The English Governess & The Romance of the Harem

Many Thais cannot accept the fact that Anna’s memoirs contain truth. They have labeled her a pretentious liar. Most of them have little to no knowledge about nineteenth-century Siam. Even in an attempt to challenge Anna’s memoirs, those critics ended up confusing between what she wrote, novels based on her memoirs, musicals, and film, and their hatred towards her. They are normally used to showing flattery and adulation to ancient kings who had long deceased even before they were born; not to mention that they did not know for themselves how or what the kings actually looked like.

หนังสือ The English Governess at the Siamese Court & The Romance of the Harem

ผู้เขียน Anna Harriette Leonowens

สำนักพิมพ์ Shine Publishing House

เวลาพิมพ์ January 2020

ISBN  9786167939148

ขนาดรูปเล่ม 152 mm. X 227 mm. X 40 mm.

เนื้อใน Green Read Papers

ปก 4 colors

จำนวนหน้า 666 pages

ราคาปก 969 Bath

สั่งซื้อ

คำโปรยปกหน้า 

(front cover)

Stories of a Thai Harem in the Nineteenth Century by a teacher of King Rama V

Introduction presented with documents by Wad Rawee 

คำโปรยปกหลัง 

(back cover) 

A collection of two books by Anna Leonowens, an important documentation of her recollections about the court of King Mongkut, King Rama IV of Siam, along with a new introduction presented with supporting documents, that will make you have to rereads Anna’s memoirs once again.

This is the narrative that led to the legendary story of Anna and the King of Siam and The King and I which contains the facts that derived from the harem of the King of Siam in a way that cannot be found from any other evidence.

150 years ago, when Siam was beginning to open up to the west. A Caucasian woman went to work as a teacher of  English and modern general knowledge in the harem.  Her students were the children and wives of an Asian king, who, having lived his life in an ancient state of conservatism, had just opened his eyes to a world caught in the throes of modernization.

บางส่วนจากคำนำ 

(A part from intorduction) 

...the truth could be found buried underneath layers of ground. Digging deep down, one might find a number of stories from different ages hidden on top of one another in a certain place. The plot, like a skeletal structure, lay dormant between each layer of the stories told over and again by one generation to another. At the very place where one meaning was written over another, there was a structure of something that has long existed since the old days. The fossil of this ancient being is the truth about forbidden ladies from the previous century...

Contents 

Introduction   09

The English Governess at the Siamese Court   137

The Romance of the Harem     393

Appendix   623

New Royal Order 37 

Hasband and Wife Law 

The Code of Law Concerning Rebelling against the Kingdom : The Thirty-two Characteristics of the Punishments for Wrongdoings 

Phae Praratchakusol Bok Kao Bin Hai Kratiam Thom Puen Wat Rajapradit. 

(แผ่พระราชกุศล บอกเข้าบินไหกระเทียมถมพื้นวัดราชประดิษฐ)   

Phra Ratcha Hattalekha [King’s letter] Tueng Chao Chom Manda Phueng in 1855 

(พระราชหัตถเลขา ถึงเจ้าจอมมารดาพึ่ง ปีเถาะ พ.ศ. 2398)   

Phra Ratcha Hattalekha [King’s letter] Tueng Phraya Montri Suriyawong and Chamun Sarapeth Bhakdi in 1858.

(พระราชหัตถเลขา ถึงพระยามนตรีสุริยวงศแลเจ้าหมื่นสรรเพธภักดี ปีมะเมีย พ.ศ. 2401)  

Translated by Pramoj brothers: Letter to Phya Montri Suriwongse, the King’s Ambassador to the Court of Queen Victoria, and Chao Mun Sarapethbhakdi, Vice-Ambassador. 1857 

Royal proclamation permitting ladies of the Inner Palace to resign from their service at the Court in 1861.

(ประกาศทรงอนุญาตให้ข้างในกราบถวายบังคมลาออกจากราชการ ณ วันอาทิตย์ เดือนอ้าย ขึ้น 13 ค่ำ ปีระกา ตรีศก)

Royal proclamation permitting ladies of the Inner Palace to resign from their service at the Court in 1863.

(ประกาศพระราชทานอนุญาตให้ข้าราชการฝ่ายในทูลลาออกนอกราชการได้ ณ วันเสาร์ เดือน 10 ขึ้น 14 ค่ำ ปีกุน เบญจศก)

Letters from King Mongkut to Anna