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Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens, Schoolmistress at the Court of Siam (Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography) Hardcover – June 30, 2014

by Alfred Habegger (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 39 ratings
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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.

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Previous page
  1. Part of series
    Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography
  2. Print length
    543 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    University of Wisconsin Press
  5. Publication date
    June 30, 2014
  6. Dimensions
    9.24 x 6.48 x 1.51 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0299298302
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0299298302
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Alfred Habegger’s Masked reveals the historical truth behind the legendary Anna Leonowens, the Welsh woman who would become the famous governess of the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the heyday of British imperialism. Habegger’s more important story is his critical account of U.S. cultural imperialism, which turned Anna Leonowens’ Asian adventures into moral exempla for America’s global expansion in the broadway musical and popular film, The King and I. With scrupulous and original scholarship, Habegger exposes the ugly imperialist meaning of one of our most cherished fantasies of the self-reliant Western woman. This book speaks powerfully to our contemporary moment.”―John Carlos Rowe, University of Southern California


“Thanks to Alfred Habegger’s careful detective work in archives scattered across five continents, we find out, layer by layer, what lay behind Anna Leonowens’s inventions, which she took much trouble to hide and deny.”―B. J. Terwiel, author of Thailand’s Political History

“Not just a book about Anna Leonowens; it is also more compellingly a history of why Americans so avidly took up her story.”—Wall Street Journal 


“This is surely one of the most thorough debunkings ever written of a historical figure. . . . Anna Leonowens defeated every social taboo facing a poor, uneducated, Eurasian girl in the patriarchal, hierarchical, class- and race-bound British Empire. She did this so triumphantly that no one nowadays knows anything other than the story she invented. . . . Habegger has revealed for us the reality . . . and has brought back to life a really remarkable woman.”—Asian Review of Books

From the Publisher

Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography
William L. Andrews, Series Editor

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Wisconsin Press; 1st edition (June 30, 2014)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 543 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0299298302
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0299298302
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.95 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.24 x 6.48 x 1.51 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 39 ratings

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Alfred Habegger

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
39 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

MurphtheSurf
5.0 out of 5 stars If you Love "The King and I" ..... Here is what really happened
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2023
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We all know the basic story but this scholarly, but easy to read work, provides a richness of detail and an in depth analysis of the government, culture, economy and day to day life of the people of Siam during the reign of King Mongkut in the mid to late 19th and early 20th century. A slightly challenging read, yes, but worth it. Oddly, if you are like me, the reading actually makes the Rogers and Hammerstein effort even more enjoyable- a fantasy based in a complex reality.
2 people found this helpful
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Dr. P. Vanasupa
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2018
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A very interesting account of the overrate Anna Leonowens.
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Musicals Freak
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating study of an enigmatic woman.
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2016
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Anna Leonowens is well known to most American by means of the musical "The King and I," a revival of which has been running at Lincoln Center in New York for nearly a year, as well as the 1956 film. However, the real Anna is nothing like the woman in the movies. In her own books, she puffed up her influence with the king regarding his Westernizing of Siam, now Thailand. This is as thoroughly researched biography of an enigmatic woman who had to hide her inconvenient past to further the prospects of herself (as a wage earner after her husband died in 1859 when she was only 28, and those of the two of her four children who lived past infancy. I can say little because it would spoil the book. But this is a must read for anyone who is a fan of the musical or the various films and books on Anna, including her own.
6 people found this helpful
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anne cornish
3.0 out of 5 stars Unmasked but still admirable
Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2014
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It was interesting to read of the gap between fact and fiction in other writings about the famous Anna of The King and I, etc. But the author seemed so determined on a kind of character assassination of Anna Leonowens that he sometimes indulged in a fair bit of speculation of his own that was a bit tedious. I would have preferred him to present the facts as far as they could be ascertained and leave me to draw my own conclusions about her motivations. I did come to a slightly different perception of her and think that even though she appears to have been less than honest, she also did an admirable job of making the best of the hand that Fate dealt her.
16 people found this helpful
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Elizabeth A. Davies
5.0 out of 5 stars it was amazing. I've read a bit about the king and ...
Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2015
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Well, it was amazing. I've read a bit about the king and realized that Anna was not who she pretended to be. Having been raised hearing the music and the "legend", it was disappointing at first to realize exactly how much she deceived everyone. But... this author lays it out beautifully - showing exactly WHY Anna did what she did, and after reading it, well, I'm left with more admiration for her than before. I don't totally excuse her excesses in portaying the king as a despot - but neither do I exactly "forget" his habits and how women in the era were treated. He was not the monster she portrays, but yes.. his relationships with young girls and slaves would not be looked on "favourably" today, either.

Overall, I feel this was an even handed treatment of the subject, well researched and sensitive to both Thai and English histories.

HIGHLY recommended.
13 people found this helpful
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Kellene Hubbard
5.0 out of 5 stars The King and I
Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2021
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A lot more information than the Movie
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Nance
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2017
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A little tiring to read-but gives you the facts
2 people found this helpful
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RBR
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2016
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A fascinating, if a bit over-long book, especially interesting to those who have seen The King and I.
One person found this helpful
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