The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXIV, Part 1-2, 1976 - Khamkoo

REVIEWS 419
The society described in these three novels is definitely that of the
gilded few. Dokmai Sot describes the traditional nobility with a veneer
of Westernisation, Prince Akat's hero is the son of a Phya moving in
elevated society abroad, and Si Burapha's hero's heartthrob is the
daughter of a rich nobleman and his friends at school the children of
senior ministry officials. But Si Burapha'S" hero, Manot, rises in society,
a poor boy who makes good, a sort of Paysan Parvenu. Prince Akat's
hero, Wisut, feels friendless at home where his only friend a half chinese
niece of his nurse and he roughs it in Fulbam, in the East End of London
and in Bexhill. Otherwise he courts Hungarian countesses in Monaco
and antiquarian baronets in New York, though still being attached in
sentiment to Maria Grey, the reappearing love symbol that by his own
volition he will not attain.
What is interesting, from the point of view of comparative literature,
is the similarities between these plots and attitudes and eighteenth
century French and English novels. Luk Phuchai resembles Marivaux's
novels describing a rise in society, Sattru Khong Chao Lon could be
straight from Jane Austen in its amorous comings and goings and
Lakhon Haeng Chiwit almost any picaresque novel one cares to name
with a recurring love theme- Tom Jones comes most readily to mind.
The characters have however a certain Western un- Thai angst, a restlessness
brought about by contacts outside their normal social environment.
It is difficult to believe that these novels could interest a general Thai
public in 1928-9, but then they almost certainly did not. Mass literacy
is a much more recent phenomenon, and the reading public in the late
1920s was limited to the class the novels described, just as 18th century
novels in the West were socially limited to the affluent few.
If consideration here is concentrated on the first novels of the first
novelists, this is simply a reflection of the volume under review. Si
Burapba's other novels are only mentioned in passing as 'a development
in his style of presentation', though Khang Lang Phap is said to be on the