The English Governess at the Siamese Court: Being Recollections of Six Years in the Royal Palace at Bangkok (Oxford in Asia Paperbacks) [Paperback]

Anna Harriette Leonowens (Author)

Book Description

Series: Oxford in Asia Paperbacks | Publication Date: March 17, 1989

The English Governess at the Siamese Court: Being Recollections of Six Years in the Royal Palace at Bangkok (1870) vividly recounts the experiences of one Anna Harriette Leonowens as governess for the sixty-plus children of King Mongkut of Siam, English teacher for his entire royal family, and translator and scribe for the King himself. Bright, young, and energetic, Leonowens was well-suited to these roles, and her writings convey a heartfelt interest in the lives, legends, and languages of Siam's rich and poor. She also tells of how she and the King often disagreed on matters domestic. After all, this was the first time King Mongkut had met a woman who dared to contradict him, and the governess found the very idea of male domination intolerable. Overworked and underpaid, Leonowens would eventually resign, but her exchanges with His Majesty--heated and otherwise--on topics like grammar, charity, slavery, politics, and religion add much to her diary's rich, cross-cultural spirit, its East-meets-West appeal.

Over the years, that appeal has only increased. Eighty years after it first appeared, this memoir inspired the popular book and film, Anna and the King of Siam, and a few years later the hit musical, The King and I. Now comes yet another version, Anna and the King, the new film starring Jodie Foster and Chow Yun Fat. Here, then, is the original tale, presented with many reproductions of the fine drawings that the King had offered as gifts to Leonowens. The English Governess at the Siamese Court remains engaging as a story of adventure, fascinating as a picture of nineteenth-century Bangkok, and intriguing as an account of life inside King Mongkut's palace.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Anna Harriette Leonowens (1834-1868) was also the author of Romance of the Harem (1873).

Product Details

• Paperback: 321 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1st edition (March 17, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195888979
• ISBN-13: 978-0195888973
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,580,843 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #100 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > History > Asia > General

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Mostly fiction, euro-centric w/ very little truth or facts, September 10, 2001

By 

Callie Bangyekan "bangyekan" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The English Governess at the Siamese Court: Being Recollections of Six Years in the Royal Palace at Bangkok (Oxford in Asia Paperbacks) (Paperback)

I am thai, and I feel that it is my obligation to make a comment about this book. In all fairness, I think it is a 'fun' book to read, providing that the reader is aware that it is mostly fictionalized. Anna wrote a much distorted story of her time as an English tutor in the royal court of Siam, mostly glorifying herself without concerns for any real accuracy. When I was younger I was fascinated because this book was/is banned in Thailand, and so I wanted to find out more and did an extensive research. I learned that Anna's account is mostly ego-centric, euro-centric, and sensationalized. She created many fictional details of her own life to make herself sounding glamorous (for example, she said she was a daughter of a high-ranking British army officer and a genteel lady,when in fact she was a ... child of a petty soldier and an indian prostitute. Her husband was a drunk, etc.) If anyone would bother to do more research, he/she would also find that King Mongkut (Rama iV) was a wise, gentle, highly educated monach with a supreme, long-ranged vision to lay the foundation to modernize Thailand and prevent the country from being colonized by European Imperialism. He was a priest and a scholar,who rather chose/preferred to live within religious confinement for many many years before he had to finally ascend to the throne as an old man after his brother passed away. FYI, With fine, white hair, he was a very thin and fragile-looking man---not at all what all the musicals and movies have portrayed him to be. Because of him Thailand is the only country in Asia that has never been colonized. And King Monkut would have done it with or without Anna being around! Mongkut's son, King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) indeed carried on his father's legacy. Wise, modern, and highly educated(a result of his father's effort), King Chulalongkorn abolished slavery, created the first public university/public elementary and secondary school system and railroad and telecommunication system, reorganized the government and army infrastructure, etc---that is why he became one of the most beloved king in the Thai history. But all of this could not have happened without King Mongkut's vision in the first place. Anna's portrayal of King Monkut as a temperamental, insensitive tyrant/barbarian/womanizer is therefore downright offensive and insulting to the thais, NOT because we can't stand any criticism of our royal family, but simply because we know that most of her account is not true! About the violence/punishments/the concubine 'harem' of the royal court, please remember that this was a very different time. Such practices were common in many cultures and countries and not just in Thailand.

185 of 207 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing tale of a woman and her life as in the Royal Palace, October 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The English Governess at the Siamese Court: Being Recollections of Six Years in the Royal Palace at Bangkok (Oxford in Asia Paperbacks) (Paperback)

In 1862 Anna Leonowens went to Bangkok with her child, Louis, to teach the royal children in English and western customs and ettiquette. She spent five and a bit more than one half years there. THis book is quite different from her other book (The Romance of the Harem) because it is written simply as a travel account. Se does reproach the king and share the prejudice of the day but the king is less slandered. She writes heavily. I reccomend this for anyone who has read Anna and the King of Siam or its movie version and the King and I.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fact or fiction? We will never know for sure. Worth reading, September 4, 2001

By 

Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The English Governess at the Siamese Court: Being Recollections of Six Years in the Royal Palace at Bangkok (Oxford in Asia Paperbacks) (Paperback)

Anna Leonowens is a controversial figure even now. Her name may not even have really been Leonowen (but the more common Welsh Owens), her husband not dead from heatstroke in a tiger hunt, but from drink, and not a British army officer at all. Nevertheless, her account of her time in Siam as the royal governess is ever popular and fascinating reading.

Anna wrote several books, The Romance of the Harem being another. Both this and the Romance were novelized by Margaret Landon into the more familiar Anna and the King of Siam.

Part of the controversy stems from the fact that any criticism of Thai royalty is not tolerated in that country. The king is held in a religious esteem and is the heart and soul of the country. So Anna's casual remarks on the king's temper and habits are practically heresy to the Thai, hence, she and her writing are targets for criticism. And what's worse, her pupil Chulalongkorn or Rama V, is Thailand's MOST revered king--kind of a Thai saint. His portrait is found in nearly all Thai homes and businesses.

Having that as a background, it's still fun to read Anna's account of her time in Thailand. Though many people feel that Anna distorted or hid the truth about herself in many ways, the book gives a fascinating look into a magical land. Anna's writing is typically Victorian; the prose is a bit ornate and not as direct as the writing of Landon.