Many
of us have seen the musical
"The King and I", or the re-make of it (not a musical) called "Anna and
the King". Both films are banned in Thailand. And many of us have read
the novel "Anna and the King" by Margaret Landon. But what do we know
about the real Anna Leonowens? And how can we get
to know more
about her? That is the question I will try to give the beginning of an
answer to, on this page.
***
Anna Leonowens has lived in the
Court of King Rama IV (King Mongkut)
between 1862 and 1868. There is not the slightest doubt about that. She
has written her own memoirs about this stay and they have been
published. They are still available in Thailand and, as far as I am
aware of, they have never been banned there.
She went to Siam with her son Louis, who
is never mentioned by this name in her book, though. He is indicated
with words like "boy" or the like.
If you want to know more about the real
Anna,
these memoirs should be a reliable source, although some people think
she made up lots of what she wrote! I bought the book at DK
Books on Siam Square
in Bangkok, several years ago, but every year I come in Bangkok I see
it in some bookshops. Try a bit, and you will (probably) find it.
As a new service we offer you the complete
plain Gutenberg Project text as a download (with
instructions how to read it), also at
the bottom of this page.
The book pictured above is called
"The English Governess at the Siamese
Court being
Recollections of Six Years in the Royal Palace at Bangkok", with
Illustrations from photographs presented to the author by the King of
Siam.
It is a facsimile from an English edition of 1870.
On the outside cover (as pictured above) the title is a bit
different:
The Original Anna and the King of Siam
(From the English Governess at the Siamese Court)
Do not expect an easily written novel with all kind
of intimate
details. These are the memoirs of an English Lady, published in 1870.
So you could compare the style of writing with that of the novels
written in the same period. The reason why I recommend it is, that it
is authentic and it even contains some literal citations of documents,
belonging to Anna Leonowens. I will also give some citations by Anna
Leonowens herself below, so this gives you a chance to know what to
expect of this book.
For instance: You will find here the literal text of
the invitation by King Mongkut to Anna
Leonowens, to come to Bangkok in order to teach the Royal
Children:
English Era, 1862, 26 February
GRAND ROYAL PALACE, BANGKOK.
To Mrs. A.H. Leonowens: MADAM:
We are in good pleasure, and satisfaction in heart, that you are in
willingness to undertake the education of our beloved royal children.
And we hope that in doing your education on us and on our children
(whom English call inhabitants of benighted land) you will do your best
endeavor for knowledge of English language, science, and literature,
and not for conversion to Christianity; as the followers of Buddha are
mostly aware of the powerfulness of truth and virtue, as well as the
followers of Christ, and are desirous to have facility of English
language and literature than new religions.
We beg to invite you to our royal palace to do your but endeavorment
upon us and our children We shall expect to see you here on return of
Siamese steamer Chow Phya.
We have written to Mr. William Adamson, and to our consul at Singapore,
to authorize to do best arrangement for you and ourselves.
Believe me
Your faithfully,
(Signed) S.S. P. P. MAHA Mongkut
What I like especially in the above letter is the emphasis the King
lies on the fact that he is not interested in any conversion to
Christianity. I think this is a wise and not unnecessary remark. In the
past representatives of several European Countries had sent missions to
Siam, with the (main) purpose to convert the people over there to
Christianity.
Underneath is the picture of King Mongkut himself,
made during
the stay of Anna Leonowens in Bangkok. Whatever impression all the
other books, films and musicals may have given you, maybe you should
realize that King Mongkut was 60 years old at the
time Anna Leonowens was the teacher of his Royal Children.
And how did Anna feel about King Mongkut? Was there any romance between
her and the King? This is very unlikely. In the first place in the
Harem of King Mongkut there lived about 600 (!)
women in those days, so why should he be interested in another one (if
he had time at all for her)?
Above King Mongkut is pictured
with his favorite wife
(this picture cannot be enlarged by clicking on it). This picture
-which is not in the book mentioned above- was taken around the time
Anna Leonowens stayed in Bangkok.
Let us now see what Anna wrote about King Mongkut. This is
one of
several fragments about him only! Note that she writes about "the late
King", because these memoirs ware written after King Mongkut had died
and his son King Rama V, better known as King
Chualalongkorn was King of Siam then.
Somdetch
Phra Paramendr Maha Mongkut, late Supreme
King of Siam, it may safely be said (for all his capricious
provocations of temper and his snappish greed of power) that he was in
the best sense of the epithet, the most remarkable of the Oriental
princes of the present century, -unquestionably the most progressive of
all the supreme rulers of Siam, of whom the native historians enumerate
not less than forty, reckoning from the founding of the ancient capital
(Ayudia or Ayuo-deva, 'the abode of gods') in AD1350.
He was the legitimate son of the king P'hra Chow-P'hra Pooti-lootlah,
commonly known al Phen-den-Klang; and his mother, daughter of the
youngest sister of the King Somdetch P'hra Bouromah Rajah Pooti Yout
Fah, was one of the most admired princesses of her time, and is
described as equally beautiful and virtuous. She devoted herself
assiduously to the education of her sons, of whom the second, the
subject of these notes, was born in 1804; and the youngest, her best
beloved, was the late Second King of Siam.
This is a description with high respect of King
Mongkut, be it that
Anna also writes about some characteristics she did not like about him
at all. But this is certainly not the description of somebody who was
involved in some romantic affair! In fact nowhere in the more than 300
pages of Anna Leonowens' book there is the slightest hint towards a
romantic affair. So let us forget about that in the first place! And
remember -again- that King Mongkut was around 60 years old in this
period of time.
Of course this is a pity for makers of films and musicals.
There
always should be some romantic thread in the story. In real life things
are not like in novels, musicals and Hollywood pictures, however. The
above account is the real-life written account of King Mongkut, as
given by Anna Leonowens.
Now that we can forget about love-affairs and other
Hollywood
amendments, let us turn to the work as a teacher of Anna Leonowens. She
taught the Royal Children, among them the (then) Prince
Chualalongkorn, later King Rama V.
Below (left hand side) is a picture of this prince, and next to him a
picture of one of the other pupils of the "Royal School".
This is what Anna Leonowens wrote about the Crown Prince, Prince
Chualalongkorn:
The Prince Somdetch Chowfa
Chualalonkorn was about
ten years old when I was appointed to teach him. Being the eldest son
of the queen consort, he held the first rank among the children of the
king, as heir-apparent to the throne. For a Siamese, he was a handsome
lad; of stature neither noticeably tall nor short; figure symmetrical
and compact, and dark complexion. He was, moreover, modest and
affectionate, eager to learn, and easy to influence.
Although in her book Anna Leonowens suggests that she spoke Thai
fluently, I dare to doubt this, according to my own experience. Here is
what Anna wrote about the Thai People and the Thai Language (quite a
long citation):
The
fact is remarkable, that though education in its
highest degrees is popularly neglected in Siam, there is scarcely a man
or woman in the empire who cannot read and write. Though a vain people,
they are neither bigoted nor shallow; and I think the day is not far
off when the enlightening influences applied to them, and accepted
through their willingness, not only to receive instruction from
Europeans, but even to adopt in a measure their customs and their
habits of thought, will raise them to the rank of a superior nation.
The language of this people advances but slowly in the direction of
grammatical perfection. Like many other Oriental tongues, it was at
first purely monosyllabic; but as the Pali or Sanskrit has been
liberally engrafted on it, polysyllabic words have been formed. Its
pronouns and particles are peculiar, its idioms few and simple, its
metaphors very obvious. It is copious to redundancy in terms expressive
of royalty rank, dignity -in fact, a distinct phraseology is required
in addressing personages of exalted station; repetitions of word and
phrase are affected, rather than shunned. Sententious brevity and
simplicity of expression belong to the pure spirit of the language, and
when employed impart to it much dignity and beauty; but there is no
standard of orthography, nor any grammar, and but few rules of
universal application. Every Siamese writer spells to please himself
and the purism of one is the slang or gibberish of another.
As you can read from this citation,
Anna did not think badly of the
Thai people and of the Thai Language! But she resented several things.
For one thing she was disgusted about the fact that the King had a
(very large) Harem. Read what Anna Leonowens wrote about the women who
were part of it:
How
I have pitied these ill-fated sisters of mine,
imprisoned without a crime! If they could but have rejoiced once more
in the freedom of the fields and woods, what new births of gladness
might have been theirs, -they who with a gasp of despair and moral
death first entered those royal; dungeons; never again to come forth
alive! And yet have I known more than one among them who accepted her
fate with a repose of manner and a sweetness of smile that told how
dead must be the heart under that still exterior.
As you may well remember from the
films and musical, at a certain
moment a girl is being offered "as a present" to the King. Anna
describes this event and even shows us a picture of it. So it may very
well have happened that way:
This brings me to a second book Anna Leonowens has written about her
time at the Royal Court of Siam. That one is called: "The Romance of the Harem".
I have not read it, but I should mention it for the sake of
completeness. You can also buy that one at the bottom of this page.
A
very interesting document, also printed in the book pictured
at the top of this page (and probably also printed in the one you can
buy at the bottom of this page) is a letter King
Chualalongkorn (King Rama V)
wrote to Anna Leonowens, after she had left Thailand and he had become
King, after King Mongkut had died. It is a letter from a pupil to his
former teacher. You can read it page by page by clicking the small
images above. (As far as the writing seems not horizontal, you have to
blame me, because I used a small hand-scanner).
Before I list the books you can buy right now, I
wish to tell a few more things about Louis Leonowens,
Anna's son.
He went back to Bangkok and started a trading company in
timber. Up
to the present day you can see the building of the Company, not very
far from the Oriental Hotel.
The Company provided the wood for the Giant Swing,
next to Wat Suthat,
free of charge, as a donation to that Temple. For that reason a small
model of the Giant Swing can be seen in the garden of the Oriental
Hotel, up to the present day. Don't forget to take a look at it (as
well as at the real Giant Swing!).
You can download from the download page of this this site a plain text Gutenberg
Project edition of "The English Governess at the Siamese
Court".
It is a .ZIP file, called 8egrl10.zip
and it contains the original Gutenberg text 8egrl.txt.
You can also download the book in several formats directly from Gutenberg, in all the formats Gutenberg offers.
All the further books shown below are offered in
association with Amazon.com.
If you click one of the books, you will be sent to
the site of Amazon.com where you can decide if you
want to buy the books or not.
Some of these books are only available second hand!
In the first place there are the memoirs of Anna Leonowens.
Then there is a second book by Anna
Leonowens herself, called The Romance of the Harem.
A related book is "Anna Leonowens: A life
beyond The King and I" by Leslie Smith Dow
Another book, written in the time when Anna stayed
in Siam, is Description of the Thai Kingdom of Siam,
by Monsignor Jean-Baptiste Pallegoix (and
translated into English).
And if you prefer a romanticized edition after all,
you could try The Story of Anna and the King, by Cecilia
Holland, which has received good reviews. Or you can buy the
older novel by Margaret Landon, called "Anna and
the King of Siam". Both novelists claim to have used the memoirs.
The DVD with the movie "Anna and the King"
with Jodie Foster and Yun-Fat Chow
is also available (Region 1 encoding only!)
There is also a DVD (Region Coding 1) of the original 1956
movie The King and I with Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr (although the singing for
Deborah Kerr was done by Marni Nixon).
Any remarks about this page?
Email me at the address
below. (To prevent spamming please type the address yourself):
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![Portait of King Mongkut](JavaScript:openPopWin("various/anna02.jpg", 520, 520, "scrollbars,resizable", "cen", "cen"))
![Prince Chualalongkorn](JavaScript:openPopWin("various/anna03.jpg", 520, 520, "scrollbars,resizable", "cen", "cen"))
![A pupil of the Royal School](JavaScript:openPopWin("various/anna05.jpg", 520, 520, "scrollbars,resizable", "cen", "cen"))
![A girl as a gift](JavaScript:openPopWin("various/anna04.jpg", 520, 520, "scrollbars,resizable", "cen", "cen"))
![Letter by King Rama V (1)](JavaScript:openPopWin("various/anna09a.jpg", 440, 520, "scrollbars,resizable", "cen", "cen"))
![Letter by King Rama V (2)](JavaScript:openPopWin("various/anna09b.jpg", 440, 520, "scrollbars,resizable", "cen", "cen"))
![Letter by King Rama V (3)](JavaScript:openPopWin("various/anna09c.jpg", 440, 520, "scrollbars,resizable", "cen", "cen"))
![Letter by King Rama V (4)](JavaScript:openPopWin("various/anna09d.jpg", 440, 520, "scrollbars,resizable", "cen", "cen"))
![The Louis Leonowens Company](JavaScript:openPopWin("various/anna08.jpg", 680, 510, "scrollbars", "cen", "cen"))
