Download or read book Masked written by Alfred Habegger and published by University of Wisconsin Pres. This book was released on 2014-06-30 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brave British widow goes to Siam and—by dint of her principled and indomitable character—inspires that despotic nation to abolish slavery and absolute rule: this appealing legend first took shape after the Civil War when Anna Leonowens came to America from Bangkok and succeeded in becoming a celebrity author and lecturer. Three decades after her death, in the 1940s and 1950s, the story would be transformed into a powerful Western myth by Margaret Landon’s best-selling book Anna and the King of Siam and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical The King and I. But who was Leonowens and why did her story take hold? Although it has been known for some time that she was of Anglo-Indian parentage and that her tales about the Siamese court are unreliable, not until now, with the publication of Masked, has there been a deeply researched account of her extraordinary life. Alfred Habegger, an award-winning biographer, draws on the archives of five continents and recent Thai-language scholarship to disclose the complex person behind the mask and the troubling facts behind the myth. He also ponders the curious fit between Leonowens’s compelling fabrications and the New World’s innocent dreams—in particular the dream that democracy can be spread through quick and easy interventions. Exploring the full historic complexity of what it once meant to pass as white, Masked pays close attention to Leonowens’s midlevel origins in British India, her education at a Bombay charity school for Eurasian children, her material and social milieu in Australia and Singapore, the stresses she endured in Bangkok as a working widow, the latent melancholy that often afflicted her, the problematic aspects of her self-invention, and the welcome she found in America, where a circle of elite New England abolitionists who knew nothing about Southeast Asia gave her their uncritical support. Her embellished story would again capture America’s imagination as World War II ended and a newly interventionist United States looked toward Asia. Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the American Association of School Librarians Best Regional Special Interest Boosk, selected by the Public Library Reviewers
Download or read book Anna and the King of Siam written by Margaret Landon and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2016-08-23 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on the incredible true story of one woman’s journey to the exotic world of nineteenth-century Siam, the riveting novel that inspired The King and I. In 1862, recently widowed and with two small children to support, British schoolteacher Anna Leonowens agrees to serve as governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam (present-day Thailand), unaware that her years in the royal palace will change not only her own life, but also the future of a nation. Her relationship with King Mongkut, famously portrayed by Yul Brynner in the classic film The King and I, is complicated from the start, pitting two headstrong personalities against each other: While the king favors tradition, Anna embraces change. As governess, Anna often finds herself at cross-purposes, marveling at the foreign customs, fascinating people, and striking landscape of the kingdom and its harems, while simultaneously trying to influence her pupils—especially young Prince Chulalongkorn—with her Western ideals and values. Years later, as king, this very influence leads Chulalongkorn to abolish slavery in Siam and introduce democratic reform based on the ideas of freedom and human dignity he first learned from his beloved tutor. This captivating novel brilliantly combines in-depth research—author Margaret Landon drew from Siamese court records and Anna’s own writings—with richly imagined details to create a lush portrait of 1860s Siam. As a Rodgers & Hammerstein Broadway musical and an Academy Award–winning film, the story of Anna and the King of Siam has enchanted millions over the years. It is a gripping tale of cultural differences and shared humanity that invites readers into a vivid and sensory world populated by unforgettable characters.
Download or read book The English Governess at the Siamese Court written by Anna Leonowens and published by Applewood Books. This book was released on 2009-08-19 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Such was Chow Phya Sri Sury Wongse when I was first presented to him: a natural king among the dusky forms that surrounded him, the actual ruler of that semi- barbarous realm, and the prime contriver of its arbitrary policy. Black, but comely, robust, and vigorous, neck short and thick, nose large and nostrils wide, eyes inquisitive and penetrating, his was the massive brain proper to an intellect deliberate and systematic. Well found in the best idioms of his native tongue, he expressed strong, discriminative thoughts in words at once accurate and abundant. His only vanity was his English, with which he so interlarded his native speech, as often to impart the effect of levity to ideas that, in themselves, were grave, judicious, and impressive.
Download or read book Romance of the Harem written by Anna Leonowens and published by Applewood Books. This book was released on 2009-10 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Is A New Release Of The Original 1873 Edition.
Download or read book Bombay Anna written by Susan Morgan and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2008-07-07 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you thought you knew the story of Anna in The King and I, think again. As this riveting biography shows, the real life of Anna Leonowens was far more fascinating than the beloved story of the Victorian governess who went to work for the King of Siam. To write this definitive account, Susan Morgan traveled around the globe and discovered new information that has eluded researchers for years. Anna was born a poor, mixed-race army brat in India, and what followed is an extraordinary nineteenth-century story of savvy self-invention, wild adventure, and far-reaching influence. At a time when most women stayed at home, Anna Leonowens traveled all over the world, witnessed some of the most fascinating events of the Age of Empire, and became a well-known travel writer, journalist, teacher, and lecturer. She remains the one and only foreigner to have spent significant time inside the royal harem of Siam. She emigrated to the United States, crossed all of Russia on her own just before the revolution, and moved to Canada, where she publicly defended the rights of women and the working class. The book also gives an engrossing account of how and why Anna became an icon of American culture in The King and I and its many adaptations.
Download or read book Anna Leonowens written by Leslie Smith Dow and published by Porter's Lake, N.S. : Pottersfield. This book was released on 1991 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Life and Travel in India written by Anna Harriette Leonowens and published by . This book was released on 1884 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Siamese Harem Life written by Anna Harriette Leonowens and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2001 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author is famous for her book "The English Governess of the Siamese Court," which later became the musical "The King and I," and for her biography entitled "Anna and the King of Siam," She gives here an account of her stay at the Siamese Court.
Download or read book Literary Trips written by Victoria Brooks and published by GreatestEscapes.com Publishing. This book was released on 2000 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 24 more tales representing the very best in travel writing, plus thoroughly researched guidebook information.
Download or read book In Buddha s Company written by Richard A. Ruth and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2010-09-16 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Buddha’s Company explores a previously neglected aspect of the Vietnam War: the experiences of the Thai troops who served there and the attitudes and beliefs that motivated them to volunteer. Thailand sent nearly 40,000 volunteer soldiers to South Vietnam to serve alongside the Free World Forces in the conflict, but unlike the other foreign participants, the Thais came armed with historical and cultural knowledge of the region. Blending the methodologies of cultural and military history, Richard Ruth examines the individual experiences of Thai volunteers in their wartime encounters with American allies, South Vietnamese civilians, and Viet Cong enemies. Ruth shows how the Thais were transformed by living amongst the modern goods and war machinery of the Americans and by traversing the jungles and plantations haunted by indigenous spirits. At the same time, Ruth argues, Thailand’s ruling institutions used the image of volunteers to advance their respective agendas, especially those related to anticommunist authoritarianism. Drawing on numerous interviews with Thai veterans and archival material from Thailand and the United States, Ruth focuses on the cultural exchanges that occurred between Thai troops and their allies and enemies, presenting a Southeast Asian view of a conflict that has traditionally been studied as a Cold War event dominated by an American political agenda. The resulting study considers such diverse topics as comparative Buddhisms, alternative modernities, consumerism, celebrity, official memories vs. personal recollections, and the value of local knowledge in foreign wars. The war’s effects within Thailand itself are closely considered, demonstrating that the war against communism in Vietnam, as articulated by Thai leaders, was a popular cause among nearly all segments of the population. Furthermore, Ruth challenges previous assertions that Thailand’s forces were merely "America’s mercenaries" by presenting the multiple, overlapping motivations for volunteering offered by the soldiers themselves. In Buddha’s Company makes clear that many Thais sought direct involvement in the Vietnam War and that their participation had profound and lasting effects on the country’s political and military institutions, royal affairs, popular culture, and international relations. As one of only a handful of academic histories of Thailand in the 1960s, it provides a crucial link between the keystone studies of the Phibun-Sarit years (1946–1963) and those examining the turbulent 1970s.
Download or read book Governess written by Ruth Brandon and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2011-02-01 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between the 1780s and the end of the nineteenth century, an army of sad women took up residence in other people's homes, part and yet not part of the family, not servants, yet not equals. To become a governess, observed Jane Austen in Emma, was to "retire from all the pleasures of life, of rational intercourse, equal society, peace and hope, to penance and mortification for ever." However, in an ironic paradox, the governess, so marginal to her society, was central to its fiction-partly because governessing was the fate of some exceptionally talented women who later wrote novels based on their experiences. But personal experience was only one source, and writers like Wilkie Collins, William Makepeace Thackeray, Henry James, and Jane Austen all recognized that the governess's solitary figure, adrift in the world, offered more novelistic scope than did the constrained and respectable wife. Ruth Brandon weaves literary and social history with details from the lives of actual governesses, drawn from their letters and journals, to craft a rare portrait of real women whose lives were in stark contrast to the romantic tales of their fictional counterparts. Governess will resonate with the many fans of Jane Austen and the Brontës, whose novels continue to inspire films and books, as well as fans of The Nanny Diaries and other books that explore the longstanding tension between mothers and the women they hire to raise their children.
Download or read book The Color of Life written by Cara Meredith and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2019-02-05 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this spiritual memoir, a white woman in an interracial marriage and mixed-race family paints a beautiful path from white privilege toward racial healing, from ignorance toward seeing the image of God in everyone she meets. Author and speaker Cara Meredith grew up in a colorless world. From childhood, she didn't think issues of race had anything to do with her, and she was ignorant of many of the racial realities (including individual and systemic racism) in America today. A colorblind rhetoric had been stamped across her education, world view, and Christian theology. Then as an adult, Cara's life took on new, colorful hues. She realized that white people in her generation, seeking to move beyond ancestral racism, had swung so far in believing a colorblind rhetoric that they tried to act as if they didn't see race at all. When Cara met and fell in love with the son of black icon, James Meredith, the power of love helped her see color. She began to notice the shades of life already present in the world around her, while also learning to listen in new ways to black voices of the past. After she married and their little family grew to include two mixed-race sons, Cara knew she would never see the world through a colorless lens again. Cara Meredith's journey will serve as an invitation into conversations of justice, race, and privilege, asking key questions, such as: What does it mean to navigate ongoing and desperately needed conversations of race and justice? What does it mean for white people to listen and learn from the realities our black and brown brothers and sisters face every day? What does it mean to teach the next generation a theology of justice, reconciliation, and love? What does it mean to dig into the stories of our past, both historically and theologically, to see the imago Dei in everyone? Plus, Cara offers an extensive Notes and Recommended Reading section at the end of the book, so you can continue learning, listening, and engaging in this important conversation.
Download or read book Siamese Harem Life written by Anna Harriette Leonowens and published by . This book was released on 1962 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Story of Anna and the King written by Cecelia Holland and published by Dey Street Books. This book was released on 1999-12-08 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is the real story behind the woman who inspired a best-selling biography, one of the top Broadway musicals of all time. And two classic films--and it's one that will inspire you. The epic love story between a British governess and the King of Siam once again comes to life with the release of Twentieth Century Fox's Anna and the King, starring Academy Award-winning actress Jodie Foster and international superstar Chow Yun-Fat. The Story of Anna and the King captures all the nuances of this extraordinary relationship, as well as the extravagant film depicting it, in lush, full-color photographs. Cecelia Holland weaves a beautiful narrative of the true histories behind Anna Loenowens and the Siamese royal family, as well as the political and cultural rises and falls of Siam--present-day Thailand--based on historical information and the published works of Anna Leonowens. Filmed entirely in Malaysia, Anna and the King features one of the largest motion picture sets ever constructed--the King's palace, which covers more than eight acres of land. Under the direction of Andy Tennant, an international cast and crew representing more than twenty countries works with a myriad of stunningly ornate costumes, thousands of extras, and a menagerie of specially trained animals, The Story of Anna and the King invites you to enter King Mongkut's world.
Download or read book Anna and the King written by Margaret Landon and published by . This book was released on 1947 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Red Pill written by Hari Kunzru and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES'S 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2020 ONE OF NPR's BEST BOOKS OF 2020 ONE OF THE A.V. CLUB'S 15 FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2020 From the widely acclaimed author of White Tears, a bold new novel about searching for order in a world that frames madness as truth. After receiving a prestigious writing fellowship in Germany, the narrator of Red Pill arrives in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee and struggles to accomplish anything at all. Instead of working on the book he has proposed to write, he takes long walks and binge-watches Blue Lives--a violent cop show that becomes weirdly compelling in its bleak, Darwinian view of life--and soon begins to wonder if his writing has any value at all. Wannsee is a place full of ghosts: Across the lake, the narrator can see the villa where the Nazis planned the Final Solution, and in his walks he passes the grave of the Romantic writer Heinrich von Kleist, who killed himself after deciding that "no happiness was possible here on earth." When some friends drag him to a party where he meets Anton, the creator of Blue Lives, the narrator begins to believe that the two of them are involved in a cosmic battle, and that Anton is "red-pilling" his viewers--turning them toward an ugly, alt-rightish worldview--ultimately forcing the narrator to wonder if he is losing his mind.
Download or read book A Siamese Embassy Lost in Africa 1686 written by Guy Tachard and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Ok-khun Chamnan, during his odyssey as part of the aborted embassy to Portugal, spent nearly a year in Goa, where he learnt Portuguese; a month travelling overland from Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa, to the Cape of Good Hope; four months at the Dutch settlement at the Cape; six months in Batavia; and several months at sea on this journey. On his return to Siam in 1687 he was ordered to greet the French envoys La Loubere and Ceberet soon after their arrival." "The adventures of this Siamese khunnang did not end with his unsuccessful journey to Lisbon. He went on to Europe in 1688, visited the Riviera and Rome in winter, met the pope, and then in 1689 had an audience with Louis XIV. He converted to Catholicism and returned from Europe in 1690, disembarking at Balassor in Bengal before returning to Ayutthaya overland from Mergui.".
