 Jonathan Spence, reviewing the first volume of the translation for the "New York Review of Books" in 1994, remarked on "the splendid energy with which David Tod Roy ... has translated this vast and remarkable novel".Roy's policy as a translator, Spence observed, was to
“translate everything—even puns,” and to include all traditional “formulaic” material, such as proverbs, stock couplets, and such, and that it will be the first translation to render the whole novel into English.Roy has made a "major contribution to our overall understanding of the novel by so structuring every single page of his translation that the numerous levels of the narration are clearly differentiated" and has annotated the text with a precision, thoroughness, and passion for detail that makes even a veteran reader of monographs smile with a kind of quiet disbelief".