Arthur Waley’s Monkey (Grove Press, 1958)

The version people mean when they say they’ve read Monkey.

This book carried Journey to the West into English, and it did it by being a pleasure to read rather than a duty.

You want the book that made English readers care about this novel in the first place, and you are relaxed about the fact that most of it isn't here.

What it keeps and what it changes

Keeps: the voice. Waley’s Monkey is quick, dry and endlessly quotable, and Grove’s edition carries Hu Shih’s introduction.
Changes: the scale, drastically. Grove prints 320 pages against the complete translation’s 1,896 — this is a selection, and reads like one written by someone having a very good time.

Keeps a voice. Waley's Monkey is dry, fast and endlessly quotable, and the reason "Monkey" became the English title of the whole novel for two generations. Changes the scale drastically: Grove prints 320 pages against 1,896, so this is a selection, and it selects hard toward comedy and toward one character.

Whose story is it?

Monkey’s, and only barely anyone else’s. The pilgrimage is a frame for one immortal troublemaker.

How much time does it ask?

320 pages — an easy week.

Grove Press paperback, first published 1 July 1958, with an introduction by Hu Shih.

Where to find it

Buy the paperback — Bookshop.org →

Other ways to get it: Paperback — Amazon ↗ · Kindle — Amazon ↗

Borrow it free: Borrow on Libby ↗ · Find at your library — WorldCat ↗

Common questions

Is Arthur Waley's Monkey the whole book?

No. Grove's edition is 320 pages where the complete translation runs to nearly 1,900, so a great deal of the novel is not in it. What is there is the version that made the book famous in English, with an introduction by Hu Shih.

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More ways west: The Anthony C. Yu Translation, revised (2012) · Julia Lovell’s Monkey King (2021) · Yu’s The Monkey and the Monk (2006)