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Sasha's Reviews > Monkey: The Journey to the West
Monkey: The Journey to the West
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Waley's abridged version is widely...tolerated at least, liked by very many.
There is also this abridged version of the Yu translation: slightly longer at 528 pages.
Copying directly from Wendy - sorry, Wendy, it's just that it was really interesting:
There is also this abridged version of the Yu translation: slightly longer at 528 pages.
Copying directly from Wendy - sorry, Wendy, it's just that it was really interesting:
The most popular, though much-abridged version (in translation anyway?) is Monkey: The Journey to the West. I did some research and have decided on this non-abridged version instead: The Journey to the West, Volume 1 and just take it on one volume at a time.That's alllll from Wendy.
There's a great video with Anthony Yu, the translator of the above Journey to the West, Vol. 1, () addressing the Asia Society. During the bombings his grandfather had distracted him with Journey to the West during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. He tells a great anecdote from JttW where Monkey pees on Buddah's hand--it was the translator's favorite part as a boy (of course!). Anyway, the video is 50 minutes long but interesting (esp the first 20 min) & definitely made me want to read it!
Also, NYT has an archived review of Yu's translation from 1983: : "The standard modern version, translated by Mr. Yu, is substantially the same as what is thought to be the first edition, in 100 chapters, published (the author was anonymous) at Nanjing in 1592. (Mr. Yu's version differs from this mainly by the addition of a single episode, drawn from a short version of the novel dating to about the same era.)
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Olivierco
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Jan 29, 2014 05:08AM
Great choice, but you should pick the unabridged version.
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I'm having such an agonizing debate about this, Olivier. I've heard mixed reviews of all the Great Chinese Novels: plenty of people saying they're episodic and overlong. And I don't want to have a bad time: if reading an abridged version will give me the feel of the books and not bog me down to the extent that I dislike them, than maybe that's the right answer.And yet, of course, I have this visceral dislike for abridged versions. When people say they read the abridged version of Count of Monte Cristo, I do everything short of slap them in the face with my glove.
Convince me! What will I gain from the full version?
Hey look, I'm famous now! ;)I had a similar inner debate, then my husband who is the household Asian Studies snob said (and I paraphrase) "all or nothing, baby!" He's really good at logical debate, that one. Though if I find vol. 1 to be a chore, I might seek out the abrigement instead.
Also, I thought you might be interested in this comparison of English translations here:
You will gain floor joist points.There are indeed repetitions (it is less repetitive than the old testament though), but if you choose the full version, you may, when bored, skip some passages on your free will and not on someone's else decision.
Thanks for that link, Wendy! Awesome.Olivier, ha..."It is less repetitive than the old testament" is not the best advertisement for a book I've ever heard.
I noticed The New Oxford Annotated Bible, New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha (more than 2000 pages on a well known story) on your top 100.
That's because that list includes not only books I personally love, but also books I feel one might want to read for a general grounding in Western literature. The Bible - like Dante's Inferno - is, in my own humble & personal opinion, important but not very good.
Waley's version is the one we were given in college. Apparently even the teacher felt the extra stuff was unnecessary, if that helps.I read an abridged version of Les Misérables (the Barnes and Noble version), and am really glad I did once I found out what was cut from it. Discussions about French criminal slang, monasteries, and all kinds of other stuff that added nothing to the plot. I expect Hugo was the kind of guy that if you asked him what time it was he'd start off with where he bought the watch.
As for this, you could just watch The Forbidden Kingdom with Jet Li and Jackie Chan, and you'd be just as informed about this story as if you'd read the cliff notes from the twilight zone, and that's close enough, isn't it?
