iexaminer / July 24, 2020

Written in 17th century, The Nine Cloud Dream is a significant piece of Korean literature that is deemed to be a masterpiece. In 2019, Penguin Classics published a new translation by Heinz Insu Fenkl.

Asymptote Journal / April 18, 2019

The Nine Cloud Dream (Guunmong, 구운몽, 九雲夢) is a seventeenth-century fictional work by Kim Man-Jung, a member of Korea’s ruling class and a political figure who was exiled toward the latter end of the Joseon dynasty. It was originally written in hanja, Chinese characters, the primary alphabet used for literature and letters in Korea at the time, as opposed to hangul, the Korean alphabet. Set in China during the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD), a period whose governmental structure was similar to that of Korea’s Joseon dynasty, The Nine Cloud Dream functioned as a cautionary tale, critical of the values of Korea’s then ruling monarch King Sukjong.

Columbia Journal / April 05, 2019

Whether you are a lover of Korean literature or someone entirely unfamiliar it, Heinz Insu Fenkl’s new translation of Kim Man-Jung’s 17th-century masterpiece The Nine Cloud Dream, recently published by Penguin, will be a revelation. Unlike earlier translators, such as James Scarth Gale and Richard Rutt, Fenkl attempts to recreate the experience of the novel’s first readers. This approach is fraught with difficulties because The Nine Cloud Dream, Korea’s most famous and best-loved work, was set in the China of almost a millennium before its composition and written in Chinese. According to the translator, that makes his task analogous to translating a 19th-century Russian work set in medieval France and written in Old French.

New York Journal of Books / February 25, 2019

The Nine Cloud Dream—Kuunmong in Korean—is a 17th century novel, regarded as a masterpiece of Korean literature, although it is set more than 1,000 year earlier in Tang Dynasty China.

Asian Review of Books / March 08, 2019

The Kuunmong, to give this book its Korean title, is described by its new translator as “the most elegant of Korea’s literary novels and one of the most beloved masterpieces of Korean literature.”

Publishers Weekly / December 10, 2018

First written in the 17th century, Man-Jung’s rollicking fantasy is a many-layered pleasure, equal parts fairy tale, religious instruction, and ode to classical Chinese literature and society.

Tricycle / May 03, 2019

The Nine Cloud Dream (Kuunmong) by Kim Man-jung is a beguiling, multilayered vision where we follow characters from life to life through enchanted landscapes, love affairs, poetry and music competitions, politics, strategy, practical jokes, social advancement, and spiritual searching. Heinz Insu Fenkl has given us something very special in this vibrant and entrancing new translation by providing a deeply informative introduction for one of Korea’s earliest classics.

RTE.ie / August 01, 2019

Also from the East, Penguin Classics have just published The Nine Cloud Dream, a novel set in 9th-century Tang China, written by Kim Man-Jung, a new translation of the novel from Heinz Insu Fenkl, which novel was last published into English forty years ago. This Buddhist tale, a classic of Korean literature, explores the illusions of human life. Will the life we dream of truly make us happy? That is the question raised by The Nine Cloud Dream. 

CultureNow.gr / December 01, 2021

Οσυγγραφέας του βιβλίου, Κιμ Μαν Τσουνγκ (1637–1692), ανήκε στην υψηλότερη κοινωνική τάξη της Κορέας, ήταν διαπρεπής νεο-Κομφουκιανός λόγιος και πολιτικός της μέσης περιόδου του Τζοσόν. Άγνωστος συγγραφέας στη χώρα μας αλλά πολύ σημαντικός, καθώς διορίστηκε επικεφαλής της Κομφουκιανής Ακαδημίας και αναγνωρίστηκε ως Μεγάλος Δάσκαλος Λογοτεχνίας.

CultureNow.gr / November 30, 2021

Το νεφελώδες όνειρο των Εννέα θεωρείται από πολλούς το σημαντικότερο αριστούργημα της Κορεάτικης λογοτεχνίας. Το ταξίδι ενός Βουδιστή μοναχού που θέτει το ερώτημα αν η ζωή που ονειρευόμαστε θα μας κάνει πραγματικά ευτυχισμένους;