This was a fun and interesting read. I love reading Robin Hood-style stories, and reading a Korean version was fun. Although it was an assigned reading for one of my classes, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I highly recommend it as a read. ( )

A bit disappointing, but a worthwhile read overall. Read my full review here. ( )

Enjoyable quick read. Introduction gives a nice background of the tale and its cultural importance. ( )

Hong Gildong is Korea's biggest 'epic' in the vein of Iliad, Gilgamesh, and other similar narratives. It's dated (as nearly all of these types are) in how women are viewed, how men are to behave, the modes and behaviors, etc (which makes it rather illuminating, rather than making it bad). The tale is high fantasy, set in a period that isn't defined with allusions to several different timeperiods of Korean lore. Primarily the 1400-1600s. This edition comes with some nice additional source information on both Korea/Asian literature, about the possible author(s), about the time periods, about the things relevant and acknowledged in the actual tale, and some information on the linguistics of the language. You can definitely tell it has influenced modern writers, storytellers, and creators (albeit not so much in America/UK/Europe, but in anime and things from the Asian continent, shows like DragonBall [Z] take from this heavily I feel).

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I thought I knew a fair amount about Korean traditional literature, having lived in Korea for two years and collected a quantity of material there and here, but i had never, to my recollection, seen anything about this novel till now. However, the introduction says it is one of the most famous Korean stories, retold in many modern versions, films, anime, manga (to use Japanese terms) etc. The introduction also debunks what are, or until recently were, the standard idea about its origins --that it was written c. 1600 by a Korean scholar(Heo Gyun) later executed for radical ideas and it advocates a proto-communist utopianism. The current translator believes it was written much later at a time when adventure novels were popular (late 18th-19th century) , though apparently a former pupil an later opponent of Ho Gyun did say that HG (influenced by the Chinese bandit/hero novel Water Margin )wrote a story about Hong Gildong, who was a real bandit circa 1500. At all events, in this story Hong Gildong is the son of a high-ranking official by a concubine, who is therefore denied recognition as a legitimate son or the chance to hold office himself. In frustration, he leaves the family home and become leader of a large bandit gang who steal from the rich (mostly corrupt officials) and give to the poor in classic Robin Hood style, until (after many failures to catch him) the king of Korea first briefly appoints him minister of war and then facilitates his taking his bandit army to conquer a kingdom off the south China coast called Yul; once he is successful there he is able to arrange an honorable burial for his father and provide generously for his mother, He also (before the conquest of Yul) defeated a kingdom of monsters (uldong) and rescued three women who become his queen an two concubines Overall, it is a lively story though in a rather traditional style which makes no attempt to be realistic (except about Gildong's early frustration as an unrecognized son). ( )