Audio Book: The Monkey King / Zdeněk Sklenář

The Monkey King – Sun Wukong –  is a magical traveller through the landscapes of the heart, the product of Chinese storytellers, a friend to actors, poets, painters, and fools –and a menace to demons! Created by the Chinese writer Wu Cheng’en in his novel Journey to the West, the Monkey King took on many forms during his travels across nations and epochs and is known around the world.  The one that is unforgettable for us, is the one given to him in 1961 by the Czech translator Zdenka Novotná-Heřmanová and Zdeněk Sklenář as his immortal creative companion. Journey to the West, written towards the end of the sixteenth century during the Ming Dynasty, is one of the most famous classical Chinese novels of all time. It tells the story of how the monkey Sun Wukong protected the Tang monk Tripitaka during his journey to the Western Paradise to retrieve the holy sutras, how they overcame nine times nine dangers, and how they ultimately acquired the holy scripts. The adventures of the Monkey King and his friends are popular amongst young and old alike, and are often presented in film and television versions.  Galerie Zdeněk Sklenář has published this immortal tale in the form of an audio book recorded on four CDs by leading Czech actors.

CD 1 – How the Monkey King Sun Wukong Became Immortal
CD 2 – How the Monkey King Became the Head of the Heavenly Stables
CD 3 – How the Monkey King Changed for the Better
CD 4 – How Our Pilgrims Retrieved the Holy Sutras

Cast: NARRATOR: Jiří Lábus, SUN WUKONG: Martin Dejdar, TRIPITAKA: Marek Eben, PIGSY: Miroslav Vladyka, JADE EMPEROR: Josef Somr, GUANYIN: Dana Batulková, EARTHSHAKER: Jiří Schmitzer, DRAGON KING: Ilja Racek, DRAGON QUEEN: Naďa Konvalinková, EMPEROR: Jaroslav Satoranský, PRIEST: Jan Přeučil, BUDDHA: Lukáš Hlavica, OLD WISE MONKEY: Arnošt Goldflam, SILVER HORN: Jiří Dvořák, GOLDEN HORN: Michal Pavlata, and others.