Edited by Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit Siam’s great folk epic The Tale of Khun Chang Khun Phaen has entertained and delighted readers and audiences down through the centuries, with its rich and earthy portrayal of life and relationships in love and war. Here, a mix of Thai and Western scholars present five critical essays that uncover hidden layers of meaning and expose new themes using theories and approaches developed mainly within the field of Western literary criticism. The first two essays arise out of the crucible of Thailand’s social upheaval and student protest movement in the early 1970s, when Thai literary 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 measure of a literary classic is that it reflects the complexity of real life and can be read in many different ways,” the introduction states. This first collection of English-language studies on The Tale of Khun Chang Khun Phaen will enhance the understanding and enjoyment of a great Asian classic.