Word: siam
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...story of King Mongkut and Anna Leonowens is known to most, having been visited in the 1946 movie Anna and the King of Siam as well as the catchy and charming Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I (starring the unforgettable Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr). The story is simple: the king of Siam hires a foreign schoolteacher to teach his court (including his 58 children) English and give insight into the ways of the West. A clash of traditions and customs ensue, but so does a growing relationship between the stern ruler and the headstrong schoolteacher...
Certain properties in popular culture fasten their fangs on our pants leg and never let go, no matter how we kick and yell. The story of Anna Leonowens, British tutor to the numerous progeny of testy King Mongkut, ruler of 19th century Siam, is perhaps the most persistent of these terriers...
Anna has a long and somewhat troubled pedigree. The story originated with the experiences of a then unknown schoolteacher, Anna Leonowens who was hired by King Mongkut of Siam (now Thailand) to teach English to his children. Leonowens chronicled in detail her supposed experiences in Siam, and the memoirs written by this self-titled "governess" served as the basis for a novel by Margaret Landon entitled Anna and the King of Siam. In these memoirs, she claimed -- it turned out later, falsely -- that she developed a deep relationship with the King, and this is the central focus of the upcoming...
...endorse the project). Even Jodie Foster--wearing a skirt in a film since what seems like ages--seems to be towing the party line. She relates, in a typical promotional interview, "Anna really is an epic. You see all the beauty, and the architecture and pageantry and landscapes that Siam was at the time." So, above all, in the broken English of Chow, "it's a tremendous romance, big epic, love story," and don't you ever forget...
Chang and Eng: A Novel in Two Parts, based on the twins who emigrated in the 1840s from then Siam, is due out from Dutton next spring