Aphra Behn
Aphra Behn (1640-1689) was a bold, salacious, and pioneering individual. If Frances Burney made women writers respectable, it was Aphra Behn who put them on the map.
Portrait of Aphra Behn by Mary Beale [Public Domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Young Woman
In 1640 Aphra Behn was born Eaffrey Johnson of Canterbury, the daughter of a barber. Behn was likely raised Catholic. She was a staunch Tory and Royalist, and may already have been working as a spy for Charles II when she visited Surinam, an English colony, in 1663. Behn stayed on the sugar plantation owned by Sir Robert Harley, and letters from the deputy governor of Surinam refer to her as 'Astrea', her code name as an intelligence officer and later, her nom-de-plume as a writer. Her stay on the plantation inspired her to write Oroonoko: or, The Royal Slave, a novel that shows surprising sympathy for the plight of the plantation slave.
Spy
By 1664 Aphra married Johan Behn, a foreign merchant, but he died only a few years into their marriage. On her return to England from Surinam Behn became embroiled in the court of Charles II, who recruited her to spy against the Dutch in the Second Anglo-Dutch War. '…
Subscribe to Aphra Behn
via RSS
| # | Resource Title | Description | Contributor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Theatre, 1660-1760: The Arrival of the Actress | In this undergraduate lecture, David Taylor describes one of the key theatrical developments of… | David Taylor |
| 2 | The plays, histories and novels of ... mrs. Aphra Behn. With life and memoirs. (6/6) | Volume 6. Contains: Agnes de Castro, The Lover's Watch, The Ladies Looking-Glass, The Lucky Mistake… | |
| 3 | The plays, histories and novels of ... mrs. Aphra Behn. With life and memoirs. (5/6) | Volume 5. Contains: The Life and Memoirs of Mrs. Behn, Oroonoko, The Fair Jilt, The Nun | |
| 4 | The plays, histories and novels of ... mrs. Aphra Behn. With life and memoirs. (4/6) | Volume 4. Contains: Sir Patient Fancy, The Widow Ranter, The Emperor of the Moon, The Amorous… | |
| 5 | The plays, histories and novels of ... mrs. Aphra Behn. With life and memoirs. (3/6) | Volume 3 Contains: The Town Fop, The False Count, The Lucky Chance, Forc'd Marriage | |
| 6 | The plays, histories and novels of ... mrs. Aphra Behn. With life and memoirs. (2/6) | Volume 2. Contains: Abdelazer, The Young King, The City Heiress, The Feign'd Curtezans | |
| 7 | The plays, histories and novels of ... mrs. Aphra Behn. With life and memoirs. (1/6) | Volume 1. Contains: The Rover, The Rover part 2, The Dutch Lover, The Roundheads | |
| 8 | The Rover Part II | ||
| 9 | Southerne Oroonoko 1776 Performance | Handout of 1776 performance of Oroonoko Scan of public domain document. Published 23 November 1776 | |
| 10 | The Adventure of the Black Lady |