Kenneth Williams is brilliant

he brings the characters to life and provides wonderful spots of humour. Forget the TV series this is far better

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Fabulous.

I'm old enough to remember the TV series which is why this caught my eye.I've been lucky enough to be introduced to Round the Horne and Kenneth Williams wonderful vocal characterisation. The combination of fantastic story and superlative narration made this a truly joyful experience. Although the story is rooted in religion it encompasses a magical world of monsters,demons,gods and dragons.It is quite episodic so is perfect for just dipping in and out. Kenneth Williams really brings the story and the characters to life I regullarly laughed out loud whilst listening..He brings humour and gravitas in equal measure and no one does disdain like him. I loved every minute of this presentation.and cannot recommend it too highly.

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Needs to be longer

This is a great incentive to buy and read the full work.

Kenneth Williams is an amazing narrator. He sounds very invested and like he's having a lot of fun reading the story, which helps make the story be an engaging listen, even through the more dragged-out parts of the story. His voice also perfectly suits the writing style of the story. His voice will definitely be the one in my head when I read the full work.

Though I understand that they cut out most of the chapters from the original to keep the story a manageable length to tell, I wish they'd included a few more chapters.

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brilliant story and narration

I loved this. Kenneth Williams has a fantastic voice and uses it so well with the different characters in this lovely tale.i tried to stretch this out for as long as possible to enjoy it for longer rather than listening to it in long stretches.
One of my favourite audible books!

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Kenneth Williams who knew brilliant

An excellent story told excellently and more of the story I’d heard in other forms

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This amazing 16th cent Chinese novel is pure joy

Would you listen to Monkey again? Why?

Written in Chinese before Shakespeare wrote his plays, there is a well-attested historical truth at the heart of the story - the journey of a Chinese scholar to India in the 7th century to obtain Buddhist scriptures to take back to China. However onto this basic story is embroidered many layers, with mythical demons, wonderful characters (especially the animal companions of the pilgrim - Monkey and Pigsy and two dragons), extraordinary adventures, and themes reflecting a huge range of familiar European stories (such as Hamlet, the Minotaur, Moses, Oedipus and the Oresteia) which couldn't possibly be known to the Chinese author at the time. Kenneth Williams' performance of the book adds to the pleasure. I think I would have found it difficult to read it all.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Monkey?

Monkey is a wonderful invention. Although he has magic powers, he keeps his simian characteristics: he is curious, arrogant, exuberant, brash and noisy. Above all he is defiant of all forms of authority. The various scenes where Monkey is the one who has to come up with ingenious plans to save the pilgrims from imminent disaster are a delight.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

Difficult to say, but the fight between Monkey and the General in Heaven, where both of them change from one shape to another with bewildering rapidity is pretty hard to beat.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

This book could never be condensed into one tagline. It is triumphant on so many different levels.

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A very abridged adaptation but still enjoyable.

I heard about the Journey To The West years ago but my interest only peaked about last year after discovering a few YouTube videos about it.

The story is very simplified and only features a handful of the pilgrims adventures, though given the length of the original text I can't blame them.

I found William's great to listen to and I enjoyed the unique voices he tried to give the characters, though not the kind I tend to imagine them having, I especially liked his voice for Sha Wujing AKA Sandy I think it suits a river demon specifically a kappa like he's portrayed as in Japanese media, though sadly of the three warriors of the group he gets the least attention.

There are several times when Williams reads one character's dialogue in a voice he uses for another, though I think that can be forgiven considering how many characters he has to voice in later chapters.

In conclusion, I'd recommend this to anyone who wants a taste of the ancient epic but is turned of by the books size.

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Great performance by the late Kenneth Williams

Great performance by the late Kenneth Williams. Unlike some other older audiobooks on Audible, the sound is clear and crisp sounding, as if it was recorded yesterday.

Great abridgement of the Journey to the West story, with a special focus on Sun Wukong or Monkey as he is called in this translation.

Both the text and the performance are top notch. Apart from a few lewd references the story would be great for kids too.

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Masterful reading

Monkey is, of course, a much shortened version of Journey To The West, but a delightful tale in its own right. Williams selivers an engaging, hilarious, and easy to follow telling of this timeless classic.

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4 stars because it is abridged

Only downfall is that it is actually abridged. Still an excellent listen and worth hearing if you've no interest in reading it.

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8 people found this helpful