Description:
A scrupulous and unprecedented investigation into the life of Anna Leonowens--who taught the king of Siam's children in the 1860s--that also ponders the perfect fit between Leonowens's mythic self-invention and the New World's innocent dream of peacefully spreading democracy.
Review Quotes: "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