Read by Kenneth Williams
Monkey is an epic allegorical tale by the sixteenth century poet
Wu Ch.eng-En. It is about the adventures of a monkey who has been
magically awakened from an egg born to a rock impregnated by
the elements. After building up his own kingdom, Monkey goes off
to learn and develop supernatural powers. Being offered a job in
heaven, he then causes trouble with his unruly and selfish behavior,
and flees his due punishment. Although, for a while, he defeats
the forces of heaven sent to subdue him, he is eventually
overpowered and imprisoned for centuries in a mountain.
He is promised release in return for becoming the disciple of, and
protecting, Tripitaka, a monk who has been sent to India to collect
Buddhist teachings and take them back to China. The remaining two-
thirds of the story follow the heroic journey of Tripitaka, along
with Monkey and his two fellow-disciples, Pigsy and Sandy. After
facing all sorts of monsters, evils and terrible trials, they
finally win through and fulfil their difficult and dangerous
mission.
This version, on a Nimbus MP3, adapted and translated by Arthur
Waley, is read by the wonderful Kenneth Williams. Williams imbues
the story, which is an amazing combination of profundity, comedy,
satire, deep spirituality and the ridiculous, with his characteristic
comic brilliance. He is splendidly flexible, capturing the various
moods of the work with deep insight, and creating extremely strong
individual characters for each figure in the story. Thus,
the earthy Pigsy is brought to life with a slow and stupid voice,
Sandy . originally a dragon . with a rather dry, nasal drawl, and
the precocious Monkey with a lively, high, cheeky and self-confident
air. The accents are, as one might imagine, brilliant . especially
the hilarious rustic farm labourers!
The presentation of this single MP3 disc (14 hours long!) could be
better, but the content is just superb. A beautiful, uplifting,
gripping, amusing tale, narrated with debonair flair by a master
story-teller . I doubt anyone could do a better version
Download File Size:389.25 MB
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