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Journey to the West (Penguin Vitae)
by Wu Cheng'en
A collectible hardcover edition of one of the all-time great fantasy novels—which Neil Gaiman has said "is in the DNA of 1.5 billion people"—in an acclaimed one-volume translation, and featuring an illustrated foreword by the author of the New York Times bestselling graphic novel that is the basis for the Disney+ series American Born Chinese, starring Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Stephanie Hsu.
A Penguin Vitae Edition.
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, and is beloved by fans of the most popular anime of all time, Dragon Ball, and the world's largest e-sport, the video game League of Legends. For raiding Heaven's Orchard of Immortal Peaches, the Buddha pins him beneath a mountain and frees him only five hundred years later. To redeem himself, our irrepressible rogue hero has to protect the pious monk Tripitaka on his fourteen-year journey to India in search of precious Buddhist sutras. Accompanied by two other fallen immortals—Pigsy, a rice-loving pig able to fly with its ears, and Sandy, 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 the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature but also gave us one of the most memorable superheroes in world literature.
Penguin Vitae—loosely translated as "Penguin of one's life"—is a deluxe hardcover series from Penguin Classics celebrating a dynamic and diverse landscape of classic fiction and nonfiction from seventy-five years of classics publishing. Penguin Vitae provides readers with beautifully designed classics that have shaped the course of their lives, and welcomes new readers to discover these literary gifts of personal inspiration, intellectual engagement, and creative originality.
"Jam-packed with outrageous danger and outlandish transformations ... Lovell does an admirable job condensing the original text ... while capturing the essence of Chinese fantastical storytelling and parody. Readers who enjoy nutty adventures and nonsensical plots will get a kick out of this madcap fable." ―Publishers Weekly
"This new edition should more than satisfy anyone interested in reading not only a highly praised classic of Chinese literature, but also one of the most influential fantasy narratives in the world." ―Booklist
"Monkey King is one of the great epics of our world. I spent a good part of my childhood enthralled with the adventures of the OG mischief maker, Sun Wukong. What a delight that this exhilarating translation of the timeless classic will entertain generations to come." ―Marie Lu, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Legend, The Young Elites, and Skyhunter
"A fantastic retelling, easily on par with Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology. Monkey King has never been so much fun; I friggin' loved it." ―Peter Clines, New York Times bestselling author of Paradox Bound
This information about Monkey King was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Wu Cheng'en (c. 1505-1580) was a Ming Dynasty poet about whom little is known, although he is believed to be the author of Journey to the West, which he published anonymously. He lived much of his life as a hermit.
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