Anna and the King of Siam, Margaret Landon

[land_serene]

Title: Anna and the King of Siam
Author: Margaret Landon
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks, 1999
Format: Paperbacks
Pages: 416
Times Read: 1
Rank:

Summary: This classic tale blends fact and fiction as it tells the story of Englishwoman Anna Leonowens, who becomes governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the 1860s.
~ Amazon.com

Review

This book tells the story of the years the English governess Anna Leonowens spent in Siam in the 1860’s, tutoring the children and concubines of King Mongkut. This book is a compilation of two of Anna’s own works, The Romance of the Harem and The English Governess at the Siamese Court. Landon began the book by describing the effort she went to in order to find these two novels, and was apparently told by a friend that she should combine them into one book and eliminate a lot of “boring” details about politics, geography and court customs described by Anna. With some outside research, Landon managed to accomplish this, and I believe she did quite a fine job of it.

 
Those of you familiar with some of the theatrical versions of this story - Anna and the King of Siam (Rex Harrison and Irene Dunne), The King and I (Yul Brynner, and Deborah Kerr), and Anna and the King (Chow Yun-Fat and Jodie Foster) - would no doubt be surprised by many of the differences between the shows and the book, as I was. The book is much more violent and passionate, and I think it better explains Anna’s true fears and hardships. Despite being English, she’d actually spent most of her life in India, where first her step-father and then husband served the British army. However, once in Siam and away from the protection of the British government, she found herself in a totally new world, one where she came close to being killed several times.

 
There is also much less romance (and less understanding) between Anna and the king. Mongkut was portrayed as a much more mercurial character, one who could laugh at a joke one moment and order an execution the next. The movies hint at the problems he had in trying to help Siam progress into a modern country while still maintaining barbarous customs like slavery and mutilation, but the book makes it much clearer that he didn’t really know what he was doing. In some cases I’d almost say that today we would consider him bipolar. Anna was more afraid of him than anything, and I don’t blame her in the slightest. He certainly lacked Yul Brynner's charm! There was also much more emphasis placed on Mongkut’s eldest son and heir, Prince Chulalongkorn, who was really the salvation of the country.

 
This is definitely a “downer” in terms of novels – a lot of people are either killed or hurt, and it’s hard to tell who is really on what side, sometimes. A lot of the book focuses on Anna’s attempt to free Siamese slaves who are treated unjustly, and this often gets her into loads of trouble. Retribution was often swift and painful. On the bright side, however, her teaching of the royal children obviously brought her great joy, and she remained in Siam despite the hardships in order to make sure that she brought about some decisive change in the country. In the end, her commitment to justice and her passion for freedom and equal rights impacted Chulalongkorn greatly, and he did bring about the end of slavery. In this respect, the book ended on a high note, and it really emphasized how much difference one person can make, even a lowly foreign woman. For this reason alone, I really recommend this novel.