AL
was employed by King Mongkut
of Siam as governess to the wives and eighty-two children in the walled imperial harem Nang Harm in Bangkok.
Morgan, Susan, and Anna Leonowens. “Introduction and Editorial Materials”. The Romance of the Harem, University Press of Virginia, 1991, pp. ix - xxxix; 279.
xvii-xviii
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.
Friends, Associates
Anna Leonowens
AL
's conduct at Fay-Ying's deathbed brought praise from grief-stricken King Mongkut
. He named her Chao Khun Kru or Lord Most Excellent Teacher. She also received an estate in Lop Buri (or Lopburi), and...
Health
Anna Leonowens
While in Thailand, AL
almost died from cholera. She was so near death that King Mongkut
made a promise to raise her son. When she finally recovered, she was encouraged by her doctor to reduce...
Literary responses
Anna Leonowens
According to biographer Leslie Smith Dow
, AL
's former pupil King Chulalongkorn
asked the writer at a meeting why she had published such a scathing account of his father, King Mongkut
. She replied...
Literary Setting
Anna Leonowens
This combination travel book and memoir (with a considerable dash of fiction) provides an account of life inside the walled city of women which constituted King Mongkut
's Imperial harem at Bangkok. AL
's...
Occupation
Anna Leonowens
AL
's employer, King Mongkut
of Siam, died; his son Chulalongkorn, her former pupil, became King Rama V
.
Dow, Leslie Smith. Anna Leonowens: A Life Beyond The King and I. Pottersfield, 1991.