The Romance of the Harem

Among the most controversial memoirs of the Victorian era, this book purports to lift the curtain on the secluded world of the Siamese royal harem, as seen through the eyes of an Englishwoman who became governess to King Mongkut's children. Leonowens describes a world of glittering cruelty, fierce loyalty, and women maneuvering for power and survival within walls the outside world could only imagine. She writes of concubines who became queens, of children whose fates hung on a word from the throne, and of the strange intimacy between captor and captive that could blur into something like love. Whatever the veracity of her claims, her account captivated a generation of readers hungry for glimpses behind the closed doors of Eastern despotism. The book remains essential reading for anyone interested in the collision of East and West, the construction of the 'exotic' Orient in Western imagination, and the complex figure of the woman who told this story before it became musical comedy.