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    Anna and the King of Siam: The Book That Inspired the Musical and Film The King and I
    Anna and the King of Siam: The Book That Inspired the Musical and Film The King and I
    Anna and the King of Siam: The Book That Inspired the Musical and Film The King and I
    Audiobook16 hours

    Anna and the King of Siam: The Book That Inspired the Musical and Film The King and I

    Written by Margaret Landon

    Narrated by Anne Flosnik

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Anna Leonowens, a proper Englishwoman, was an unlikely candidate to change the course of Siamese (Thai) history. A young widow and mother, her services were engaged in the 1860's by King Mongkut of Siam to help him communicate with foreign governments and be the tutor to his children and favored concubines. Stepping off the steamer from London, Anna found herself in an exotic land she could have only dreamed. It was a lush landscape of mystic faiths and curious people, and king's palace bustling with royal pageantry, ancient custom, and harems. One of her pupils, the young prince Chulalongkorn, was particularly influenced by Leonowens and her Western ideals. He learned about Abraham Lincoln and the tenets of democracy from her, and years later he would become Siam's most progressive king. He guided the country's transformation from a feudal state to a modern society, abolishing slavery and making many other radical reforms.Weaving meticulously researched facts with beautifully imagined scenes, Margret Landon recreates an unforgettable portrait of life in a forgotten exotic land. Written more than fifty years ago, and translated into dozens of languages, Anna and the King of Siam (the inspiration for the magical play and film The King and I)continues to delight and enchant readers around the world.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChristianAudio.com
    Release dateDec 1, 2011
    ISBN9781610452922
    Anna and the King of Siam: The Book That Inspired the Musical and Film The King and I
    Author

    Margaret Landon

    Margaret Landon (1903–1993) was an American author best known for her bestselling novel Anna and the King of Siam, which inspired the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, The King and I. After graduating from Wheaton College in Illinois in 1925, she married Kenneth Landon, a seminary student, and worked briefly as a schoolteacher. In 1927, Landon and her husband volunteered to serve as Presbyterian missionaries in Siam (present-day Thailand), where she learned of Anna Leonowens, the nineteenth-century governess and tutor to the royal family of Siam. Landon’s novel based on Leonowens’s life has sold over one million copies and been translated into more than twenty languages.  

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    Reviews for Anna and the King of Siam

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    • 5/5
      Another of my favorites. Anna has been widowed and with her young son, determines to make her own way by taking a job as a governess/teacher to the King of Siam's many children. She goes as a teacher of Western thought, though her own thinking is much changed as she rubs up against Eastern ways of thinking. She meets each challenge with faith and determination and ends up changing a nation.A great book about a great woman.
    • 5/5
      It's so colorful fiction.I like to red it even
    • 3/5
      This is a book that if you read it, you will always watch the movies made about this book in a totally different way, because the movies don't give a true view of what life was really like between Ann the the King of Siam. I also did not realize that Anna was a real person who lived in Siam for many years. The lady who wrote this story stayed as true to this lady's journals as she could and did a good job of making it into a story. Although this is not a quick read and has alot of descriptions and details and at times very little "conversations", I am glad I read it. Be sure to read the author's notes at the end (I read them first) as it helps you understand the writing of the book better. Anna was a young woman who lost her husband and had to take this position for lack of anything else she could do for her and her 2 children. It was not an easy life for this woman, but she endured and tried to make a difference in the lifes of the people in the King's palace and harem and in all the children's lifes. Did she make a difference? Read the book and find out.
    • 3/5
      My final RL book group read for the month. Historical fiction, about a RL woman who went to Siam (modern Thailand) in Victorian times to teach the King's Children.This book was the basis for the play and the movies. It was also oddly a fictional book that the author based (re-wrote) on two non-fiction books written by the actual Anna herself. Apparently Anna was less than honest about herself and her family, so it makes it hard to trust her narrative.It was smoothly written, but quite a chore to read. It was very boring at times and at others it would engage me in the plight of a character. But because I wanted to know what happened, not that I cared for any of the characters. There were many descriptive passages of Siam at the time Anna was there. The reader saw the culture, the people, and the rules of life, much of it was lifeless however - like an encyclopedia entry. Many dispute the depictions by Anna herself as being untrue, and claim Margaret Landon perpetuated them. Its hard to know what is true, and what is not and how much historical revisionism is in play.
    • 4/5
      This is the tale of Anna Leonowens, who was hired in 1862 to teach the children of the King of Siam. (or Thailand, to use the country's current name) If I'm not mistaken, this is an update of a 1943 book that itself was an adaption of Anna's own two volume memoirs. Anyway, as one involved in teaching English in a foreign land, it was interesting to read the adventures of a fellow expatriate 140 years ago. Some things, like the cultural misunderstandings and wonders of being in a foreign culture, haven't changed. It's really worth checking out for a taste of overseas living.--J.