Anna Leonowens | An enigma six feet underground in Montreal

She was the main character of the film The King and I. And a pioneer of the feminine travel story. Surprise: she is buried in Montreal. But how devil this adventurer of the XIX^e century did she finish her days here?

Tourist destination in itself, the Mont-Royal cemetery is not in need of famous characters. Among other things, we find the graves of John Molson, founder of the brewery of the same name, the hockey player Howie Morenz and the former Canadian Prime Minister John Abbott.

But very little know that the place also houses a certain Anna Leonowens, adventurer of the XIX^e century, known for having inspired the film The King and I in 1956, and his remake 1999, Anna and the Kingwith Jodie Foster.

How did this British globetrotter, considered a pioneer in the feminine travel story, find eternal rest in Montreal? This is the question we asked each other, after a reader had brought his existence to our attention.

The lady was in her time a star, and her name resurfaces a good year, badly year, according to the biographies devoted to her. Since 2008, two pounds-investigation (Bombay, Anna, published in 2008 and Masked, the Lives of Anna Leonowensin 2014) notably tried to elucidate her true origins, a secret that she was jealously protected.

At the court of the King of Siam

Anna Leonowens, née Edwards (1831-1915) claimed to come from Wales when she was in fact born in India, from a half Indian mother, a lie probably intended to facilitate her belonging to the colonial elite of time. “The British had a very bad opinion of the Anglo-Indians. If they had known that she was Métis, they would have treated it as a less than nothing, “explains Lans K. York, archivist of Halifax, who has worked for years on the subject and signs the notice of M^me Leonowens in Canadian encyclopedia.

Married to a certain Leon Owens (hence her name), then widow, here she is in Singapore, where she founded a school for the children of British officers. This experience earned him to be hired by the Mongk King of Siam (Thailand) in 1862 to teach English and Western culture to his harem of 39 women/concubines and 82 children.

She will spend six years there, in the midst of palaces intrigues and the political issues of the court. A privilege that no Western had tasted before her, and of which she will make her bread and her butter thereafter.

Retransplanted in New York in 1869, Anna Leonowens published her travel accounts in the magazine Atlantic Monthlythen recounts his Thai experience in more detail in two successful books: The English Governess at the Siamese Court (1870) et The Romance of the Harem (1873).

Written from a feminist point of view, with a resolutely colonialist bias, The English Governess Was rather critical of the royal customs in Siam and the Mongkut King. Given as a betrayal, the book will also be prohibited in Thailand. In America, he is rather criticized for his lack of rigor and objectivity. But that does not prevent Anna from winning in the circuit of travel conferences, like large explorers.

This lucrative activity earned him to be considered one of the first stars of the feminine travel story. “But it was far from being the first. There are others dating from the 18th century^e and from the beginning of the 19th century^e century “, specifies Liz Bohls, professor in the English department of the University of Oregon, who wrote on the issue. M^me Bohls notably quotes Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (journeys in 1716-1718, published after his death in 1763), Mary Wollstonecraft (journey in 1794-1795, published in 1796) and even Mary Shelley, mother of Frankensteinwho published Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1841.

His suitcases in Canada

Until the early 1880s, Anna Leonowens traveled the world and published her travel accounts. Then she puts her suitcases in Halifax, to get closer to her grandchildren and her daughter Avis, who married a banker of Scottish origin, Thomas Fyshe. Socially active, it founds an art school and becomes one of the female figures in the city.

In 1901, it was the last move to Montreal. The family is established at 70, rue MCTAVISH, in the Golden Square Mile district, a house today absorbed by the McGill campus. Anna Leonowens then frequented the English -speaking social elite. She gives conferences to McGill, chairs the Montreal Foundling and Baby Hospital (Baby Hospital found) and has the portrait was drawn by photographer William Notman. She is also a full-time grandmother, a job that will increase with the sudden death of her daughter in 1902, then of her son-in-law in 1911.

Having become blind, she gradually faded and died in an almost anonymity, on January 19, 1915, at 83 years old.

A shadow? Not for long. Because the name of Anna Leonowens will continue to float on Western popular culture.

In 1943, writer Margaret Landon published Anna and the King of Siamfictionalized adaptation of its Thai stories. The book is so successful that Hollywood draws a film three years later, which will then be adapted to Broadway, under the title The King and I. This musical, featuring Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr, will be played more than 4000 times on stage and will be the subject of two other adaptations to the cinema. Anna Leonowens will also be the subject of a few biographies, sometimes critical, while specialists in English literature in the 19th century^e century mentioned it in their research.

For laws K. York, this eternal return testifies to the interest of a character with multiple facets. Feminist without being an activist, adventurer with particular destiny, Anna Leonowens was a head woman, not to say an rebellious, who will never have been completely going. “She was so enigmatic, so mysterious,” concludes the archivist. There are so many levels to explore. It’s like peeling an onion, layer after layer after layer. Obviously, she refuses to be forgotten. »»