Oroonoko (Girlebooks Classics)
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'Excellent copy text and really outstanding collection of contextual material - and at a remarkably low price...Congratulations!' - Peter New, University of Exeter
--This text refers to an alternate
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Aphra Behn, the poet, playwright, novelist and political satirist was the first truly professional woman writer in English. This selection, edited and introduced by Professor Janet Todd, demonstrates the full sophistication and vitality of Aphra Behn's genius. It contains the plays The Rover and The Widow, Ranter (the first English play to be set in the American colonies) together with Love Letters to a Gentleman, a choice of poems and two short novels - The Fair Jilt and Oroonoko - which are among the most innovative prose writings of the seventeenth century.
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First Sentence
I do not pretend, in giving you the history of this royal slave, to entertain my reader with the adventures of a feigned hero whose life and fortunes fancy may manage at the poet's pleasure; nor in relating the truth, design to adorn it with any accidents but such as arrived in earnest to him. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
I do not pretend, in giving you the history of this royal slave, to entertain my reader with the adventures of a feigned hero whose life and fortunes fancy may manage at the poet's pleasure; nor in relating the truth, design to adorn it with any accidents but such as arrived in earnest to him. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
A startling insight into European attitudes towards Africans before slavery became internalised
20 Jun 2010
Format:Paperback
The thing that hit me when I read this 17th Century novel about an African prince transported as a slave to Surinam as the consequence of a forbidden love affair was that the prince, Oroonoko, was a person - and not just the human metaphor for slavery itself that i'd expected.
This is a rare example of an English novel from the period before the ideology of slavery had been fully developed; Africans might have been perceived as less advanced than Europeans but they had not yet been reduced to the status of farm animals. Oroonoko, while not a fully sympathetic character, is brave and noble. The love affair that binds Oroonoko and Imoinda to a fate as slaves is deep and sensitive. African societies are implied to be complex, not the simple gangs of men with spears they would be transformed into in later European imaginings.
Aphra Behn is reported to have had conflicting feelings about slavery and these can be felt in her writing, giving this book a tension and urgency missing from most of her other prose. Was she made more or less sympathetic by her own life of constant struggle against the bounds that 17th Century England placed on the ambitions of women? Who can say, but she does seem to empathise with her African protaganists to a degree that is remarkable.
This is a rare example of an English novel from the period before the ideology of slavery had been fully developed; Africans might have been perceived as less advanced than Europeans but they had not yet been reduced to the status of farm animals. Oroonoko, while not a fully sympathetic character, is brave and noble. The love affair that binds Oroonoko and Imoinda to a fate as slaves is deep and sensitive. African societies are implied to be complex, not the simple gangs of men with spears they would be transformed into in later European imaginings.
Aphra Behn is reported to have had conflicting feelings about slavery and these can be felt in her writing, giving this book a tension and urgency missing from most of her other prose. Was she made more or less sympathetic by her own life of constant struggle against the bounds that 17th Century England placed on the ambitions of women? Who can say, but she does seem to empathise with her African protaganists to a degree that is remarkable.
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
At first when I started to read Oroonoko, I was convinced I would not be able to get into the slow of the story. However almost as soon as I thought this, I found myself entralled by the story.
We follow the story of Oroonoko, an enslaved African who is madly in love with a young woman named Imoinda, for whom he would do anything. The story is filled with an enchanting storyline, a number of rich and wholesome characters, and some excellent descriptive writing throughout.
Though a fairly old book, written in the late 1600s, Oroonoko is definitly worth the read.
We follow the story of Oroonoko, an enslaved African who is madly in love with a young woman named Imoinda, for whom he would do anything. The story is filled with an enchanting storyline, a number of rich and wholesome characters, and some excellent descriptive writing throughout.
Though a fairly old book, written in the late 1600s, Oroonoko is definitly worth the read.
1 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Oroonoko is reputed to be one of the first novels ever written, and i'm sure the feminists are very pleased that one of the competitors for starting our favourite literary type is a woman. Not only that, Oroonoko discusses the highly controversial subject of Slavery. Oroonoko definitely has a place in history and is an intriguing text for comparison of values and attitudes. However, i found the narrative itself quite dry and the prejudices of the narrator frustrating. Aphra Behn is clearly a Classic Author and credence has to be given to her for the inspiration she gave to other writers of the Novel but Oroonoko is definitely stuck in the past in terms of narrative style and is missing that gripping quality.
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