ABSTRACT
Over the course of the nineteenth century, France gradually established a colony over the Vietnamese state and the neighboring kingdoms of Cambodia and Laos. The impact of French colonialism was experienced by Vietnamese at many levels: political, economic, social, culture, and educational. The loss of political autonomy was felt acutely among the Vietnamese, and yet Vietnamese elites recognized the significance of the ways in which their society was being transformed by its encounter with the French. Among other things, the French brought with them new literary genres and forms, including the modern novel. The novel offered new ways to engage in social commentary on a world turned upside down by the arrival of the French and the dramatic onset of modernity. Novels allowed a new generation of Vietnamese intellectuals to comment on these changes in a variety of ways. Many of these author-intellectuals were also journalists, among them the author of Dumb Luck, Vu Trong Phung.
