Pramoon Un-hathoop
Pramoon Un-hathoop (1920-1988), alias Utsana Phleungtham, was a noted journalist, short-story writer, and translator. The story of jan darra, written in 1965 when he was 44, a married man and father of three, is his only finished novel.

A heavy drinker, Pramoon was plagued by stomach ulcers from his mid-thirties, and spent the last twenty years of his life in and out of hospitals. The first of eight children of a low-level civil servant in Bangkok, he was a voracious reader from an early age, and started to learn English almost as soon as he could read and write Thai. Although he never completed his secondary education, he is considered a master stylist, unsurpassed in his "fire in ice" approach to Thai.

Apparently inspired by the goings-on at a neighbouring palace during the author's childhood, jan darra is set in the residence of a retired nobleman whose carnal excesses set the tone for the whole community. The story focuses on the sexual rivalry between His Lordship and his despised son, Jan Darra (who turns out not to be his son at all), who in time wreaks revenge on his tormentor. Erotic pleasures described in hyperbolic, neo-classical fashion are merely a pretext to create in intricate detail a self-contained microcosm ruled by lust, passion, and scheming self-interest.

With its skilful construction, psychological insights, lush prose, and steamy yet inoffensive sex scenes, not to mention its overly Buddhist moral stance, this is an exceptional novel with few equivalents in the world of literature.

Pongdej Jiengpattanakij
Pongdej Jiengpattanakij graduated from Thommasat University with a degree in English Literature, then went on to receive a graduate diploma in Thai-English translation from the same institution. He earned his Masters degree in the same subject from Ramkhamhaeng University. His graduate thesis, Problems in Translating Thai Novels into English, is available from the university library.

Pongdej assisted with the translation of many books in the Thai Modern Classics series, including Path of the Tiger, The Judgement, Jan Darra, and The Circus of Life. He is interested in translation and lexicography, and in teaching translation. He can be contacted at dupn0405@asinet.co.th

Notes by Marcel Barang, series editor, Thai Modern Classics. For more information and additional selections, visit his Thai Fiction in Translation website, or contact him directly at marcelbarang@bkk.a-net.net.th