A review by spacestationtrustfund
西游记 by Wu Ch'eng-En, 吴承恩

2.0

There are a handful of different translations out there, most of which abridge or summarise considerably (which is understandable, given that the original text typically runs over 2300 pages in its entirety). Three are worth acknowledging, in my opinion, although there's no shortage of adaptations and abridgements in all forms of media (including a 2021 abridged version translated and edited by Julia Lovell, whose translation work I've generally enjoyed).

ARTHUR WALEY (1942)

Arthur Waley and I have a complicated history. His version is highly abridged, titled simply Monkey, and is by far the most accessible to those with no background information on the text; it is, however, very poor quality in terms of accuracy. Wade-Giles romanisation is used, and the language is incredibly dated. This version only includes around 17% of the original content.

ANTHONY C. YU (1977-1983)

Anthony Yu's four-volume English-language translation was first published in 1983, then revised and republished in 2012. The older version is only worth reading if you can't find the newer reissue, which corrects various errors and updates the romanisation system from the dreaded Wade-Giles to the more accurate pinyin. Yu's introduction is nearly 100 pages long, and incredibly detailed. This translation is the definitive academic version, with extensive notes and annotations, as well as inclusion of all the poetry and songs from the original.

W.J.F. JENNER (1982-1984)

First published as a full-length four-volume translation in 1984, then republished in a single-volume abridged volume a decade later in 1994, Jenner's translation is probably the most readable which still sticks roughly to the original story. Although less accurate than Yu's translation, Jenner's easily surpasses Waley's. There's also a six-volume edition published in 2003 which has the original Chinese on the left page and the English translation on the right, although I haven't looked at that version.