Monkey King: Journey to the West

Monkey King: Journey to the West

“The best English edition of the classic Chinese fantasy novel I have ever read.” ―Minjie Chen, Los Angeles Review of Books A Penguin Classic Before there was The Lord of the Rings, there was China’s Monkey King . The title character, also known as Sun Wukong, is a shape-shifting trickster on a kung-fu quest for eternal life, beloved by fans of the anime Dragon Ball and the video games League of Legends and Black Myth: Wukong . For raiding Heaven’s Orchard of Immortal Peaches, the Buddha pins Monkey King beneath a mountain and frees him only five hundred years later, to protect the pious monk Tripitaka on a fourteen-year journey to India in search of precious Buddhist sutras. Accompanied by two other fallen immortals—a rice-loving pig able to fly with its ears and a depressive man-eating river-sand monster—Monkey King undergoes eighty-one trials, doing battle with all manner of dragons, ogres, wizards, and femmes fatales in this rollicking adventure that not only stands as the most popular of China’s Four Great Classical Novels but also gave us one of world literature’s most memorable superheroes. Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. A Fortune Best Book of the Year “A breezy, action-packed narrative . . . Rich with imaginative world-building that evokes the best Pixar films . . . The book is also quite funny . . . With this new readable version of Monkey King, Western readers will also have plenty of fun.” ― San Francisco Chronicle “A fun, accessible book that will attract readers to a text that may otherwise seem obscure and imposing . . . The jokes hit every register, from slapstick and toilet humor to dryly delivered drolleries. . . . The literary analog for the gonzo humor is Rabelais and the fight scenes are the stuff of superhero comics. But the comparison that kept coming to mind is with the irreverent, twinkling humor of Looney Tunes cartoons, with Monkey King a cross between Bugs Bunny and the Tasmanian Devil. . . . A rollicking work of high buffoonery.” ― The Wall Street Journal “Exhibit[s] a rollicking exuberance . . . [It] has long been—and will continue to be—a rewarding and enjoyable reading experience for many people.” ― The Washington Post “The best English edition of the classic Chinese fantasy novel I have ever read. If you wish to understand why Monkey King has been a fixture in Chinese popular culture for no fewer than five centuries, then look no further.” ― Minjie Chen, Los Angeles Review of Books “A vivacious delight: a genuinely very funny book is given its full due . . . Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, is as vital a figure in Chinese as Robin Hood and King Arthur are in English.” ― Foreign Policy “This accessible translation . . . allows Western readers to discover Monkey King ’s mix of spiritual transcendence, slapstick humor, and deep satire.” ― Fortune “Visit one of the greatest countries in the world through the pages of this Chinese epic [and] Julia Lovell’s new contemporary translation, with exquisite maps of ‘somewhat mythical lands.’” ― Piers Torday, The Guardian “[A] brilliant new translation . . . Vibrant . . . Lovell’s characters speak in colloquial voices, which brings them vividly to life for modern readers. Her Monkey King is accessible enough to be read with young children―not something that could necessarily be said for other translations. . . . One hopes that Julia Lovell’s wonderful 21st-century account of [Monkey King’s] adventures will bring him continued literary immortality.” ― South China Morning Post “We’re in the capable hands of a translator of our era. . . . Lovell is focused on solid, modern storytelling, not mere fealty. . . . Monkey King has contemporary currency beyond even The Wizard of Oz or The Lord of the Rings , to which works it bears more than a passing resemblance— Star Wars . . . comes to mind, along with myriad comic book and anime epics. . . . All who have loved Robin Hood , or Tolkien, or J. K. Rowling, or the superheroes [Gene Luen] Yang pings in his foreword, will find similar friends in Monkey, Tripitaka, Pigsy (the Friar Tuck of Asia) and Sandy. Thanks to Lovell’s engaging translation, it’s a fair bet that many more in the Anglophone world, especially the younger generations, will gain these friends, along with a greatly enhanced understanding of China.” ― Asian Review of Books “A translation that’s really funny . . . [It] is a delight and a tour de force. . . . There are delicious dashes of alliteration. . . . I was particularly taken with the anachronisms. They are superlatively funny.” ― Nicky Harman, Asian Books Blog