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A review by snappydog
The Water Margin: Outlaws of the Marsh: The Classic Chinese Novel by Shi Naian
3.0
The story’s worth reading, but this translation isn’t the greatest.
I really would recommend Water Margin, ‘cos there’s a lot to enjoy about it. It’s hard to tell how much of this is the style of the translator and how much is the original narrator, but there’re a lot of really idiosyncratic and interesting things about both the story itself and the character of the prose: it’s very much reminiscent of someone telling a story to a captivated audience, ending each chapter on a cliffhanger and promising to answer the mysteries next time.
It’s also fascinating to see the difference in moral values between those of the old Chinese culture and those of a modern reader. I suspect many of the acts carried out by the ‘heroes’ of the story will not seem very heroic at all to most readers, although it is interesting to try to reconcile their more vicious crimes with the values the narrator clearly thinks they’re exhibiting. It’s occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes deliberately and sometimes probably not.
So that’s the tale itself; as for this version, I’m not sold on it. I don’t have any other translations to compare to, but based on synopses I’ve read elsewhere it seems that there might be a few bits missing, with a big chunk of story that I was expecting to find at the end simply not there. This edition is weighed down by typos and frequent awkward phrasings and punctuation, which I don’t think can be attributed to staying true to the original. I would suggest reading Lowe’s foreword and introduction, although I’d probably read it after reading the rest of the book rather than before, since it’s much more interesting once you have more context about the events of the story.
I really would recommend Water Margin, ‘cos there’s a lot to enjoy about it. It’s hard to tell how much of this is the style of the translator and how much is the original narrator, but there’re a lot of really idiosyncratic and interesting things about both the story itself and the character of the prose: it’s very much reminiscent of someone telling a story to a captivated audience, ending each chapter on a cliffhanger and promising to answer the mysteries next time.
It’s also fascinating to see the difference in moral values between those of the old Chinese culture and those of a modern reader. I suspect many of the acts carried out by the ‘heroes’ of the story will not seem very heroic at all to most readers, although it is interesting to try to reconcile their more vicious crimes with the values the narrator clearly thinks they’re exhibiting. It’s occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes deliberately and sometimes probably not.
So that’s the tale itself; as for this version, I’m not sold on it. I don’t have any other translations to compare to, but based on synopses I’ve read elsewhere it seems that there might be a few bits missing, with a big chunk of story that I was expecting to find at the end simply not there. This edition is weighed down by typos and frequent awkward phrasings and punctuation, which I don’t think can be attributed to staying true to the original. I would suggest reading Lowe’s foreword and introduction, although I’d probably read it after reading the rest of the book rather than before, since it’s much more interesting once you have more context about the events of the story.