of monkey’s cloud transportation, his magic staff and each character’s motivation. there was a huge cast of backstory characters yet the pilgrims shone out in their humanity. by the end of the book i realised the ancients were wise in telling such a fantasy…the morality tale was perfect for children and adults, rather like disney’s animation.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • JM
  • 10-09-23

A must read

The story is a classic. It is also a timeless entertainment and fun to read. It is also a deeper insight into ancient Chinese history and religions. 100 Chapters is long but worth reading.
The performance is very good. I liked the correct pronunciation of the Chinese names.
This is an excellent read with high re-readability.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great story, offputting voice acting

This is a fantastic book - and I don’t mind at all that the narrator does different voices for different characters. But his voice for the main character of Monkey is extreme, a screeching tone that sounds like a Sesame Street character and is very hard to listen to. As Monkey is the one constant in the book, I’m not sure I can listen all through to the end, which is a great shame.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

great story loved it

loved the story from stsrt to finish amazing adventure truely so hsppy i got to hear it

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable and entertainment

Definitely enjoyed it, I do say people do need to listen or read the book in their life.

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