Böcker av Aphra Behn

Aphra Behn (1640-89) achieved both fame and notoriety in her own time, enjoying considerable success for her plays and for her short novel Oroonoko, the story of a noble slave who loves a princess. Acclaimed by Virginia Woolf as the first English woman to earn her living by the pen, Behn's achievements as a writer are now acknowledged less equivocally than in the seventeenth century. As well as Oroonoko, this volume contains five other works of fiction ranging from comedy and high melodrama to tragedy. The Fair Jilt, Memoirs of the Court of the King of Bantam, The History of the Nun, The Adventure of the Black Lady, and The Unfortunate Bride are complemented by a generous selection of her poetry, ranging from public political verse to lyrics and witty conversation poems. This selection demonstrates Behn's range, as wellas her wit, compassion, and interest in the question of identity and self-representation.

Aphra Behn (1640-89) was both successful and controversial in her own lifetime; her achievements are now recognized less equivocally and her plays, often revived, demonstrate wit, compassion and remarkable range. This edition brings together her most important comedies in a single volume: The Rover, her best-known play; The Feigned Courtesans, a lively comedy of intrigue; The Lucky Chance, a comedy with a bitter edge, which takes a satirical look at marriage customs; and the dazzling and popular farce, The Emperor of the Moon. All the plays have been newly edited and are presented with modernized spelling and punctuation.

Announcing a new series of Drama Classic Collections.

Published to mark the tercentenary of Aphra Behn's death, this collection contains five varied plays including "The Lucky Chance" and "The Rover". It is edited by a well-known novelist who has also written a biography of Aphra Behn, "The Passionate Shepherdess".

An influential seventeenth-century fable, by a pathbreaking woman writer, about the fall of a black prince.

When Prince Oroonoko s passion for the virtuous Imoinda arouses the jealousy of his grandfather, the lovers are cast into slavery and transported from Africa to the colony of Surinam. Oroonoko s noble bearing soon wins the respect of his English captors, but his struggle for freedom brings about his destruction. Inspired by Aphra Behn s visit to Surinam, Oroonoko (1688) reflects the author s romantic view of Native Americans as simple, superior peoples in the first state of innocence, before men knew how to sin . The novel also reveals Behn s ambiguous attitude to African slavery while she favoured it as a means to strengthen England s power, her powerful and moving work conveys its injustice and brutality.