Oroonoko, the Rover, and Other Works (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Behn, Aphra

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140433384 ISBN 13: 9780140433388

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1999

Synopsis

"We are bought and sold like apes or monkeys, to be the sport of women, fools, and cowards, and the support of rogues"

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.

This new edition of Oroonoko is based on the first printed edition of 1688, and includes a chronology, bibliography and notes. In her introduction, Janet Todd examines Aphra Behn’s views of slavery, colonization and politics, and her position as a professional woman writer in the Restoration.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

About this title

About the Author:

Aphra Behn (c. 1640–1689), born in Kent, England, claimed to have visited the British colony of Surinam, where Oroonoko is set. She wrote poetry, short stories, stage plays, and political propaganda for the Tory party, as well as her great amorous and political novel, Love Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister.

Janet Todd is Francis Hutcheson Professor of English Literature at the University of Glasgow and an honorary fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge.

Review:

Aphra Behn, considered the first professional female writer in English, produced literature in a variety of genres during the middle of the seventeenth century. Her work combines themes of passion, intrigue, and honor, and her prose is romantic in the classic sense. Oroonoko, The Rover and Other Works are as enlightening as they are entertaining, a mixture of reportage and high adventure. In "The Fair Jilt," the beautiful and treacherous Miranda is chaperoned in a convent while deciding which of her many suitors she will have. When denied her first choice, she is quick to exact her revenge. "Oroonoko" is the tale of a young African prince who is tricked into slavery and brought to Surinam. When he meets up again with the lover he believed was dead, he is doubly determined to live free or die. What is remarkable about these stories is the tremendous willpower of the characters. Aphra Behn's protagonists clearly reflect her own passion for life, a spirit which led her to write in a letter to a male colleague: "All I ask is the privilege... to tread in those successful paths my predecessors have so long thrived in ... If I must not because of my sex, have this freedom, but that you will usurp all to yourselves; I lay down my quill and you shall have no more of me." Fortunately, Aphra Behn persevered and her work, like her life - unhampered by either modesty or apology - exudes a rare vitality. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Sonja Larsen

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0140433384
• ISBN 13: 9780140433388
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400