SIAM (from Voyage Autour du Monde)
SIAM presents the chapter on Siam from Voyage autour du Monde (1874) by Count Ludovic de Beauvoir. The text is offered in its original French version alongside Italian and English translations, with an introduction and editorial notes. The volume captures the charm of a 19th-century journey through pagodas, royal palaces, and everyday life, providing a historical and cultural glimpse of an unspoiled East.
The front page of the original book of 1874
The aim of this book, beyond the recovery of a testimony that is undoubtedly of considerable interest, is to offer the Western reader—who today can travel from Europe to Bangkok on an overnight flight—the description and perspective of a traveller who visited this country at a time when sea voyages lasted several months.
It goes without saying that, over the century and a half that has elapsed since that journey, many things have changed in the former Kingdom of Siam, just as the mindset of the Western visitor has evolved. It is therefore of interest to compare the perspective of a late nineteenth-century traveller—inevitably imbued with the prejudices of his time, yet at the same time relatively free from prior conditioning—with that of the contemporary tourist, who travels to Thailand already influenced by the vast body of information previously absorbed through films, television programs, and books about the country he is about to discover.
The other books
In this section of the website you will find an overview of the other books I have published. Very different titles, diversi tra loro, yet united by a common thread: the desire to present science and thought with clarity, depth, and an original perspective.
From scientific popularization to philosofical reflection, from narrative fiction to detective stories, each book addresses complex themes using accessible language, offering tools to navigate the contemporary world.
