"Siam's great folk epic of love & war"--Back cover.

Siam's folk epic of love, war, and tragedy Khun Chang Khun Phaen is one of the most famous works of old Thai literature. The plot is a love story, set against a background of war, and ending in high tragedy. This folk epic was first developed in oral form for popular performance with lashings of romance, adventure, violence, farce, and magic. It was later adopted by the Siamese court and written down, with two kings contributing. This first-ever translation is based on Prince Damrong's standard edition of 1917-18, with over a hundred passages recovered from earlier versions. This English translation is written in lively prose, completely annotated, with over four hundred original line drawings and an afterword explaining the work's historical background, social context, and poetic style. The main volume presents the entire poem in translation. The companion volume contains alternative chapters and extensions, Prince Damrong's prefaces, and reference lists of Thai terms. The volumes are available separately or as a slipcased set. According to the leading Thai linguist William Gedney, "If all other information on traditional Thai culture were to be lost, the whole complex could be reconstructed from this marvelous text."

The first full history of a great commercial and political center that rose in Asia over almost five centuries.

This outstanding classic of the Thai language is an entertaining folk epic set in the social panorama of traditional Siam. The tale is a spectacular love story rich in romance, adventure, violence, farce, and magic, and ending in the tragic and enigmatic death of its heroine. Written in lively prose, this new, abridged edition retains every scene, incident, and significant dialogue from the full prize-winning English translation, except for one short section. The great Thai linguist William Gedney believed that “if all other information on traditional Thai culture were to be lost, the whole complex could be reconstructed from this marvelous text.” What others are saying “An excellent English translation of a Thai classic, which in its depth, quality, and readability might very well count as a landmark in Thai studies.”—Peter Skilling, co-editor of How Theravada is Theravada? “Spellbinding”—Jeff Kingston, professor of Asian Studies, Temple University, Japan Highlights • Abridged edition of the full translation published in 2010 • Retains all the scenes and dialogues from the full edition, except for one section • Includes over 30 distinctive drawings from the full translation

The first essay arise out of the crucible of Thailand's social upheaval and student protest movement in the early 1970's, when Thai literacy criticism was nascent. They argue that the tale shows a society without principle, and the characters reveal the latent aggression that resides universally in the human psyche. The remaining three essays originated a generation or more later. The third essay contends that the tale was designed to teach Buddhist morality by employing the Three Worlds cosmography and the law of karma. The fourth essay analyzes the forest as a metaphorical space for the recovery of selfhood, and the final essay examines the tale as a manual that gives crucial guidance on power and politics--

One of Thailand’s best-known and most highly regarded novels, portraying the romance of a young Thai man and a married older woman ‘In that tranquil and apparently very ordinary picture, I see everything unfolding. Every scene, every part, from the beginning to the final act’ Nopporn, a Thai student studying in Japan, is tasked with hosting a distinguished old family friend and his new wife, the beautiful, aristocratic Kirati. Despite their difference in age and status, and the social constraints of the day, Nopporn and Kirati are inexorably drawn to each other, and love starts to bloom. A stirring portrayal of youthful romantic obsession, and later attempts to come to terms with the frailty of passionate feelings, Behind the Painting also shows the constrained lives of many women of the time. First published in 1937, it is one of Thailand’s best-known and most beloved novels. Translated by David Smyth

In the last few years, Thailand has emerged as one of the world's most dynamic economies. Yet Thailand is still little known and sparsely written about. This book is the first full-length overview of Thailand's economy and politics. It is based on a wide range of sources in both Thai and English. Its focus is on the second half of the twentieth century, set in a deeper historical context of Siam in the Bangkok era. It plots the transition from rice economy to emerging industrial power, and from absolutist monarchy to one of Asia's most open and lively democracies. The book will be useful for students, interesting for the general reader, and challenging for specialists.

Written after a battle fought in approximately 1475, this poem may be the oldest work of literature from Siam. It features the earliest and most detailed description of a Siamese army, the most elaborate eulogy of an early Thai monarch, and a fascinating discussion of the concept of loyalty. Scenes of personal treachery, heroism, combat, and looting after victory give an absorbing image of early Siam. This translation shares the poem--esteemed in Thailand for its historical and literary importance--with a wider audience. Blank verse conveys the rhythm and atmosphere of the original, and annotations explain obscure words and concepts. An afterword analyzes form, content, and the poem's literary and historical significance.

"A house in the center of Bangkok becomes the point of confluence where lives are shaped by upheaval, memory, and the lure of home. Witness to two centuries' flux in one of the world's most restless cities, a house plays host to longings and losses past, present, and future. A nineteenth-century missionary doctor pines for the comforts of New England even as he finds the vibrant foreign chaos of Siam increasingly difficult to resist. A post-war society woman marries, mothers, and holds court, little suspecting the course of her future. A jazz pianist is summoned in the 1970s to conjure music that will pacify resident spirits, even as he's haunted by ghosts of his former life. Not long after, a young woman gives swimming lessons in the luxury condos that have eclipsed the old house, trying to outpace the long shadow of her political past. And in the post-submergence Bangkok of the future, a band of savvy teenagers guides tourists and former residents past waterlogged, ruined landmarks, selling them tissues to wipe their tears for places they themselves do not remember. Time collapses as these stories collide and converge, linked by blood, memory, yearning, chance, and the forces voraciously making and remaking the amphibian, ever-morphing city itself"--Provided by publisher.

Translation of Southeast Asian Write Award winning stories and poems organized by International PEN Thai Centre.